English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For July 16/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Healing Miracle of the Canaanite Daughter
Matthew 15/21-28: “Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 15-16/2025
The Nejmeh Square Theatrical Show: Directed by Abu Mustafa Berri, Starring 128 MP's Koumbars, and the Hypocrites of Sovereignty/Elias Bejjani/July 15/ 2025
Urgent Appeal for International Protection of the Druze in Syria’s Sweida Province/Elias Bejjani/July 14/2025
The Turbaned Sayed Faisal Shukr Threatens the Lebanese People on Behalf of Hezbollah… So Where Are the Judiciary, Joseph Aoun, Nawaf Salam, and the Government?/Elias Bejjani/July 12/2025
Israel strikes Syrian city, vows to protect Druze from government forces
12 killed as Israel says struck Radwan force 'training camps' in Bekaa
Israeli strikes kill 12 in Lebanon, including 5 Hezbollah fighters, source says
Hezbollah calls Israel east Lebanon strike a 'major escalation'
Report: Lebanon demands two-stage Israeli withdrawal
Lebanon reportedly receives US response to its paper amid positive atmosphere
Katz says Bekaa airstrikes 'clear message' to Hezbollah, govt.
Central Bank bars financial institutions from dealing with Hezbollah's Al-Qard Al-Hasan
MPs meet in plenary session focused on Hezbollah disarmament
Inside Lebanon's biggest drug lab: Lebanese Army tightens grip on Bekaa drug lords
Lebanon's Press Club condemns assault on journalist Petra Abou Haidar, calls for accountability
US envoy says working to restore calm in Syria, calls clashes 'worrisome'
Israeli operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah: July 7–13, 2025/David Daoud/FDD Long War Journal/July 15/2025
The Militia Without a Project: Hezbollah in a Post-Militant Era/Nadim Koteich/Asharq Al Awsat/July 15/2025

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 15-16/2025
Israel strikes Syrian forces as Damascus declares ceasefire in Druze city
A 'Druze crisis': Syria-Israel security deal in jeopardy amid Sweida clashes and Israeli strikes
Syria condemns Israeli strikes, holds Israel responsible for 'consequences'
Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 93 Palestinians, including several families, health officials say
Gaza mediators 'intensifying' efforts to reach deal in Doha
Kremlin reacts icily to Trump but some Russian officials are blunter
EU ministers request more detail from Israel on aid deal for Gaza
Iran to hold talks with Chinese, Russian partners at summit

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 15-16/2025
Noticing the Muslim Slaughter of Christians Is ‘Islamophobic’ Says the United Nations/Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/July 15/2025
Why Palestinians Terrorists Want a Ceasefire in Gaza/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/July 15, 2025
Who is Winning the World War?/Ross Douthat/The New York Times/July 15/2025
The Levant Swings Between Dreams and Deals/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/July 15/2025
Selected Tweets for 15 July/2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 15-16/2025
The Nejmeh Square Theatrical Show: Directed by Abu Mustafa Berri, Starring 128 MP's Koumbars, and the Hypocrites of Sovereignty
Elias Bejjani/July 15/ 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145241/
What took place today in Nejmeh Square was not a parliamentary session. It was a farcical theatrical performance, produced and directed by the undisputed mastermind of the Lebanese system — Nabih Berri, nicknamed "the Esteez" and "Abu Mustafa" — who has effectively ruled Lebanon for four decades, manipulating its power structures, controlling its tempo as he pleases, invoking “dialogue” one day and “sectarian balance” the next, all under the banner of constitutional thuggery.
The current Lebanese Parliament is entirely illegitimate. It was born of an electoral law tailor-made by Hezbollah — imposed through force, fraud, intimidation, and political manipulation — to guarantee the party’s monopoly over Shiite representation and to tighten its grip on Lebanese decision-making.
This Frankenstein law meticulously distributed seats to the heads of political parties "commercial corporations," especially those fraudulently posing as "sovereign" and "independent." In truth, they are nothing more than Trojan dolls, stripped of dignity and free will.
These same actors are the ones who legitimized the absurd innovation of “six Diaspora MPs,” betraying the constitutional rights of the Lebanese Diaspora in pursuit of more seats, all while appeasing Hezbollah and aiding in the cosmetic polishing of the Iranian occupation’s image.
The chief among the “sovereign idols,” who received a hefty share of Christian MPs, disgracefully accepted Hezbollah’s condition of not supporting any free Shiite candidate. Until recently, he and his herd obediently repeated:
“Hezbollah liberated the South.”
“Our martyrs and Hezbollah’s martyrs are of equal status.”
“Hezbollah represents the honorable Shiite community.”
Meanwhile, his so-called pious advisor and media mouthpiece shamelessly begged Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. on television for an meeting with his master,
Another, younger and lesser “idol,” before “drinking the milk of lions,” dared criticize Hezbollah only after its Israeli defeat. For years, he and his secretary-general were regular guests in the southern suburbs, rejecting international resolutions and repeating that Hezbollah’s arms are “a local issue to be resolved internally.” They bartered their dignity through endless rounds of “dialogue” and “understandings” with Hezbollah — futile rituals that only served to re-legitimize the party of Satan and reinforce its stranglehold.
Then comes the dwarf idol, sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act for corruption, and his Trojan Father in-law — both of whom handed the country to Hezbollah in exchange for a phantom presidency. The General went so far as to belittle the Lebanese Army from inside the “Mleeta Hezbollah Museum” and to glorify Iran’s resistance and its Shiite proxy.
Let us not forget the parrot idol — blindly tethered to the “line” — who remains ignorant of Maronite history, clings to the Assad dynasty and Hezbollah, and continues to drown in the abyss of blind submission.
As for our ecclesiastical authorities... enough said. A pitiful mixture of ignorance, weakness, betrayal, and political Iscariotism — unbecoming of shepherds or apostles.
Amid all this moral decay, today’s theatrical show in Nejmeh Square unfolded under the supervision of Abu Mustafa — Esteez Berri — who directed and assigned roles to the 128 MP's Koumbars, all addicted to deception and submission.
Today’s parliamentary session was nothing more than another bland episode in a tired play, meant to rebrand the idols of political party companies, mislead public opinion, and distract the Lebanese — especially those fooled by hollow slogans of "sovereignty" and "independence."
But the bitter truth remains: Lebanon is still occupied, and this Parliament does not represent the will of the people — it represents the will of the Iranian occupier.
This Parliament, this political system, and these faces... do not represent the free people of Lebanon. They are their enemies.
The Lebanese people are hostages — subdued, betrayed — held captive by Hezbollah and the corrupt ruling class it protects and enables.
Yet our firm belief remains: the day will come when the masks fall, and the curtain rises on a new scene, one where governance truly serves the people — not the occupier and his servants.
To all free Lebanese,
To those who still believe that Lebanon deserves freedom, sovereignty, and dignity:
Enough illusions. Enough waiting for salvation from the same actors on the same broken stage.
There is no salvation except through the complete downfall of this regime — the regime of illegal arms, sectarian corruption, and shameful deals at the nation’s expense.
This confrontation is no longer a choice — it is a duty.
A duty for every free conscience.
A duty for everyone who refuses servitude to Hezbollah and its idols in party companies.
In the end, Lebanon is not represented by this parliament of extras.
It is represented by the martyrs, the heroes, the unknown guardians — and by every voice that dared to say “No” to the occupation, in public or in secret, in times of fear.
It is time for a genuine sovereign revolution, one that tears down the idols and rebuilds the national temple on the foundation of liberty — not submission — on the foundation of “Lebanon First,” not “Tehran First.”

Urgent Appeal for International Protection of the Druze in Syria’s Sweida Province
Elias Bejjani/July 14/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145187/
Alongside all those who believe in freedom and the fundamental rights of Middle Eastern peoples—particularly their right to live in peace and practice their religious beliefs freely without repression, terrorism, or extermination—we condemn, in the strongest terms and most resolute language, the systematic attacks and organized aggression being waged against the Druze community in the southern Syrian province of Sweida.
These attacks are being orchestrated by the so-called “Authority of Ahmad Al-Shara,” known as “Al-Jolani,” who stands at the head of an extremist religious regime no different in ideology or eliminationist practices from ISIS itself.
It is now evident that what Al-Shar’a’s regime presents in the media as a “local dispute” between the Druze of Sweida and neighboring Arab tribes is nothing more than a blatant cover for a bloody military campaign launched by the new Islamist regime to seize control of Jabal Al-Arab, disarm its people, crush their free will, and forcibly subject them to a takfiri rule that considers all who differ as “apostates” worthy of extermination.
The ongoing assaults on Sweida—using tanks, armed drones against civilians, road blockades, and mass killings—represent yet another chapter in a long series of bloody episodes. These include horrific massacres committed against Druze near Damascus just months ago, the bombing of Saint Elias Church in Damascus, the killing and wounding of dozens of worshipers, and a wave of systematic attacks on Alawites, Christians, and other religious minorities.
In essence, what is happening today in Sweida is a prelude to a major massacre, being carefully prepared under false “security” pretenses and with explicit foreign backing—primarily from Turkey, the foremost patron of the Muslim Brotherhood, and from Qatar, the principal financier of extremist takfiri ideologies.
Faced with this catastrophic reality, we must raise our voices loudly and urgently to demand the following:
*Immediate international protection for the Druze population in Sweida, through the deployment of international observers and the establishment of UN-supervised demilitarized zones to prevent any takfiri military intrusion into their territory.
*Official recognition that the “Shara regime” is a radical, extremist, takfiri Islamist authority, no less dangerous than the Taliban or ISIS. It adopts an ideology that targets all non-hardline Sunni communities—chief among them the Druze, whom it labels as apostates.
*Holding the international community—particularly the United States and the European Union—accountable for their suspicious silence and implicit support for this regime, under the pretext of “counterterrorism,” while the regime itself practices terrorism in its ugliest and most brutal forms against minorities.
*Issuing a moral and humanitarian appeal to the State of Israel, given its ethical and historical responsibility to protect Druze communities in the region and prevent genocide in Jabal Al-Arab. The Israeli Defense Forces have repeatedly shown that the security of Israel’s southern border includes the protection of threatened communities on the other side. Sweida must not be an exception.
*Calling on all moderate Arab nations—particularly Gulf states, which regrettably have supported the Shar’a regime—to intervene immediately, politically and humanely, to protect and save the Druze and other minorities from the jihadist killing machine now being driven by Al-Shar’a and his affiliates.
*It must be emphasized that the “Shara regime,” with all its local and foreign takfiri factions, bears full responsibility for the bloodshed inflicted upon Syrian Druze, Christian, and Alawite minorities since it took control of parts of Syria. For this reason, it must be internationally prosecuted as a terrorist authority committing religious cleansing and sectarian genocide.
We further stress that no matter how much cosmetic support or international and regional backing is given to the Shar’a regime, it does not—and will not—change the core truth of its takfiri, terrorist, and bloody nature.
In conclusion: There is an urgent need—both regionally and internationally—to protect the Druze of Sweida and to intervene through all available means to stop the massacre being carried out by the Shara regime. Silence in the face of this crime makes one a direct accomplice.

The Turbaned Sayed Faisal Shukr Threatens the Lebanese People on Behalf of Hezbollah… So Where Are the Judiciary, Joseph Aoun, Nawaf Salam, and the Government?
Elias Bejjani/July 12/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145155/
The direct and televised threat issued by Sayed Faisal Shukr, a turbaned cleric and deputy official for Hezbollah in the Bekaa region, once again proves that this Iranian, jihadist, and terrorist militia—despite its crushing defeat and the downfall of its masters, the Iranian mullahs, and the humiliating death of most of its leaders—still clings to the same strategy of intimidation, oppression, and vulgar brutality against all those who oppose its occupation schemes and criminal agenda.
In a provocative and dangerous speech, Shukr declared yesterday:
"To those inside the country who keep repeating the phrase ‘disarmament’… we have two words for you: we will rip out your souls… because everything can be subject to joking, discussion, or dialogue—except the weapons."
This is an open threat of murder by a Hezbollah official, directed at the Lebanese people. The urgent question now is:
Where is the judiciary?
Where are the security forces?
Where is President Joseph Aoun?
Where is Prime Minister Nawaf Salam?
Those who rush to prosecute journalists and activists while turning a blind eye to Hezbollah’s public threats are nothing more than cowards, submissive, or complicit by silence.
Such disgraceful inaction in the face of a direct threat to citizens’ lives constitutes an unacceptable collusion, a national betrayal, and a total political and moral collapse.
President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and the entire judiciary are now facing an existential test: Either they confront Hezbollah’s terrorism and protect the people, or they must step down immediately—for they have proven their utter failure and humiliating submission to the militia state.
Anyone who fails to immediately launch an investigation, arrest Faisal Shukr, and put him on trial for threatening civil peace and inciting murder, is an accomplice in the crime.

Israel strikes Syrian city, vows to protect Druze from government forces
Reuters/July 15, 2025
SWEIDA -Israel carried out strikes against Syrian government forces in southwestern Syria for a second day on Tuesday, vowing to keep the area demilitarized and to protect the Druze minority as deadly clashes continued in the region at the Israeli frontier. A Reuters reporter heard at least four strikes as drones could be heard over the predominantly Druze city of Sweida and saw a damaged tank being towed away. Bursts of gunfire were heard and three bodies were seen on the ground. Dozens of people have been killed in fighting in the region since Sunday. The upsurge in violence underlines the challenges facing interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa who has struggled to assert control over the area near the Israeli border since toppling Bashar al-Assad in December. While Sharaa has been buoyed by rapidly improving ties with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, the violence has highlighted lingering sectarian tensions and distrust among minority groups towards his Islamist-led government - distrust that was deepened by mass killings of Alawites in March. Israel, which has struck Syria several times in the name of protecting the Druze, carried out its latest attacks after influential Druze Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri issued a statement accusing government troops of breaching a ceasefire and urging fighters to confront what he described as a barbaric attack. After al-Hajiri appeared in a recorded statement, Syrian Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra issued a statement declaring that a complete ceasefire was in place, and saying government forces would only open fire if fired upon. Abu Qasra also said that military police had been ordered to deploy in Sweida to "control military behaviour and hold violators accountable", the state news agency SANA reported.The Reuters reporter saw men in fatigues burning and looting homes and shops, and setting fire to a store that sold alcohol. The Druze are a minority group whose faith is an offshoot of Islam and has followers in Israel, Syria and Lebanon.
'DEEP BROTHERHOOD'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said they had ordered Israel's military to strike "regime forces" and weaponry brought to Sweida to be used against the Druze. In a statement, they said the deployment of government forces was in violation of a demilitarisation policy that had called on Damascus to refrain from bringing forces and weapons into southern Syria that pose a threat to Israel. "Israel is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria due to the deep brotherhood alliance with our Druze citizens in Israel," they said. "We are acting to prevent the Syrian regime from harming them and to ensure the demilitarization of the area adjacent to our border with Syria. Reuters reported in May that Israel and the Syrian authorities had held direct talks focused on security. The latest violence began on Sunday with fighting between armed Druze groups and Bedouin fighters in Sweida province, which displaced thousands of people. The Druze spiritual leadership said in a written statement on Tuesday morning that it would allow Syrian forces to enter Sweida city to stop the bloodshed, calling on armed groups to surrender their weapons and cooperate with incoming troops. But hours later, al-Hajri, a vocal opponent of the new Syrian leadership, said the statement had been "imposed" on them by Damascus and that Syrian troops had breached the arrangement by continuing to fire on residents. "We are being subject to a total war of extermination," he said in a recorded video statement, calling on all Druze "to confront this barbaric campaign with all means available". Convoys of Syrian army tanks, trucks and motorcycles entered parts of Sweida city by mid-morning and were continuing to fire on neighbourhoods there, the Reuters reporter in Sweida said. On Monday, Israel's military said it had carried out several strikes on tanks approaching Sweida "to prevent their arrival to the area" because they could pose a threat to Israel.

12 killed as Israel says struck Radwan force 'training camps' in Bekaa
Agence France Presse/July 15, 2025
Israeli warplanes on Tuesday carried out strikes on the Wadi Faara area in northern Bekaa, one of them targeting a Syrian refugee camp, killing 12 people, including seven Syrians, and wounding eight others, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. A security source told Reuters that the dead include five Hezbollah fighters. A Lebanese security source meanwhile told Al-Jazeera that Wadi Faara was targeted by three Israeli airstrikes, with one of them hitting an excavator vehicle.It was not immediately clear if the Wadi Faara raid was part of the 15 airstrikes that Israel carried out in the morning against alleged Hezbollah training camps in the Bekaa region. Israel's military said in the morning that it was striking targets belonging to Hezbollah's elite Radwan force in eastern Lebanon, the latest attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed group. "Moments ago, Israeli Air Force fighter jets... began numerous strikes toward Hezbollah terror targets in the area of Bekaa, Lebanon," it said in a statement."The military compounds that were struck were used by the Hezbollah terrorist organization for training and exercising terrorists to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against (Israeli) troops and the State of Israel," it added. The statement said an Israeli military operation in September 2024 had "eliminated" Radwan force commanders in Beirut's southern suburbs and southern Lebanon, but that "since then the unit has been operating to reestablish its capabilities." "The storage of weapons and the activities of the Hezbollah terrorist organization at these sites constitute a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and constitute a future threat to the State of Israel," it added. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes were "a clear message" to Hezbollah and the Lebanese government "which is responsible for upholding the agreement.""We will strike every terrorist and thwart any threat to the residents of the north and to the State of Israel -- and we will respond with maximum force against any attempt at rebuilding," he said in a statement from his ministry. Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite a November ceasefire that sought to end over a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war that left the group severely weakened. Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese Army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region. Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country but has kept them in five places it deems strategic.

Israeli strikes kill 12 in Lebanon, including 5 Hezbollah fighters, source says
Reuters/July 15, 2025
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT -Heavy Israeli airstrikes killed 12 people, including five Hezbollah fighters, in eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, a security source in Lebanon said, in what Israel said was a warning to the Iran-backed group against trying to re-establish itself. The Israeli military said the airstrikes targeted training camps used by elite Hezbollah fighters and warehouses it used to store weapons in the Bekaa Valley region of eastern Lebanon. The airstrikes were the deadliest on the area since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel last November. Bachir Khodr, governor of the Bekaa region, said seven of the dead were Syrian nationals.Israel dealt Hezbollah heavy blows in last year's conflict, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah along with other commanders and destroying much of its arsenal. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday's strikes sent a "clear message" to Hezbollah, accusing it of planning to rebuild the capability to raid Israel through the elite Radwan force. Israel "will respond with maximum force to any attempt at rebuilding", he said. He added that strikes were also a message to the Lebanese government, saying it was responsible for upholding the ceasefire agreement. There was no immediate public response from Hezbollah or from the Lebanese government to the latest Israeli strikes. The United States has submitted a proposal to the Lebanese government aimed at securing Hezbollah's disarmament within four months in exchange for Israel halting air strikes and withdrawing troops from positions they still hold in south Lebanon. Under the terms of the ceasefire brokered by the U.S. and France, Lebanon's armed forces were to confiscate "all unauthorized arms", beginning in the area south of the Litani River - the zone closest to Israel.

Hezbollah calls Israel east Lebanon strike a 'major escalation'
AFP/July 15, 2025
Hezbollah condemned an Israeli airstrike that killed 12 people in the Bekaa Valley on Tuesday, as a "major escalation." In a statement, the group said Israel's attack "constitutes a major escalation in the context of the ongoing aggression against Lebanon and its people." It called on Lebanese authorities to "take serious, immediate, and decisive action" to uphold a November ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Report: Lebanon demands two-stage Israeli withdrawal
Naharnet/July 15, 2025 
Lebanon is waiting for a commitment from Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon over two phases, a Lebanese source concerned with the negotiations with U.S. envoy Tom Barrack said. The first phase “should begin immediately, after Lebanon carried out all its obligations during this period through the Lebanese Army’s deployment south of the Litani and Hezbollah’s pullback from the area,” the source told al-Binaa newspaper, commenting on reports that Barrack has demanded a timetable for finalizing the file of arms. The second phase would be “withdrawal to beyond Lebanon’s international border, in addition to halting attacks and the violation of Lebanon’s airspace and waters,” the source added.

Lebanon reportedly receives US response to its paper amid positive atmosphere
Naharnet/July 15, 2025 
A presidential committee tasked with responding to Tom Barrack’s paper convened Tuesday at the Baabda Palace to discuss the U.S. response to the Lebanese paper, which was received by Beirut on Monday, TV networks reported. The U.S. response “includes applause of a host of articles contained in the Lebanese response, while asking for clarifications regarding timetables and executive mechanisms related to the arms issue, which means that the Lebanese side has started preparing executive mechanisms,” Al-Jadeed TV said. Washington has given Lebanon “until the end of the current year and this point in specific will be discussed with Barrack when he returns” to Lebanon, the TV network added quoted official sources as saying. The sources added that “the atmosphere is positive, especially that the Lebanese response is based on synchronized steps and successive stages.”Sources informed on the Lebanese response meanwhile told MTV that the Lebanese paper “included a comprehensive agreement that entire Lebanon will commit to, amid optimism that Barrack will carry a positive response from the Israeli side.”“Communication between President Joseph Aoun and Tom Barrack is taking place on a daily basis and the file is being delicately followed up,” Baabda Palace sources told MTV.

Katz says Bekaa airstrikes 'clear message' to Hezbollah, govt.
Naharnet/July 15, 2025
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday that Israel’s airstrikes on the Bekaa earlier in the day were a “clear message” to Hezbollah and Lebanon’s government, accusing Hezbollah of plotting to restore its Radwan force’s ground incursion capabilities.The Lebanese government is “responsible for upholding the (ceasefire) agreement,” Katz said.“We will strike at every terrorist and thwart any threat to the residents of the north and the State of Israel, and we will respond with maximum force against any attempt (by Hezbollah) to restore itself," he threatened.
Media reports said hills near the eastern city of Baalbek were targeted by a wave of 15 airstrikes.

Central Bank bars financial institutions from dealing with Hezbollah's Al-Qard Al-Hasan
Naharnet/July 15, 2025
The Central Bank of Lebanon has said that licensed financial institutions are "barred from any dealings with unlicensed financial institutions, such as the Al-Qard Al-Hasan Association," the financial arm of Hezbollah. In a circular, the Central Bank said banks, financial institutions and other institutions licensed by the Central Bank, as well as financial intermediaries and collective investment schemes, are barred from engaging in any transactions -- financial, commercial, or otherwise, directly or indirectly, fully or partially -- with “unlicensed exchange institutions, money transfer companies, associations and entities.”It said such institutions and bodies include “Al-Qard Al-Hasan Association, Tasheelat S.A.L., Al-Yusr for Finance and Investment, Bayt al-Mal Lil Muslimin and other institutions, entities, companies, and associations listed on international sanctions lists.”
The ban includes:
- Providing or facilitating financial, monetary or transfer services or brokerage services
- Establishing or implementing financing, leasing or lending arrangements
- Facilitating direct or indirect access to the Lebanese banking system, in any currency
The announcement aims to “prevent dealings with unlicensed entities and those subject to international sanctions, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and maintaining the integrity of Lebanon's financial system,” the Central Bank said.

MPs meet in plenary session focused on Hezbollah disarmament
Naharnet Newsdesk 15 hours ago
Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan criticized Tuesday the government's lack of progress in restoring the state's authority and disarming Hezbollah as lawmakers convened in a plenary session focused on Hezbollah's disarmament. "We don't want the government of hope to become a government of missed opportunities," Adwan said.Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Jebran Bassil said he supports Hezbollah's disarmament but not by force, while Hezbollah MP Ibrahim al-Moussawi urged "those who claim to be friends of Lebanon" to provide the Lebanese army with defensive weapons "to protect the country against the enemy.""We all know there is no political decision to support the (Lebanese)army and there is a veto against arming it," he said. MP Jamil al-Sayyed criticized U.S. envoys Amos Hochstein, Morgan Ortagus, and Tom Barrack, who he said "threatened Lebanon with civil war". "It's as if we've become an experimental field for these envoys."MP Fouad Makhzoumi called for Hezbollah's disarmament and proposed to discuss it in a cabinet session.

Inside Lebanon's biggest drug lab: Lebanese Army tightens grip on Bekaa drug lords
LBCI/July 15, 2025
Lebanese Army Intelligence has dismantled what is described as the largest drug manufacturing facility uncovered to date in the Bekaa region, operated by one of the most notorious narcotics traffickers in Lebanon and the Middle East. The operation, conducted in the town of Yammouneh, revealed a sprawling underground drug lab outfitted with hidden tunnels, camouflaged walls, and high-tech equipment. The drug dealer, identified as Jalal Sh., whose criminal career began in 2010 in Beirut, first entered the drug world by importing raw materials and specialized equipment for captagon production, which he then sold to major manufacturers. He later moved his operations to Yammouneh, where he established his own production network. Security officials say he recently monopolized the production of crystal captagon in Lebanon, employing a network of individuals from multiple nationalities—including a European expert wanted by Interpol — to oversee the complex chemical processes. Over the years, the military has raided several of his facilities, seizing large quantities of drugs, machinery, and precursor chemicals. Despite an intensified crackdown on the drug trade, Jalal remained one of the few high-profile traffickers able to maintain operations, partly due to his advanced manufacturing capabilities and his role in supplying pills to other dealers for $1,000 per crate.Security agencies have linked Jalal to several wanted narcotics traffickers, including Ali and Hassan Sh., Hamza and Mohammad Jaafar, and Malek A. His network was behind numerous professionally concealed shipments of drugs intercepted before reaching international markets. Monday's raid marks a significant blow to Lebanon's narcotics underworld. The Lebanese Armed Forces and Army Intelligence have vowed to continue their campaign against drug manufacturing and smuggling networks. In 2025 alone, they have uncovered 20 drug labs and seized more than 13,300 kilograms of captagon pills.

Lebanon's Press Club condemns assault on journalist Petra Abou Haidar, calls for accountability
LBCI/July 15, 2025
Lebanon's Press Club issued a strong condemnation Tuesday following the assault on journalist Petra Abou Haidar, urging security forces to identify, arrest, and refer the perpetrators to the judiciary for proper punishment. “There must be stricter measures to pursue those who attack citizens and hold them accountable so that such unacceptable behavior is not repeated.” Abou Haidar, a news reporter and anchor at LBCI, was physically assaulted by a man and a woman riding a motorcycle in the Jounieh area. The woman reportedly got off the motorcycle and began beating and biting Abou Haidar, who is eight months pregnant. The recent incident has raised serious concerns about public safety and growing acts of aggression on Lebanon’s roads, highlighting the urgent need for stricter enforcement and accountability.

US envoy says working to restore calm in Syria, calls clashes 'worrisome'
AFP/July 15, 2025
U.S. diplomat Tom Barrack said Tuesday that deadly violence in Syria's southern province of Sweida was "worrisome" and that his government was working to restore calm in the country. "The recent skirmishes in Sweida are worrisome on all sides, and we are attempting to come to a peaceful, inclusive outcome for Druze, Bedouin tribes, the Syrian government and Israeli forces," Barrack, Washington's special envoy to Syria, said on X, naming the parties involved in the violence since Sunday

Israeli operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah: July 7–13, 2025
David Daoud/FDD Long War Journal/July 15/2025
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted numerous operations throughout Lebanon against Hezbollah between July 7 and July 13, 2025. The IDF’s activities last week were largely concentrated south of the Litani River. However, one strike that killed a senior Hamas operative reached as far north as the outskirts of Tripoli.
The IDF conducted operations in 20 Lebanese locales during the week, some more than once. They included 18 airstrikes or other aerial activity, seven ground activities, four artillery strikes, and flares fired over one area.
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Nabatieh Governorate
Bint Jbeil District: Aitaroun, Ayta Ash Shaab, and Yaroun
Hasbaya District: Kfarshouba andShebaa
Marjayoun District: Adaisseh, Khiam, Kfar Kela, Marjayoun, and Wazzani
Nabatieh District: Numeiriyeh and Yohmor
North Lebanon Governorate
Zgharta District: Airouniyeh
South Lebanon Governorate
Sidon District: Babliyeh
Tyre District: Alma Al Shaab, Deir Kifa, Dhayra, Shihine, Mansouri, and Naqoura
Casualties
Israeli operations in Lebanon killed seven people—all terrorists—and wounded 17 people.
July 7, 2025: Two Hezbollah operatives were killed.
July 8, 2025: One Hamas operative was killed, one Hezbollah operative was killed, and 13 unidentified people were wounded.
July 9, 2025: No casualties were reported.
July 10, 2025: One Hezbollah operative was killed, and two unidentified people were wounded.
July 11, 2025: One Lebanese weapons smuggler was killed, and two unidentified people were wounded.
July 12, 2025: One Hezbollah operative was killed.
July 13, 2025: No casualties were reported.
Chronology of Israeli operations against Hezbollah, July 7–13, 2025
July 7
At 12:59 am, NNA Lebanon reported that two Israeli bulldozers crossed 400 meters past the Blue Line in Kfar Kela in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District. The bulldozers conducted a 100-meter excavation before withdrawing back to Israel at approximately 4 am.
At 8:11 am, NNA Lebanon reported that overnight, an Israeli ground patrol entered and took up positions in the area near Ayta Ash Shaab in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District.
At 10:17 am, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped a stun explosive near a fishing boat off the coast of Naqoura in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Tyre District.
At 12:03 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped a stun explosive near a destroyed home in Dhayra in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Tyre District.
At 1:21 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that Israel continued with activities to upgrade and fortify the IDF’s Tel Al Hamames Post in south Lebanon.
At 1:59 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone dropped an incendiary explosive near the outskirts of Shihine in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Tyre District, igniting fires in the area that reached parts of the village.
At 5:55 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle in Deir Kifa in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Tyre District. The strike killed one person. Hezbollah-affiliated social media later announced the death of Ali Abdul Hassan Haidar, whose nom de guerre was Abu Turab, from the town of Jwaya in southern Lebanon.
At 7:45 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped a stun explosive near a home on the outskirts of Kfar Kela in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District.
At 7:47 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone fired two missiles near Beit Lif in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District. The strike killed one person. Hezbollah-affiliated social media later announced the death of Hadi Rameh Mustafa, whose nom de guerre was Rawad, from Beit Lif.
At 11:33 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped a stun explosive in the area of Houra on the outskirts of Kfar Kela in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District.
At 11:59 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped an explosive near the “Ya Hussain” sign in Kfar Kela, while another dropped a second stun explosive in Houra.
The death announcements for Ali Abdul Hassan Haidar (Left) and Hadi Rameh Mustafa (Right). (Balagh Media on Telegram)
July 8
At 10:56 am, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped a stun explosive near Dhayra in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Tyre District.
At 5:34 pm, NNA Lebanon reported an Israeli airstrike of two missiles on a Honda CR-V in Airouniyeh in the North Lebanon Governorate’s Zgharta District. The strike killed three people and wounded 13 others. The IDF later released a statement saying it had targeted and killed Hamas operative Mahran Mustafa Baajour near Tripoli. The IDF said Baajour was one of Hamas’s central commanders in Lebanon and had overseen attacks against Israel for years, including rocket fire from Lebanon during the recent war targeting Nahariyah, Kiryat Shmona, and other areas of Israel. Baajour was also involved in importing weapons for Hamas in Lebanon. However, a report from the Lebanese An-Nahar newspaper suggests the assassination attempt on Baajour failed.
At 9:34 pm, NNA Lebanon reported an Israeli airstrike on Babliyeh in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Sidon District. The strike killed one person, later identified on Lebanese social media accounts as Hussain Ali Muzher. The next day, the IDF admitted to targeting and killing Muzher, saying he oversaw “firepower for the Zahrani Sector in Hezbollah’s Badr Unit.” The statement claimed Hussain oversaw several attacks against Israel and the IDF and “was recently involved in activities to reestablish Hezbollah’s artillery in south Lebanon.” The IDF stressed that Muzher’s activities “constituted a grave violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
July 9
At 9:50 am, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli forces destroyed a home in the Houra area of Kfar Kela in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District.
At 1:00 pm, the IDF released a statement on the 91st Division’s operations in south Lebanon, saying they aimed to destroy Hezbollah’s assets and infrastructure and “prevent Hezbollah from reestablishing its presence in the area.” The statement detailed one such operation, most likely conducted on June 26, 2025, that was carried out by the Division’s 300th Brigade after identifying a Hezbollah complex housing weapons and firing positions near Jabal Blatt. The statement also detailed another operation in which the 9th “Oded” Brigade identified and destroyed Hezbollah weapons hidden near Labbouneh, including a multiple rocket launcher, a heavy machine gun, and dozens of explosive devices. The 9th Brigade also identified and destroyed an underground Hezbollah weapons storage facility.
At 11:06 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli artillery targeted the outskirts of Wazzani in the Marjayoun District of the Nabatieh Governorate.
At 11:17 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli troops fired two flares over the outskirts of Yaroun in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District.
At 11:27 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli troops positioned in the Tel Hamames Post fired incendiary grenades toward the valley of Marjayoun in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District.
July 10
At 2:15 am, an Israeli drone conducted two strikes on a café and an aluminum factory housed in a building in Yohmor in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Nabatieh District. NNA Lebanon reported that the same location had been targeted by Israel in the past. In a subsequent statement, the IDF said its target had been a Hezbollah command center from which the group’s fighters operated, while noting that the installation’s existence “constituted a serious violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
At 8:50 am, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli artillery targeted the outskirts of Shebaa in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Hasbaya District.
At 11:22 am, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone targeted a motorbike at the intersection of Mansouri in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Tyre District. The strike killed one person and wounded two other people. Hezbollah-affiliated social media subsequently announced the death of Mohammad Jamal Mrad, whose nom de guerre was Thaer, from Al Haniyeh in south Lebanon. In a subsequent statement, the IDF identified Mrad as “the commander of Hezbollah’s Coastal Sector artillery forces.” The IDF also said Mrad had been responsible for several attacks against Israel during the war, “and in recent months conducted attempts to reconstitute [Hezbollah’s] artillery forces in the coastal sector.” It stressed these activities “constituted a grave violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
At 11:05 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli bulldozers, protected by IDF tanks, crossed the Blue Line near Wadi Hounine. They moved toward the landfill south of Adaisseh in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District, where they closed one of the roads in the wadi and raised earthen embankments.
The death announcement for Mohammad Jamal Mrad. (Balagh Media Telegram)
July 11
At 1:55 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli troops crossed 400 meters past the Blue Line in Kfarshouba in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Hasbaya District and directed gunfire toward shepherds in the area.
At 3:43 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone shot four missiles at a vehicle on the road to Numeiriyeh in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Nabatieh District. The strike killed one person and wounded five others. Lebanese social media accounts identified the fatality as Mohammad Hassan Shoeib, a retired Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) officer. The IDF subsequently acknowledged targeting and killing Shoeib, who it identified as a “terrorist” and a “significant figure in planning terror attacks within the State of Israel’s territory.” The IDF alleged Shoeib was involved in smuggling weapons into Israel “for the sake of carrying out terror attacks within Israel and establishing terror infrastructure in Lebanon.” The IDF further described Shoeib as a “significant figure in weapons smuggling from Iran” to Lebanon, Syria, and Judea-Samaria. Perhaps relatedly, the IDF had foiled an attempt to smuggle weapons into Judea-Samaria from the east the day prior.
At 5:16 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli airstrike targeted a motorbike in Tayr Harma in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District. The strike wounded the motorbike’s rider.
At 11:35 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli artillery targeted the outskirts of Ayta Ash Shaab in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District.
At 11:39 pm, NNA Lebanon reported continued Israeli artillery shelling on Ayta Ash Shaab and the sound of an unidentified explosion in the Shawat neighborhood.
July 12
At 12:36 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone targeted a house in Khiam in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District. The strike killed one person. Hezbollah-affiliated social media soon announced the death of Hezbollah operative Wisam Musa Musa, whose nom de guerre was Abul Fadl, from Khiam.
At 9:08 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped a stun explosive near a fisherman in Naqoura in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Tyre District.
The death announcement for Wisam Musa Musa. (Balagh Media Telegram)
July 13
At 9:50 am, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli troops directed heavy gunfire toward Alma Al Shaab in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Tyre District.
At 12:35 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped a stun explosive in Aitaroun in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District.

The Militia Without a Project: Hezbollah in a Post-Militant Era
Nadim Koteich/Asharq Al Awsat/July 15/2025
It must have been difficult for Hezbollah to watch the public ceremony in which the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters burned their rifles with their own hands. The scenes symbolized the termination of a long armed struggle in the region, quietly introducing a new era that compels reassessments of the goals and functions of armed non-state actors. The decision was neither the result of political coercion nor the culmination of a decisive military victory. Rather, it reflected a profound intellectual shift; the PKK has concluded the age of militancy, whether nationalist or religious, is drawing to a close, demanding a shift in vision, ambition, and stance.
In Iraq, despite the fragility of its political equilibrium, the government has managed to uphold and safeguard neutrality during the recent Iran–Israel clashes. More importantly, it reaffirmed that it will not allow non-state actors to maintain arms, resisting both the pressures of the axis and the allure of the moment. In Baghdad, the call to unify military forces is growing louder, mirroring a growing national conviction that the authority of the state must take precedence over the power of militias.
In Gaza, the war has ended in a political and military defeat that has effectively left no place for Hamas in the "day after" deliberations on reconstruction and the Strip’s political future. The movement lost control of large parts of the Gaza Strip and found itself exposed before its enemies, and, more significantly, before its own people. The neutralization of its arms has become irreversible- a demand shared by all the key stakeholders.
Against the backdrop of this regional transition to a post-chaos era, Hezbollah is sticking to an obsolete discourse. It watches on as organizations that had once resembled it collapse and feels the ground shaking beneath its feet. Yet, it has failed to build a new narrative that legitimizes maintaining the terms to which it had grown accustomed.
The party’s emphatic defeat in the 2024 war did not compel a strategic reassessment. Instead, Hezbollah hardened its resistance rhetoric and sacralization of its arms. Rather than a political dispute, the matter has been sanctified and presented as untouchable.
Hezbollah’s weapons are no longer framed as mere instruments of resistance. In the party’s discourse, they have been rendered an extension of a creed. They are justified by a divine mandate and a necessary component of a distinct identity. This discursive shift is deliberate: it seeks to create a bulwark against critique, oversight, and political compromise by elevating the question into a metaphysical and existential matter.
However, it has not hardened its ideology from a position of confidence but because of Hezbollah’s apprehensions about the shifting regional landscape. Support for the party has diminished, Iran’s supported backing is increasingly constrained by shifting priorities, and Syria is taking steps toward sweeping settlements, including with Israel- settlements that will probably engender arrangements that blindside Hezbollah and make militant ideological ventures untenable.
This change in rhetoric also coincides with credible reports of significant internal divisions within Hezbollah amid an ongoing internal reassessment of its role, function, operational capacity, and the mounting costs of its entanglement in Iran’s military project.
Meanwhile, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam continue to take crucial steps, though there is more to be done, to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701. Most notably, they have dismantled hundreds of Hezbollah positions south of the Litani River following the ceasefire that the party had been compelled to accept.
That is not to say that state sovereignty has been restored. However, it does signal a crucial development: Hezbollah’s exceptionalism is now exposed, and its dominance is increasingly intolerable regionally, internationally, and even domestically. Waning popular support in its own community and across Lebanese society, which has grown weary after two decades of bearing the social and economic costs of its wars, compounds its difficulties.
Moreover, backed by the United States and Europe, Israel is not deterred by Hezbollah. Rather, it is now seen as a legitimate target for preemptive strikes, as shown by Israel’s ongoing raids and assassinations.
Where, then, is Hezbollah taking Lebanon? Can it continue to rely on a disintegrating regional axis to durably legitimize an arsenal that has no support, even among some of the party’s closest allies? Can a supernatural discourse mask its glaring decline? Does Hezbollah have the political maturity and autonomy needed to begin disentangling itself from a transnational revolutionary creed to build a national political project?
There is no indication that the party has clear answers to these questions. What is certain, however, is that Lebanon cannot afford to wait.
More than ever before, Hezbollah’s weapons now constitute an existential threat to the Lebanese state. This assessment was voiced by US envoy Tom Barrack and is now an almost visceral conclusion that the majority of Lebanese citizens share. More critical than the threat it poses to Lebanon as a political entity are the potential ramifications for Hezbollah’s own community. Maintaining arms outside the state’s control risks plunging the party’s constituency into a perpetual confrontation with the rest of the country, foreclosing any chance of a stable national partnership. If the weapons are not addressed today, the costs may be greater than another war with Israel. Such failure could lead to domestic disintegration that would rip the Shiite community apart before engulfing the rest of Lebanon.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 15-16/2025
Israel strikes Syrian forces as Damascus declares ceasefire in Druze city
Agence France Presse/July 15, 2025
Israel's military said it was striking military vehicles belonging to government forces in the Sweida area of southern Syria, after Syrian state media reported a new strike on the Druze-majority city. "A short while ago, the (Israeli army) began striking military vehicles belonging to Syrian regime forces in the area of Sweida in southern Syria," a military statement said, shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said they had ordered the army to "immediately strike regime forces and weaponry that were brought into the Sweida region in the Druze mountains in Syria in order to carry out operations against the Druze."Syria's defense minister meanwhile declared a ceasefire in Sweida. Fighting erupted earlier in the day as troops advanced into the southern city, which had been under the control of various Druze factions. The escalation came after contradictory statements from Druze religious leaders, most of whom urged fighters to lay down their arms. "To all units operating within the city of Sweida, we declare a complete ceasefire after an agreement with the city's notables and dignitaries," Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra posted on X. "We will respond only to sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups," he added. An AFP correspondent at the city's edge reported that gunfire had since subsided. Earlier, the correspondent described intense clashes as government forces fought their way in. "We will begin handing over neighborhoods in Sweida city to the Internal Security Forces as soon as the combing operations are completed," Abu Qasra said. Authorities had initially announced a curfew in the city to contain the unrest. Syrian state-run news agency SANA later reported Israeli air strikes on Sweida as government forces were advancing. Israeli Defense Minister Katz had warned Damascus against targeting the Druze on Monday. The violence began on Sunday when Bedouin gunmen abducted a Druze vegetable vendor on the highway to Damascus, prompting retaliatory kidnappings. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said members of Bedouin tribes, who are Sunni Muslims, had sided with security forces during earlier confrontations with the Druze. It reported 102 people killed in the fighting -- 61 Druze, including four civilians, 18 Bedouin fighters, 16 security personnel, and seven unidentified people in military uniforms.

A 'Druze crisis': Syria-Israel security deal in jeopardy amid Sweida clashes and Israeli strikes
LBCI/July 15, 2025
Hopes for a potential Israeli-Syrian security agreement appear to have dimmed following escalating clashes in Syria's Sweida province. The situation has shifted dramatically, with Israel no longer acting as a mere observer but increasingly seen as a direct player in Syria's internal affairs. Israeli airstrikes this week targeted positions approximately 50 kilometers inside Syrian territory, a move that Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz described as a warning to the Syrian regime led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Tel Aviv claims its operations are aimed at protecting its borders and the Druze minority in Syria. The renewed military activity has thrust the southern Syrian front back into the spotlight, prompting Israeli army reinforcements in the area as officials prepare for a possible expansion of the conflict. Tensions between Syria and Israel had already been high during previous negotiations over a potential Israeli withdrawal from certain southern territories. Israel is seizing upon the current fighting between Syrian government forces and Druze groups as justification to maintain its military presence, part of a broader strategy to establish a buffer zone deep inside Syria and ensure protection for Druze communities. Support for these actions is also emerging from within Israel's Druze community. A group of Druze soldiers, both active and reserve, sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging increased military and humanitarian support for their Syrian counterparts. They also proposed the creation of a humanitarian corridor to allow vulnerable Druze to seek refuge in Israel. Public protests organized by Druze soldiers have placed the Syria-Israel file under renewed scrutiny, reframing what some now describe as a "Druze crisis," overshadowing broader regional and geopolitical implications.

Syria condemns Israeli strikes, holds Israel responsible for 'consequences'
AFP/July 15, 2025
Syria on Tuesday condemned Israeli airstrikes on the southern Druze-majority province of Sweida, where government forces entered after bloody sectarian clashes that left more than 100 dead. "The Syrian Arab Republic condemns in the strongest terms the treacherous Israeli aggression carried out today through coordinated drone attacks and military airstrikes," the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that "a number of our armed forces and security personnel" as well as "several innocent civilians" were killed. Damascus "holds Israel fully responsible for this aggression and its consequences", it added, stressing Syria's "legitimate right to defend its land and its people by all means permitted under international law."

Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 93 Palestinians, including several families, health officials say
WAFAA SHURAFA/Associated Press/July 15, 2025
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes overnight and into Tuesday killed more than 90 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, including dozens of women and children, health officials said. One strike in the northern Shati refugee camp killed a 68-year-old Hamas member of the Palestinian legislature, as well as a man and a woman and their six children who were sheltering in the same building, according to officials from Shifa Hospital, where the casualties were taken. One of the deadliest strikes hit a house in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa district on Monday evening and killed 19 members of the family living inside, according to Shifa Hospital. The dead included eight women and six children. A strike on a tent housing displaced people in the same district killed a man and a woman and their two children. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said in a daily report Tuesday afternoon that the bodies of 93 people killed by Israeli strikes had been brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, along with 278 wounded. It did not specify the total number of women and children among the dead. The Hamas politician killed in a strike early Tuesday, Mohammed Faraj al-Ghoul, was a member of the bloc of representatives from the group that won seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council in the last election held among Palestinians, in 2006. Hamas won a majority in the vote, but relations with the main Fatah faction that had long led the Palestinian Authority unraveled and ended with Hamas taking over the Gaza Strip in 2007. The legislative council has not formally convened since. The Israeli military says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in densely populated areas. But daily, it hits homes and shelters where people are living without warning or explanation of the target. The latest attacks came after U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held two days of talks last week that ended with no sign of a breakthrough in negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release. Israel has killed more than 58,400 Palestinians and wounded more than 139,000 others in its retaliation campaign since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Just over half the dead are women and children, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its tally.The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, is led by medical professionals. Its count, based on daily reports from hospitals, is considered by the United Nations and other experts to be the most reliable. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after its attack 20 month ago, in which militants stormed into southern Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. They abducted 251 others, and the militants are still holding 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive. Israel’s air and ground campaign has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and driven some 90% of the population from their homes. Aid groups say they have struggled to bring in food and other assistance because of Israeli military restrictions and the breakdown of law and order, and experts have warned of famine.

Gaza mediators 'intensifying' efforts to reach deal in Doha
Agence France Presses/July 15, 2025
Gaza ceasefire talks remain in their "first phase" after more than a week of talks, even as mediators step up efforts to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas, Qatar said Tuesday. "Discussions on the framework agreement are still ongoing. Both delegations are present here in Doha, and the mediators are intensifying efforts to reach an agreement," Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told reporters. "The negotiations are still in the first phase, which is specifically about reaching an agreement of principle ahead of negotiations that will begin, God willing, in the next phase," he said. But uncertainty loomed over the efforts, which had appeared deadlocked over the weekend, with each side accusing the other of staking out positions that prevented a deal from being reached. "We cannot say whether an agreement will be reached tomorrow or whether the negotiations will collapse tomorrow," Ansari said. On Saturday, Palestinian sources told AFP that Israel's proposals for keeping troops in the territory were preventing progress towards a deal. But the Qatari spokesman insisted: "We believe there is no stalemate," adding there was no set timeframe for the talks.
Qatar has been mediating indirect negotiations between the warring parties alongside Egypt and the United States.

Kremlin reacts icily to Trump but some Russian officials are blunter
Guy Faulconbridge, Gleb Stolyarov and Lucy Papachristou/Reuters/July 15, 2025
MOSCOW -The Kremlin on Tuesday reacted icily to Donald Trump's warnings to President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, saying that recent decisions by the U.S. president and the NATO military alliance would be interpreted by Kyiv as a signal to continue the war. Trump, sitting beside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, on Monday, announced new weapons for Ukraine and threatened "biting" secondary tariffs of 100% on the buyers of Russian exports unless there is a peace deal in 50 days. "The U.S. president's statements are very serious. Some of them are addressed personally to President Putin," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "We certainly need time to analyse what was said in Washington." Peskov, though, added that it was already clear that decisions being made in Washington and other NATO capitals were "perceived by the Ukrainian side not as a signal for peace but as a signal to continue the war."Putin, who has spoken to Trump by telephone at least six times this year, has yet to comment publicly on Trump's remarks. But two other senior Russian officials did not hold back. Former President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia's Security Council, said Moscow did not care about Trump's "theatrical ultimatum", while a senior Russian diplomat, Sergei Ryabkov, suggested that giving ultimatums to Moscow was unacceptable and pointless. Trump, who has said he wants to be seen as a "peacemaker" president, said he wanted to see the end of the war - on which he said the United States had spent $350 billion - but that he had been "disappointed" by Putin.
TRUMP 'VERY UNHAPPY'
Trump specifically expressed frustration that Putin's "talk" about peace was often followed by Russian strikes on major Ukrainian cities, and indicated Washington wanted to press Moscow into ending the war by sending more arms to Ukraine.
"I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy," Trump said of Putin, a reference to former U.S. President Joe Biden calling the Russian leader "a killer" in a 2021 interview. The Financial Times reported that Trump had privately encouraged Ukraine to step up strikes deep in Russian territory, even asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy whether he could hit Moscow if the U.S. provided long-range weapons. Trump told the BBC that he was "not done" with Putin and that he thought a Ukraine peace deal was on the cards. Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces. The United States says 1.2 million people have been injured or killed in the war. In Moscow, state television broadcasts led with advances by Russian troops in Ukraine, of which Russian forces control just under a fifth, and an attack on Russia by Ukrainian drones which injured 18 people.
SECONDARY SANCTIONS
Kommersant, one of Russia's most respected newspapers, invoked William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" in its front page headline to suggest betrayal: "Et tu, Trump - the main peacekeeper of Ukrainian conflict joined the 'party of war'".
Putin has repeatedly said he is ready to make peace - but on his terms - and that there is no point discussing a ceasefire until the details of what a peace would look like are nailed down. In Washington, a White House official said Trump's intention is to impose "100% tariffs on Russia" and secondary sanctions on other countries that buy oil from Russia if a peace deal is not struck in 50 days. "We can do secondary," Trump said. "We're probably talking about 100 percent or something like that. We can do secondary tariffs without the Senate, without the House, but what they're crafting also could be very good." Eighty-five of the 100 U.S. senators are co-sponsoring a bill that would give Trump the authority to impose 500% tariffs on any country that helps Russia. China, India and Turkey are the biggest buyers of crude from Russia, the world's second largest exporter of oil.

EU ministers request more detail from Israel on aid deal for Gaza
Sam Mcneil/The Associated Press/July 15, 2025
BRUSSELS — The European Union is seeking updates from Israel on implementation of a new deal to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, the bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Tuesday. Foreign ministers from the EU's 27-member nations are meeting in Brussels in the wake of a new aid deal for Gaza, largely forged by Kallas and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. Saar met with EU leaders on Monday after agreeing last week to allow desperately needed food and fuel into the coastal enclave of 2.3 million people, who have endured more than 21 months of war. “The border crossings have been opened, we see more trucks going in, we see also operations of the electricity network, but it’s clearly not enough because the situation is still untenable,” said Kallas after the meeting. Details of the deal remain unclear, but EU officials have rejected any cooperation with the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund over ethical and safety concerns. Opening more border crossings and allowing more aid trucks into Gaza is the priority, but officials say eventually they’d like to set up a monitoring station at Kerem Shalom crossing.
Kallas said that the ministers will also discuss Iran’s nuclear program, concerns over developments in Georgia and Moldova, and new sanctions on Russia. The EU is readying its 18th package of sanctions on Russia, with holdouts within the bloc arguing over the keystone policy of capping oil prices to cut into Moscow’s energy revenues.
Details still being discussed
European nations like Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain have increasingly called for the EU's ties with Israel to be reassessed in the wake of the war in Gaza. A report by the European Commission found “indications” that Israel’s actions in Gaza are violating human rights obligations in the agreement governing its ties with the EU — but the bloc is divided over what to do in response. That public pressure over Israel's conduct in Gaza made the new humanitarian deal possible even before a ceasefire, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said. “That force of the 27 EU member states is what I want to maintain now," he said. Kallas will update EU member nations every two weeks on how much aid is actually getting through to desperate Gazans, Irish Foreign Minister Thomas Byrne said. “So far we haven’t really seen the implementation of it, maybe some very small actions, but there’s still slaughter going on, there’s still a denial of access to food and water as well," he said. “We need to see action.” Spanish Foreign Minister José Manual Albares Bueno said that details of the deal were still being discussed and that the EU would monitor results to see if Israel is complying with those. “We don’t know whether it works or if we will know how it works,” he said. “It's very clear that this agreement is not the end — we have to stop the war."There are regular protests across the continent, like a small one on Tuesday outside the European Commission, where the ministers were discussing the aid plan. Dozens of protesters in Brussels called for more aggressive actions by Europe to stop Israel's military campaign in Gaza. “It was able to do this for Russia," said Alexis Deswaef, vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights. "It must now agree on a package of sanctions for Israel to end the genocide and for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.”Human rights groups largely called the EU's actions as insufficient. “This is more than political cowardice," said Agnès Callamard, secretary general on Amnesty International. “Every time the EU fails to act, the risk of complicity in Israel’s actions grows. This sends an extremely dangerous message to perpetrators of atrocity crimes that they will not only go unpunished but be rewarded.”
‘Strikes still continuing’
The war in Gaza began after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage, most of whom have been released in earlier ceasefires. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. The U.N. and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties. The EU has observed some aid trucks entering Gaza, but “not enough,” said Hajda Lahbib, an EU commissioner for equality, preparedness and crisis management. “The situation is still so dangerous, so violent, with strikes still continuing on the ground, that our humanitarian partners cannot operate. So, this is the reality — we need to have a ceasefire," she said.

Iran to hold talks with Chinese, Russian partners at summit
Reuters/July 15, 2025
DUBAI -Iran said it will hold talks with its main Asian partners, Russia and China, on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit on Tuesday, as Tehran looks for support following a 12-day air war with Israel last month. “We will have bilateral meetings with the Chinese foreign minister, which naturally has its own importance in the current situation, as well as with the Russian foreign minister,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Telegram. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a 10-nation Eurasian security and political grouping whose members include China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Iran. Tianjin in northern China is hosting the 25th SCO Foreign Ministers meeting. In June, Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities which they said were part of a nuclear programme geared toward weaponisation. Tehran denies having any such plans. Since the re-imposition of American sanctions on Iran during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term, Tehran has deepened ties with both Moscow through a 20-year strategic pact and Beijing, which buys as much as 90% of Iranian oil exports. “The SCO is gradually opening up its place in the global arena, meaning it is gradually going beyond the regional arena, and it has many different issues on its agenda, including in the economic, political and security fields," Araqchi wrote.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 15-16/2025
Noticing the Muslim Slaughter of Christians Is ‘Islamophobic’ Says the United Nations
Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/July 15/2025
On June 22, Muslims murdered 25 Christians — mostly women and children — and wounded nearly 100 more inside a church in Syria.
According to eyewitnesses, one or two armed men entered the Mar Elyas Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus during mass, when it was packed with some 350 worshippers, and indiscriminately opened fire before detonating an explosive belt inside the sanctuary.
“When we got to the church, we found the doorway filled with body parts,” said a relief helper who arrived soon after the attack. Photos showed charred and blood-splattered floors, with shrapnel peppering the church walls.
While much can be said about this latest Islamic terror attack on a Christian church, my question today is simple and straightforward: Why is this not enough to prompt the United Nations and other international bodies to take notice and speak up the way they do whenever Muslims are the victims of non-Muslims?
One Act of Violence
For example, two years ago, the United Nations declared March 15 to be the “International Day to Combat Islamophobia.” What prompted this assertive move? Simple: On March 15, 2019, an armed Australian man entered two mosques in New Zealand and opened fire, killing 51 and injuring 40 Muslim worshippers.
If one attack on a mosque was enough for the UN to institutionalize a special day to speak up for Islam, what about the countless, often worse, Muslim attacks on non-Muslim places of worship? Why have they not elicited a similar response from the UN and other governmental bodies?
In case you think last Sunday’s horrific attack on a Syrian church is some kind of aberration, here is a brief list of other fatal Muslim attacks on Christian churches in recent times, ordered by number of casualties.
Brace yourself.
A Long List of Atrocities
Sri Lanka (April 21, 2018): On Easter Sunday, Muslim terrorists bombed three churches and three hotels; 359 people, mostly Christians, were killed and more than 500 injured.
Nigeria (April 20, 2014): On Easter Sunday, Islamic terrorists torched a packed church; 150 Christians were burned alive.
Pakistan (March 27, 2016): Following Easter Sunday services, Islamic terrorists bombed a park where Christians had congregated; more than 70 — mostly women and children — were killed. “There was human flesh on the walls of our house,” recalled a witness.
Democratic Republic of Congo (February 2025): Muslim militants of the Allied Democratic Forces rounded up and marched 70 Christians to a Protestant church, tied them up, and decapitated all of them with knives.
Iraq (Oct. 31, 2011): Muslims stormed a church in Baghdad during worship and opened fire indiscriminately before detonating their suicide vests. Nearly 60 Christians — including women, children, and even babies — were killed (graphic pictures of aftermath here).
Nigeria (April 8, 2012): On Easter Sunday, explosives planted by Muslims detonated near two packed churches; more than 50 were killed, and unknown numbers injured.
Nigeria (June 5, 2022): On Pentecost Sunday, Muslims opened fire on a packed church, killing more than 50 and injuring dozens.
Egypt (April 9, 2017): On Palm Sunday, Muslims bombed two packed churches; at least 45 were killed, more than 100 injured.
Nigeria (Dec. 25, 2011): During Christmas Day services, Muslim terrorists shot up and bombed three churches; 37 were killed and nearly 57 injured.
Egypt (Dec. 11, 2016): An Islamic suicide bombing of two churches left 29 people killed and 47 injured (graphic images of aftermath here).
Burkina Faso (Aug. 25, 2024): Muslim militants slit the throatsof 26 Christians inside a church.
Russia (June 23, 2024): Muslim terrorists launched attacks on several churches and synagoguesin the Muslim region of Dagestan. At least 21 people were killed and dozens wounded. Terrorists yelling, “Allahu akbar!” slit the throat of an elderly and ailing Orthodox priest. At least one church was set aflame.
Nigeria: (April 20, 2012): Muslims slaughtered 20 Christians inside their church during Sunday worship.
Democratic Republic of Congo (Jan. 15, 2023): Muslims bombed a church during a Sunday baptismal ceremony. At least 14 Christians were blown to pieces. The Islamic State, which claimed the attack, said 20 to 63 others were seriously wounded.
Indonesia (May 13, 2018): Muslims bombed three churches; 13 Christians were killed and dozens injured.
Egypt (Jan. 1, 2011): Muslim terrorists bombed an Alexandrian church during New Year’s Eve mass; at least 21 Christians were killed. In the words of eyewitnesses, “body parts were strewn all over the street outside” and “were brought inside the church after some Muslims started stepping on them and chanting Jihadi chants,” including “Allahu Akbar!”
Philippines (Jan. 27, 2019): Muslim terrorists bombed a cathedral; at least 20 Christians were killed, and more than 100 injured.
Indonesia (Dec. 24, 2000): During Christmas Eve services, Muslim terrorists bombed several churches; 18 were killed and over 100 injured.
Burkina Faso (Feb. 25, 2024): Muslim gunmen stormed into a Catholic church during a service, opened fire, and murdered 15 worshippers.
Pakistan (Mar. 15, 2015): Muslim suicide bombers killed at least 14 Christians in attacks on two churches.
Germany (Dec. 19, 2016): Near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, a Muslim man drove a truck into a Christmas market; 13 were killed and 55 injured.
Egypt (Dec. 29, 2017): Muslim gunmen shot up a church in Cairo; nine Christians were killed.
Egypt (Jan. 6, 2010): Following Christmas Eve mass (according to the Orthodox calendar), Muslims shot six Christians dead as they exited their church.
Russia (Feb. 18, 2018): A Muslim man carrying a knife and a double-barreled shotgun entered a church and opened fire; five people — all women — were killed, and at least five more injured.
France (July 26, 2016): Muslims entered a church and slit the throat of the officiating priest, 84-year-old Fr. Jacques Hamel, and took four nuns hostage until French authorities shot the terrorists dead.
Turkey (Jan. 28, 2024): Two masked gunmen entered a Catholic church and opened fire. One man was killed and another injured. Surveillance footage showed the rest of the 40 or so congregants fleeing in a panic.
The above list is hardly comprehensive. In Nigeria alone, where one Christian is slaughtered every two hours, Muslims have destroyed or torched some 20,000 churches and Christian schools. How many undocumented souls perished in those largely unreported terror attacks?
All the Things We Don’t Even Know
Nor does the above list include any of the many botched terror attacks. For example, an attack on an Indonesian church during Palm Sunday services in 2021, where only the suicide bombers — a Muslim man and his pregnant wife — died.
Or more recently, when last year Alexander Scott Mercurio, an 18-year-old convert to Islam, was arrested in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho for “planning a suicide attack on multiple churches” to be carried out the next day. According to the report, “Law enforcement claims that he was going to attack local places of worship with knives, guns and flames.”
Nor does the above list include the daily non-fatal attacks and desecrations of churches, which especially plague European regions with large Muslim populations.
Even so, based on just the above well-documented examples, Muslims have massacred well over 1,000 Christians who were otherwise peacefully worshipping in their churches.
The Real Pattern
Hence that most pressing of questions: If one non-Muslim attack, which claimed 51 Muslim lives, was enough for the UN to establish an “international day to combat Islamophobia,” why have countless Muslim attacks on churches not been enough for the UN to establish an “international day to combat Christianophobia”?
This question becomes more pressing when one realizes that, whereas the New Zealand mosque attack was, indeed, an aberration — evidenced by its singularity — Muslim attacks on churches are very common (including historically). As discussed here, seldom does a month pass in the Muslim world, and increasingly in the West, without several assaults or harassments taking place.
Moreover, it’s important to point out that those who terrorize churches often share little with each other. As seen, they come from widely different nations (Nigeria, Iraq, Philippines, etc.), are of different races, speak different languages, and live under different social, political, and economic conditions.
The only thing they do share is their religion, Islam (which, unsurprisingly, teaches hostility for churches and “infidels,” though we’re not supposed to acknowledge that).
In other words, Muslim attacks on churches are ideologically driven, have long been and continue to be systemic and systematic, and are therefore an actual, ongoing problem that the international community needs to highlight and ameliorate.
Yet the UN would have us ignore the ongoing massacres of countless Christians and worshippers as unfortunate byproducts of misplaced “Muslim grievances” — and instead fixate on one solitary incident: a Western man killing 51 Muslims.
This, for the UN, is what truly evinces a “pattern” and is in dire need of recognition and response. And that response is to shut up all those who dare connect the dots and expose Islam’s heavily documented pattern of violence against non-Muslims — which, make no mistake, is precisely what “combatting Islamophobia” is all about.
**Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West and Sword and Scimitar, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Why Palestinians Terrorists Want a Ceasefire in Gaza
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/July 15, 2025
Hamas has been demanding "clear guarantees" that any US-brokered ceasefire deal would ultimately lead to the end of the war in the Gaza Strip, meaning that the Israelis should stop defending themselves against attacks.
Many Arabs seem to like starting wars -- such as the war of 1948, when five Arab armies invaded Israel on the day of its independence, and which they now call the nakba (catastrophe) -- but then getting angry when they lose them.
"Once again, Hamas's spokesman – Izzat al-Risheq ... [insists] 'they will never surrender.' He speaks from comfort abroad, while Gazans starve in ruins.... This kind of language is only aimed to block any ceasefire that doesn't assure Hamas staying in power. Every time negotiations move forward, Hamas escalates the rhetoric and... prolongs this war." — Hamza Howidy, Gaza-born Palestinian human rights advocate, X, July 9, 2025.
The terror groups' leaders.... are convinced that despite the death and destruction they brought on their people, they can continue ruling the Gaza Strip after the war. As long as Hamas and PIJ insist on maintaining their hold on power, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have no future.
The Trump administration needs to insist that all terror groups in Gaza be dismantled and driven out of power as part of any ceasefire deal with Israel. It is time that the Americans understood that the Palestinian jihadis pose a threat not only to Israel, but also to the US and its Arab allies in the Middle East, especially by inciting violence against them and carrying out -- or encouraging -- terrorist attacks against Americans and moderate Arab regimes.
The Trump administration needs to insist that all terror groups in Gaza be dismantled and driven out of power as part of any ceasefire deal with Israel. It is time that the Americans understood that the Palestinian jihadis pose a threat not only to Israel, but also to the US and its Arab allies in the Middle East.
In separate statements over the past week, senior officials of the Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said that their terror groups "will not surrender." The statements came as the Trump administration continued its efforts to end the war in the Gaza Strip and secure the release of 50 Israeli hostages held by the terror groups. Twenty of the hostages are believed to be alive, while the remaining 30 are presumed dead. The hostages were kidnapped during the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led invasion of Israel. At least 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were murdered that day, and thousands wounded.
The statements show that the leaders of Hamas and PIJ are determined to fight Israel until the last Palestinian in the Gaza Strip. So far, the fighting in Gaza following the October 7 atrocities has claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians and resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands whose homes were destroyed. The statements from Hamas and PIJ demonstrate a total disregard for the ongoing suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The statements, in addition, show that the terror groups and their sponsors in Qatar and Iran have zero respect for President Donald J. Trump and his envoys, who have been working to reach a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian terror groups.
The terrorists want an end to the war while staying in power and pursuing their jihad (holy war) to murder Jews and eliminate Israel. A ceasefire, even if temporary, will allow the terrorists to rearm, regroup and launch more terror attacks against Israel.
"Gaza will not surrender no matter how long the war continues," said Izzat al-Risheq, member of the Hamas Politburo. "The resistance is the one that will impose its conditions [on Israel]."
Mohammed al-Hindi, Deputy Secretary-General of PIJ, said:
"Israel will not be able to advance further in the Gaza Strip, or else attrition will be the fate of its forces. The resistance is not cowardly to surrender."
He added that Hamas and PIJ "do not trust American guarantees" that the war would end once all the hostages were released.
Recently, Hamas accused the Trump administration of embarking on a policy of "deception and distortion of facts, and a denial of the legitimate rights of our Palestinian people to resist the occupation and achieve self-determination."
Hamas has been demanding "clear guarantees" that any US-brokered ceasefire deal would ultimately lead to the end of the war in the Gaza Strip, meaning that the Israelis should stop defending themselves against attacks.
This is the same Hamas that has been repeatedly condemning the US administration for its supposed "bias" in favor of Israel and "providing the [Israeli] occupation government with a political and military cover."
Similarly, PIJ has also been launching scathing attacks on the Trump administration, accusing it of "sponsoring the crimes committed by the government of war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu" and being "an actual partner in the barbaric war of extermination in the Gaza Strip."
"The practices and policies of the Donald Trump administration are essentially not different from those of the previous administration, and are designed to benefit all regimes that continue to rely on American administrations that seize Arab funds without regard for Arab dignity and that finance the criminal entity [Israel] with weapons, equipment, ammunition, and mercenaries, and provide it with political cover to continue its crimes."
PIJ and Hamas view the US as an enemy because of its support for Israel, even though it was Hamas -- with Qatar's and Iran's backing -- that launched the war in the first place. At the same time, they are asking the Trump administration for guarantees for a permanent ceasefire with Israel. Many Arabs seem to like starting wars -- such as the war of 1948, when five Arab armies invaded Israel on the day of its independence, and which they now call the nakba (catastrophe) -- but then getting angry when they lose them.
Hamas and PIJ are desperate for a permanent end to the war so they can continue ruling the Gaza Strip after the war and plan more October 7-style massacres against Israel.
It is important to note that both al-Risheq and al-Hindi, who reject a temporary ceasefire, do not live in the Gaza Strip. Like most Hamas and PIJ leaders, they and their families lead safe and comfortable lives in Qatar, Lebanon and Turkey.
Their remoteness from the conflict is also a reason the two leaders are in no rush to reach a temporary ceasefire deal that would spare the lives of many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Commenting on al-Risheq's remarks, Gaza-born Palestinian human rights advocate Hamza Howidy wrote on X:
"Once again, Hamas's spokesman – Izzat al-Risheq this time – tries to equate Hamas with Gaza, insisting 'they will never surrender.' He speaks from comfort abroad, while Gazans starve in ruins. But Gaza, in reality, surrendered long ago. This kind of language is only aimed to block any ceasefire that doesn't assure Hamas staying in power. Every time negotiations move forward, Hamas escalates the rhetoric and, for sure, prolongs this war. Refusing to surrender, in his words, means one thing: more Gaza children will be sacrificed to prolong his movement's survival."
If Hamas and PIJ really wanted to end the war, they could have, immediately and unconditionally, released all the hostages, laid down their weapons, and relinquished control of the Gaza Strip. Then, there would be no need for guarantees from the US or any other party for a permanent ceasefire. Israel responded with military force to the October 7 carnage to achieve two goals: freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas's military capabilities. Israel has no intention of engaging in an open-ended war.
The terror groups' leaders, however, continue to live in a fantasy world. They are convinced that despite the death and destruction they brought on their people, they can continue ruling the Gaza Strip after the war. As long as Hamas and PIJ insist on maintaining their hold on power, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have no future.
The Trump administration needs to insist that all terror groups in Gaza be dismantled and driven out of power as part of any ceasefire deal with Israel. It is time that the Americans understood that the Palestinian jihadis pose a threat not only to Israel, but also to the US and its Arab allies in the Middle East, especially by inciting violence against them and carrying out -- or encouraging -- terrorist attacks against Americans and moderate Arab regimes (such as here and here).
**Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
**Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Who is Winning the World War?
Ross Douthat/The New York Times/July 15/2025
When future historians study the arc of American foreign policy, they will probably fold all the major events since 2020 — our pell-mell withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran — into a unified narrative of global conflict.
If we’re fortunate, that will yield academic treatises with titles like “The Empire Tested: America and the World, 2021-2030.” If we’re unlucky — meaning, basically, if the United States and China eventually fall into a ruinous war — then the struggles in Ukraine and the Middle East will be retroactively assigned to histories of World War III.
We are not, as yet, inside that kind of conflagration. But it’s useful for Americans to think about our situation in global terms, with Russia and Iran and China as a revisionist alliance putting our imperial power to the test. And it’s also important to recognize that this kind of conflict is an endurance test, a long and winding road, in which it’s easy to fall prey to mood swings and judge the outcome prematurely.
We’ve had a lot of these swings in the last few years. In 2021 and early 2022, the rout in Afghanistan and our overpromising to a vulnerable Ukraine made America look ineffectual ... right up until Vladimir Putin actually invaded his neighbor, at which point his military setbacks and our success in rallying support for the Ukrainians yielded a lot of chest-thumping about the superiority of liberal democracy and the permanence of American hegemony.
That optimistic mood lasted through the failure of Ukraine’s last major counteroffensive and the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, against Israel, at which point there was a swing back toward pessimism. American power was stretched too thin; our Israeli allies were taken unawares by their enemies, the Russians were regaining ground, our arsenal was almost certainly inadequate to protect Ukraine and Israel and defend Taiwan, and all of this under a president debilitated by advancing age, a grim symbol of a crumbling imperium.
This sense of multi-theater crisis helped to restore Donald Trump to power. Then the initial months of his administration inspired fears that he would end the global conflict by effectively surrendering — abandoning allies and making deals with dictators while retreating to a Fortress North America.
Yet right now that’s not how the landscape looks. Trump’s decision to bomb the Iranian nuclear program and the muted Iranian response has capped off a period in which Tehran’s regional power has crumbled under sustained Israeli assault. Meanwhile, our NATO allies are boosting their military spending and Trump is suddenly praising the alliance, while Russia’s gains in Ukraine remain a punishing grind and there’s a possibility that Putin threw away the best deal he was likely to get. Add in the strength of the American economy, even amid the Trumpian trade war, and it seems that maybe we’re winning the world conflict again. “Rah-rah! Pax Americana forever!”
OK, not quite. The damage to Iran’s nuclear program doesn’t mean we’ve eliminated the threat, and Israel’s Gaza war remains a humanitarian crisis without a clear political endgame. Trump’s walk-back of his Department of Defense’s attempt to triage resources by withholding weapons from Ukraine doesn’t change the reality that our weaponry is limited and does require triaging. Putin’s failure to make the most of Trump’s diplomatic outreach doesn’t change the fact that Russia is still slowly gaining ground.
But both the Ukrainian stalemate and the Iranian retreat are clarifying reminders that the ultimate outcome of this conflict depends on the revisionist power, the People’s Republic of China, that hasn’t directly joined the fights. China is at once a much more serious rival to America than either Russia or Iran and also an extremely cautious player, content to watch its tacit allies make their plays without, say, handing Iran a nuclear deterrent or sending the People’s Liberation Army to help Russia take Kyiv.
This cautious distance could reflect a fundamental weakness of the revisionist bloc — that it’s purely an alliance of interest between regimes that don’t trust one another, don’t have as much in common as we still have with our European and East Asian allies and struggle to work effectively in concert.
But it could also reflect a confidence on China’s part that time is on its side, that its investments in technology and energy are going to lap ours soon enough and that all our efforts now reflect a fateful squandering of resources given what Beijing has planned for the later 2020s.
Without certain knowledge of those plans, American foreign policy needs both a better long-term strategy to stay ahead of China and a lot of short-term Trumpian flexibility. Not restraint or hawkishness alone, but both an openness to peace and a capacity for warmaking, matched to the ebb and flow of a global conflict that won’t have any simple end.
The New York Times

The Levant Swings Between Dreams and Deals
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/July 15/2025
The talk of a new Middle Eastern “deal” we have been hearing over the past few days is jarring. The agreement reportedly being cooked up sees Syria cede the Golan Heights to Israel... in return for the Lebanese city of Tripoli.
The “official” reactions of Lebanese parties, of course, mixed outrage and condemnation. However, those who understand the intentions they hold behind the scenes and see the implications of Benjamin Netanyahu shaping Washington’s vision and approach to the Middle East, will address this development with the seriousness it deserves.
Moreover, this “deal” was leaked as Israel tightened its control over Iran’s airspace and expands its list of targets inside Iran. Not only that, it coincides with the tacit alignment of Washington, Tel Aviv, and Ankara’s visions regarding all regional crises, from the Kurdish question to what remains of the Palestinian struggle.
Some observers now believe that the Washington-Tel Aviv axis has new priorities with regard to the sectarian dynamics of the Levant, at least temporarily, following the transition from Barack Obama and Joe Biden to Donald Trump. The irony, however, is this same American (Republican) and Israeli (Likud) right had originally bet on “political Shiism” in the region during the buildup to the invasion of Iraq.
Back then, it was the American “neoconservatives,” working closely alongside the Israeli right, that steered George W. Bush’s presidency through his White House advisors and Pentagon officials.
At the time, the US was also trying to overcome a trauma, that of 9/11. The neoconservatives exploited this catastrophe to occupy Iraq, which was eventually handed over to Iran. The leader of the Coalition Provisional Authority that oversaw Iraq’s transition, Paul Bremer, even boasted that his administration had “ended a thousand years of Sunni rule” in Iraq!
As the saying goes, “a lot of water has flowed under the bridge” since 2003. To begin with, despite the Democrats’ sympathy for the “Arab Spring” in several Arab countries, they and the Israeli leadership refrained from supporting the Syrian uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Later, they effectively turned a blind eye to Iran’s military intervention to rescue the Syrian regime.
Moreover, the Democratic leadership was keen on ensuring the success of the “nuclear deal” it had signed with Iran after the Muscat negotiations. As a result of this deal, and the policies pursued by the Obama and Biden administrations, Tehran felt empowered to move freely across the region. In contrast, Netanyahu and his Likud allies never forgot their apprehensions about Iran’s role in the Arab arena and continued to seek containment.
However, it is clear that Israel has been the biggest beneficiary of Iran’s role in the region. It was happy to see Iran become a “bogeyman” that frightened Arab states and compelled them to rush toward “normalization” with Israel in pursuit of protection. Moreover, Israel has never truly been concerned by the bombastic rhetoric of the so-called “resistance” regimes and parties, so long as the borders remained secure... and the possibility of expanding them remained available.
Still, in one way or another, the events of October 7, 2023 (the Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched from the Gaza Strip) was a replay of 9/11.
That day undoubtedly marked a turning point for regional alliances, leading to a shift in priorities. Without minimizing the tragedy in Gaza, the most dangerous aspect of Israel’s political response was Netanyahu’s stated intention to “reshape the Middle East.”In Donald Trump, Netanyahu found his long-sought prize. Trump is an “ideal partner” in drawing this map over the rubble of political entities that have never meant anything to either of them, and at the expense of peoples who have never factored into their political calculations.
Indeed, the future of Palestine has rarely seemed as bleak and hopeless since 1948. As for Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, whose borders were drawn by the Sykes-Picot Agreement (which completed what the Balfour Declaration had begun) they may now need to brace for a world in which Türkiye is the region’s second power, behind Israel.
Lebanon’s most sectarian non-Sunni hardliners likely wouldn’t object, in my view, to ceding more than half of the Sunni population and giving up Tripoli (and Akkar and Dinniyeh), if Washington and Tel Aviv guaranteed “privileges” for the Christians and Shiites. In fact, many Lebanese Christians have lost hope in the very idea of “Greater Lebanon,” which was born in 1920 and saw Tripoli and other areas added to the country. And many Shiite extremists would be happy to secure a demographic majority by reducing the number of Sunnis in the country!
As for Syria, the Sunni majority seems well placed to strengthen its position, and to address the fears of the Alawite, Christian, Druze, and Kurdish minorities, through a deal between the US and Türkiye.
Moreover, it’s worth keeping an eye across the Syrian-Iraqi border amid the radical shifts and consequential negotiations underway in the Kurdish arena.
So, one wonders: will dreams align with the fine print of the deals? Or are we back to the mess of trial and error?

Selected Tweets for 15 July/2025
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
No eyes on Suwaida.
Islamist gangs of the #Syria government have launched a raid against Druze of the south. Murder and rape already reported.
#SaveTheDruze

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
#Qatar-funded #Turkey-based #Syria TV described Islamist gangs of Sharaa as Syrian “security and military” while describing #Israel drones defending the Druze from a massacre “occupation forces.”
Most Druze I know are cheering for the “occupation forces.”

Walid Abu Haya
https://x.com/i/status/1945077056183714228
Al-Julani’s rats are fleeing the Druze mountain as a result of the Israeli Air Force bombings! No place in Suwayda for the terrorist!

Michael Maalouf
Minorities will never be secure in the Middle East.

Beiruty Dorzi
Jabal al-Druze, its largest city Suweida, is among the last regions in Syria still shielded from the terror and violence of HTS rule, and the last place where Druze and Christians can live freely without persecution. The jihadists see this, and consider it an affront, an outrage.

Murad Ismael/@murad_ismael
The SDF should consider deploying forces in defense of the Druze—today it’s them, tomorrow it will be you. The Alawites should also rise up against this barbaric jihadi regime. Jihadists must not be allowed to establish a foothold of power anywhere in the Middle East. & they should be rooted out of Afghanistan too.

Murad Ismael/@murad_ismael
Al-Jolani is playing it very well.
He got Turkey and Qatar first, then the Saudis.
Their money got the U.S. to change its position—delist HTS, remove sanctions, and basically legitimize HTS rule over all of Syria.
Then they started with ethnic cleansing and terrorizing of the Alawites.
Then bombings of Christians.
Then the Druze.
Next will be the Kurds & SDF.
Then you have a fully functioning terrorist regime. And of course—they won’t stop.
They will aim to change regimes in Iraq and Jordan next.
They will use the Americans until they build various capabilities.
Then they will turn against Israel to fulfill the prophetic promise.
This is how I read direction of events.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
A bright spot in an otherwise ugly and dark Middle East: #Lebanon Central Bank governor Karim Soueid issues a memo to decouple state financial institutions from Hezbollah money laundering operations and unlicensed banks and exchange shops.

Giulia/@samurai_611
Reports indicate that Israel is launching attacks on the Syrian army, seemingly in response to mounting pressure from Druze IDF reservists.
Israeli Channel 12 reports that urgent meetings have been taking place since this morning between Netanyahu, Katz, and Zamir, in light of the sharp escalation in Syria. Israel believes the Druze community is facing a serious threat.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
https://x.com/i/status/1945087498767544613
#Syria Islamist government calls its raid on the Druze neighborhoods in the south a law-enforcement, keeping Syria “one nation, one army, one state” campaign.
Video: A Syrian government fighter punts the turban of a Druze cleric after raiding his house.

Giulia/@samurai_611
https://x.com/i/status/1945027486875627761
no time! We must act now!
Israeli Druze started protesting since the world and media are overlooking the massacres against the Druze community in Syria. Adam, a Syrian Druze from Suwayda, told us in utter disbelief the unspeakable violence committed against them in Syria while having power shortage and attacked simultaneously.

Makram Rabah
https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1762597941800570
Makram Rabah | The massacres against the Druze cannot serve as a foundation for a new Syria. A state built on violence cannot claim legitimacy or offer lasting peace.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Appreciate Amb. Barrack's effort, but honestly, Syria's failure is not due to "confusion and inefficient communication." Islamist government today was broadcasting to #Syria's Druze, on loud speakers, Quran 5:33: Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against God and His Messenger and spread mischief in the land is death, crucifixion, cutting off their hands and feet on opposite sides, or exile from the land. This penalty is a disgrace for them in this world, and they will suffer a tremendous punishment in the Hereafter.
Syria's Islamist massacres against non-Muslims and non-Arabs are not due to miscommunication. Islamist Syrian government is communicating its intention to the Druze alright.
Problem of Syria is Islamism: Using Islam in an intolerant and Fascist manner to maintain a bloody autocracy. Fixing the Islamist beliefs of Sharaa and his gangs is what needs to be done, not "they are all guilty" and "it's a misunderstanding" kinda solution.