English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For May08/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.
Letter to the Colossians03/01-11/:”If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.But now you must get rid of all such things anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 07-08/2025
May 07, 2008 – The Barbaric Invasion of Beirut and Mount Lebanon/Elias Bejjani/May 07/2025
The Sacred Duty of Praying for Others/Elias Bejjani/May 06/2025
Fakhoury Family Wins Landmark Case Against Iran//May 07/2025
Family of American hostage tortured in Lebanon wins landmark case against Iran/Beth Bailey/Fox News/May 07/2025
An Israeli drone strike in a Lebanese port city kills a Hamas member
Hamas says commander killed in Israel Lebanon strike
Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike in Kfar Rumman
Adnan Harb "Abu Hassan": Biography of a Released Prisoner and Commander in "Hezbollah" Assassinated by Israel
Israeli drone strikes southern town of Majdalzoun
Turkey thwarted another attack with pagers in Lebanon last year, officials say
Ortagus reportedly warns Lebanon that Trump's patience is not unlimited
Lebanon welcomes return of Emirati tourists with pledges to ensure their safety
First Emirati planes land in Beirut after travel ban lifted
KSA inclined to lift Lebanon travel ban on 1st day of Eid al-Adha
U.S. Embassy in Lebanon hosts Lebanese delegation To SelectUSA 2025 Summit
Solving the Hezbollah arms conundrum/Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/May 07, 2025
Lebanon’s tourism hopes rise as ties with Arab Gulf states warm/Nadia Al-Faour/Arab News/May 07, 2025

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 07-08/2025
Black smoke pours from Sistine Chapel chimney, indicating no pope was elected as conclave opens
Yemen’s Houthis to keep attacking Israeli ships despite US deal
Houthi spokesperson: US-Houthi ceasefire deal does not include Israel
Yemen, Iran will be left ‘unrecognizable’ if attacks continue, says Israeli envoy
Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 59 as Israel prepares to ramp up its offensive
Israeli strikes on school housing displaced and market kill 38 in Gaza, medics say
Israel says 24 hostages alive in Gaza after Donald Trump's comments alarm families
U.S., Israel discuss possible U.S.-led administration for Gaza, sources say
UAE mediating secret talks between Israel and Syria, sources say
Trump plans to announce that the US will call the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf, officials say
Syria’s Sharaa confirms indirect talks with Israel to ease tensions
Syrian president meets Macron in Paris on first European visit
Syria's interim leader al-Sharaa makes first trip to Europe with Paris visit
At least 26 killed in Indian airstrikes on Pakistan; Pakistani shelling kills 10 in India
India fires missiles on Pakistan. Islamabad calls it an 'act of war' and says it downed Indian jets

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sourceson on May 07-08/2025
The Next Pope Needs to Preserve Judeo-Christian Civilization/Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/May 7, 2025
In an interview, Peter Harling discusses the fate of religious communities in the Syrian transformation/Syria’s Misunderstood Minority Question/Michael Young/Diwan/May 7, 2025
In Israel, wildfire and war are heating things up. How will we ever recover?/Uriel Heilman/USA TODAY/May 7, 2025
World peace and security in the balance once again/Mohamed Chebaro/Arab News/May 07, 2025
A new regional order brings major challenges/Nadim Shehadi/Arab News/May 07, 2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 07-08/2025
May 07, 2008 – The Barbaric Invasion of Beirut and Mount Lebanon
Elias Bejjani/May 07/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/05/118016/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WOToQkmfMU&t=72s
May 7, 2008, is forever etched in Lebanon’s collective memory as a criminal day of shame—when murderers, invaders, and mercenary militias serving the Iranian regime launched a barbaric coup against the Lebanese state, its people, and its sovereignty.
Hezbollah, in collaboration with Amal Movement, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), and other armed groups loyal to the Syrian-Iranian axis of evil, invaded the capital Beirut and parts of Mount Lebanon. In this coordinated and premeditated assault, these militias violated the sanctity of the capital, terrorized its peaceful civilians, displaced families, looted properties, tortured innocents, and murdered the defenseless—all under the pretext of resisting “government decisions” that challenged Hezbollah’s illegal military communications network.
This day, now known infamously as the "Black 7th of May," marked a turning point in Lebanon’s modern history—a moment when the mask of so-called "resistance" fell and exposed the true face of Hezbollah: a terrorist militia acting on behalf of Tehran to subdue Lebanon through force and intimidation.
Michel Aoun, the political Iscariot of modern Lebanon, opportunistically justified and later benefited from this criminal invasion. His alliance with Hezbollah paved his path to the presidency in 2016. During his tenure, Aoun dismantled the state from within, surrendered its institutions to Hezbollah’s authority, and contributed to Lebanon’s total collapse—politically, economically, and morally.
The May 7 invasion was not just a military operation. It was an Iranian-led coup attempt against the legitimate Lebanese state. It desecrated Beirut’s freedom, targeted Sunni neighborhoods, occupied media outlets, and left dozens dead. Its goal: to prove that no Lebanese authority—civil or military—could ever stand against Hezbollah without paying a deadly price.
To this day, the invasion’s consequences remain: Hezbollah continues to act as an armed state within a state. Palestinian and Syrian armed elements still operate freely in their camps. The sovereignty of Lebanon remains hostage to Tehran's regional ambitions.
Justice Delayed Is Not Justice Denied
This criminal and barbaric invasion must not be forgotten. The perpetrators—local and foreign—must one day be brought to justice. The Lebanese people, especially those in the diaspora, must continue to demand accountability, justice, and full implementation of international resolutions that uphold Lebanon’s independence and sovereignty.
As the Prophet Isaiah (33:1) warned:
“Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you cease betraying, you will be betrayed.”
What Must Be Done
To ensure May 7 is never repeated, the following urgent measures must be taken:
Full disarmament of Hezbollah and all other Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian militias operating illegally within Lebanon.
Reclaiming all territories currently run as militia-controlled “mini-states,” including Hezbollah’s southern stronghold and armed Palestinian camps.
Immediate implementation of all relevant UN Security Council resolutions—particularly:
Resolution 1559 (2004): Calls for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias.
Resolution 1701 (2006): Demands the cessation of hostilities and prohibits the presence of any armed forces in South Lebanon other than the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL.
Resolution 1680 (2006): Urges Lebanon and Syria to delineate their border and establish full diplomatic relations.
The 1949 Armistice Agreement with Israel: Must be revived and fully enforced to restore border stability and end militia cross-border provocations.
Declare Lebanon a failed state under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, enabling international intervention to restore state authority and protect civilians.
Empower UNIFIL with an expanded mandate to enforce disarmament and administrative restoration across all Lebanese territories—not only the South.
A Call to Action
All free and patriotic Lebanese—at home and abroad—must unite to rescue their homeland from occupation, collapse, and sectarian tyranny. We must raise our voices at the United Nations, in international forums, and in the global media to demand an end to Hezbollah’s armed rule and the restoration of Lebanese sovereignty.
May Almighty God protect Lebanon and its people, and may justice prevail.

The Sacred Duty of Praying for Others
Elias Bejjani/May 06/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/05/143054/
The duty of praying for others—regardless of who they are, especially those in need of help, support, and compassion, whether family, relatives, strangers, or even enemies—is a deeply spiritual and emotional act. It reflects the mercy, tenderness, and love of the Almighty Creator who is capable of all things. This sacred practice is a genuine expression of the strength, depth, and resilience of the believer’s faith and hope. It demonstrates a steadfast belief that God is the loving Father of all, merciful and forgiving, who listens and responds to those who call upon Him and seek His mercy.
The Miracle of the Paralytic’s Healing
In the Gospel of Saint Mark (2:1–12), we read:
“When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ‘Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, ‘Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Stand up and take your mat and walk”? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he said to the paralytic—’I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.’ And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’ Then he went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them.”
This miracle, in its theological core, affirms without doubt that intercessory prayer and supplications on behalf of others are not only acceptable to God, but are heard and answered by Him. As recounted in the Gospel, the paralytic did not seek healing himself. He did not ask for mercy, nor did he seek forgiveness for his sins—even though, as many theologians suggest, Jesus frequently visited Capernaum, where the paralytic lived.
What’s even more striking is that it was the paralytic’s friends, relatives, or perhaps even some of Jesus’ disciples, who had such strong faith that they believed Jesus could heal the man simply by touching him. Their unwavering faith drove them to carry the man, push through the crowd, climb the roof, break it open, and lower him down to Jesus. Because of their faith and certainty in the Lord’s mercy and power, Jesus responded to their plea and healed the paralytic, acknowledging the strength of their belief.
Since sin is a form of eternal suffering and death in the fires of Hell—and because sin’s temptations, traps, and allurements paralyze a person morally, spiritually, and emotionally—Jesus first forgave the man’s sins, then healed his physical paralysis, saying: “Stand up, take your mat, and go.”
God never turns away those who seek Him with true faith and trust. With fatherly love and attentiveness, He hears our prayers and answers them. As the Lord Himself said: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7–8)
From this, we understand that intercessory prayer—for both the living and the dead, for friends and enemies alike—is a holy obligation and is accepted by God, who is love, compassion, and mercy. He does not turn away those who ask sincerely, nor does He ignore the needs of the suffering.
In the Gospel of Matthew (18:19–20), Jesus confirms the power of collective prayer: “Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
And Saint James says in his letter (5:16): “Pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.” He also adds (5:15): “The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and if they have committed sins, they will be forgiven.”
Praying for those in need is a sacred duty for every true believer—especially for those caught in the snares of sin and temptation, and for those mentally or emotionally unable to comprehend or resist sin’s consequences, such as the mentally ill, the psychologically distressed, and the physically or verbally impaired.
The miracle of the paralytic is not the only example in the Bible where Jesus or the apostles performed a miracle in response to someone else’s plea. For instance, Jesus healed the servant of the Roman centurion in Capernaum at the centurion’s request (Matthew 8:5–13). He also raised Lazarus from the dead in response to the plea of his sisters, Mary and Martha (John 11:1–44).
This rich spiritual understanding forms the foundation for asking the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the blessings of the saints in our prayers.
Let us pray for the healing of every person weakened by illness—whether physical, spiritual, or moral. God, who is love, never turns away those who come to Him in faith. Let us pray and ask the Lord Jesus to free us from the temptations of this perishable world and to guide us toward spiritual, moral, and cultural growth. Let us pray for our consciences to be cleansed and our hearts to be purified, that we may be freed from selfishness and base desires. May God grant us the grace of humility, that we may be messengers of love, freedom, and justice—true advocates of peace and harmony.
O Lord, grant us strength and patience to endure the shame of this passing world. We ask You in repentance and hope that we may not be disgraced on the Day of Judgment. God sees us, hears us, and is always with us—by our side and in our midst. Let us trust in Him, and fear Him in all our actions, words, and thoughts. 

Amer Fakhoury Foundation
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/05/143100/
Fakhoury Family Wins Landmark Case Against Iran//May 07/2025
The Fakhoury family has won a landmark case against Iran, proving for the first time that Iran, through Hezbollah, is illegally occupying Lebanon.
This case exposed how Hezbollah, backed by Iran, fabricated lies to illegally detain Amer Fakhoury—an innocent man—and demonstrated Iran’s ongoing interference within Lebanese institutions, especially the Lebanese General Security that was led by Abbas Ibrahim at the time of Amer’s kidnapping.
This victory opens a new chapter for justice in Lebanon, giving hope to all who seek accountability and sovereignty.
This is just the beginning. We will continue our efforts to hold every responsible individual accountable for unjustly detaining an innocent man.

Family of American hostage tortured in Lebanon wins landmark case against Iran
Court rules Iran responsible for Amer Fakhoury’s imprisonment through Hezbollah proxy after nearly 4-year legal battle
Beth Bailey/Fox News/May 07/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/05/143100/
After a nearly four-year search for justice, a U.S. court has found in favor of the family of a Lebanese American man held hostage in Lebanon, finding that the Islamic Republic of Iran, working through its proxy Hezbollah, should be held liable for their father’s kidnap and torture.
Two of Amer Fakhoury’s daughters, Guila and Zoya Fakhoury, told Fox News Digital that on May 1, a U.S. District Court judge found Iran responsible for Fakhoury’s imprisonment.
“This is the first lawsuit to prove Iran’s influence over Lebanon,” Guila said. “We were very happy about the judgment.”
Amer Fakhoury was arrested a week after traveling to Lebanon with his family in September 2019. After his arrest, a newspaper linked with Hezbollah alleged that Fakhoury, formerly a member of the South Lebanon Army, had been the “butcher” of Khiam, a detention center where grave human rights abuses were reported to have taken place.
Though he was released from a military prison in December 2019, it was only after the Lebanese Supreme Court dropped charges against Fakhoury in March 2020 that he was able to return to the U.S. By the time of his return, Fakhoury had lost 60 pounds and was suffering from late-stage lymphoma, along with rib fractures and other health complications. He died in September 2020 at the age of 57.
Proving Fakhoury’s suffering and torture was a battle for the family, though Guila said the State Department’s classification of her father as a hostage was instrumental in proving the nature of Fakhoury’s captivity.
SENS. CRUZ, SHAHEEN PROPOSE SANCTIONS AGAINST LEBANESE OFFIICALS OVER AMERICAN PRISONER
Proving that Iran was behind the imprisonment was more difficult. In fact, while Guila said some people “kind of laughed” that the family blamed Iran for their father’s mistreatment, Zoya said “Iran’s influence in Lebanon in recent years further proves our point.”
Because Iran never responded to the suit, Guila said the family was forced to provide evidence her father witnessed of Hezbollah’s control over “every government agency in Lebanon,” including the military hospital, military court, and the Lebanese General Directorate of General Security, the country’s intelligence apparatus that Guila said arrested and tortured Fakhoury.
Even when the Lebanese judicial system found Fakhoury innocent of multiple false charges that he was a killer, a terrorist and an Israeli agent, Guila said officials told Fakhoury that they had to keep him “because Hezbollah wants [him] in prison.”
Fakhoury’s family faced difficulties even before filing their case in May 2021. Zoya says Hezbollah officials in Lebanon have been issuing threats to the family since Fakhoury’s death. In addition to Iran failing to respond to the suit, Guila said Lebanese General Directorate of General Security officials interfered with the lawsuit by asking to have their names and agencies removed. She says the judge denied the request.
Long periods of silence from the court also made the wait for justice difficult, Zoya said. “The last four years, we were fearful,” she explained. “We were worried maybe nothing’s going to come out of this.”
While the family is grateful for the judgment they received, Guila says they believe the settlement awarded through the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act was “a bit of an unfair decision” and did not “take into account the pain and the suffering of the family.”
Still, the landmark judgment paves the way for others to find justice, the family says. “We’re hoping, with this administration, to use the judgment that we have and the work that we’ve been doing in the [Amer] Foundation to continue the accountability efforts,” Guila said. “A lot of other Lebanese citizens [and] American citizens that have been targeted by the Lebanese government, by Hezbollah in Lebanon, can now use this case to get justice for what happened to them,” Zoya explained.
The sisters said the next steps in their journey are to find justice for their father and will involve requesting the State Department to sanction “officials in Lebanon who were traitors and working with Hezbollah and Iran.”
**Beth Bailey is a reporter covering Afghanistan, the Middle East, Asia, and Central America. She was formerly a civilian intelligence analyst with the Department of the Army. You can follow Beth on Twitter
https://www.foxnews.com/world/family-american-hostage-tortured-lebanon-wins-landmark-case-against-iran

An Israeli drone strike in a Lebanese port city kills a Hamas member
The Associated Press/May 7, 2025
BEIRUT— An Israeli drone strike on a car in southern Lebanon killed an official with the Palestinian militant group Hamas early Wednesday, authorities said. Hamas said in a statement that Khaled Ahmad al-Ahmad, who was a member of its military wing, was killed while he was on his way to a mosque to attend dawn prayers. The Israeli military confirmed that it had targeted al-Ahmad, saying he was a commander with Hamas in south Lebanon and was behind several attacks against Israel. Since Hamas' attack on southern Israel triggered the war on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel’s military has targeted members of the group in Lebanon, where Hamas has a military presence. The group has also carried out rocket attacks from Lebanon since the Israel-Hamas war began, and in recent weeks Lebanese authorities detained several men linked to Hamas on suspicion of firing rockets toward Israel.
Lebanese authorities warned Hamas last week that it would face the “harshest measures,” if it carried out any attacks from Lebanon.

Hamas says commander killed in Israel Lebanon strike
AFP/May 07, 2025
SIDON, Lebanon: Hamas said one of its commanders was killed in an Israeli strike on the south Lebanon city of Sidon on Wednesday, the latest attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the dawn strike killed one person. Hamas named him as Khaled Ahmed Al-Ahmed and said he was on his way to pray. “As we mourn our heroic martyr, we pledge to God Almighty, and then to our people and our nation, to continue on the path of resistance,” the Palestinian militant group said in a statement. The Israeli military confirmed that it killed Ahmed, adding that he was “the head of operations in Hamas’s Western Brigade in Lebanon.”It alleged he had been engaged in weapons smuggling and advancing “numerous” attacks against Israel. Israel has continued to launch regular strikes in Lebanon despite the November 27 truce which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of full-blown war. Under the deal, Hezbollah was to pull back its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south. Israel was to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five positions that it deems “strategic.”A Lebanese security source told AFP that Hezbollah had withdrawn fighters from south of the Litani and dismantled most of its military infrastructure in the area. Lebanon says it has respected its commitments and has called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its attacks and withdraw from the five border positions. Last week, Lebanon’s top security body the Higher Defense Council warned Hamas against using the country for attacks on Israel.
The group has since handed over several Palestinians accused of firing rockets from Lebanon into Israel in March.

Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike in Kfar Rumman
Agence France Presse/May 07, 2025
The Israeli army said a drone strike Tuesday in the southern town of Kfar Rumman killed Adnan Mohammad Sadeq Harb, the “commander of the logistic support unit in the Badr formation” of Hezbollah, which “operates in the northern Litani area in Lebanon.”“As part of his role, (Harb) advanced the restoration of the combat capabilities of … Hezbollah and assisted in attempts to restore terrorist infrastructure south of the Litani River,” the Israeli army added. He “worked to transfer weapons within Lebanese territory between the various units in the organization. His actions constituted a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the Israeli army said, vowing to “continue to act to remove any threat to the State of Israel.”Lebanon's health ministry said the strike killed Harb and wounded three others. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the car was hit with a "guided missile" on the road linking the town of Kfar Rumman with the nearby city of Nabatieh. Israel has continued to launch regular strikes in Lebanon despite the November 27 truce which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of all-out war, with a heavy Israeli bombing campaign and ground incursion. Under the deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters north of Lebanon's Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south. Israel was to withdraw all its forces from south Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five positions that it deems "strategic". A Lebanese security source told AFP that Hezbollah had withdrawn fighters from south of the Litani and dismantled most of its military infrastructure in that area. Lebanon says it has respected its commitments and has called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its attacks and withdraw from the five border positions.

Adnan Harb "Abu Hassan": Biography of a Released Prisoner and Commander in "Hezbollah" Assassinated by Israel
Janoubia/May 07/2025
The targeting of the vehicle in the southern town of Kfar Remman yesterday, Tuesday, was not just another security incident in the context of the ongoing confrontations between "Hezbollah" and Israel, but rather a specific assassination that targeted a figure with a long history within the ranks of the party, one who combined the symbolism of a "released prisoner" with the operational status of a "field commander."He is Adnan Muhammad Sadiq Harb, known as "Hajj Abu Hassan," son of the southern town of Hallousiyeh, whose death was mourned by "Hezbollah" and the "Lebanese Association for Prisoners and Released Detainees," while the Israeli army claimed responsibility for his killing, presenting its own narrative about his leading role in the "Badr Unit," the logistical arm of the party. So who is Adnan Harb, and what is the journey that led him from the occupation's detention centers to the circle of Israeli targeting?
From Captivity to the "Badr Unit": The Journey of Adnan Harb.
According to the statement of the "Lebanese Association for Prisoners and Released Detainees" and circulating information, the roots of Adnan Harb's involvement in the resistance work date back to the beginnings of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. He joined the ranks of the resistance early on, only to fall into the hands of the Israeli occupation forces and be imprisoned in the notorious "Ansar detention camp" in southern Lebanon, which was a mass detention center for Lebanese and Palestinian resistance fighters and civilians. The "Prisoners' Association" describes his period of detention as witnessing "steadfastness in the face of torture and abuse," before he was later transferred to the "Atlit detention camp" inside occupied Palestine. The experience of captivity was not an individual one in his family; the obituary also mentioned his brother, "the great Mujahid, His Eminence the late Sheikh Abbas Harb," indicating a family background involved in resistance work and the experience of imprisonment.
Adnan Harb's period of detention ended in May 1985, when he was released as part of one of the largest and most famous prisoner exchange operations in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This was the deal that took place between Israel and the "Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command," under which 1,155 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners (many of whom were in the Ansar detention camp) were released in exchange for three Israeli soldiers. After his release, Harb continued his journey within the ranks of "Hezbollah."
Detailed information about the roles he held during the following decades is scarce in public sources, which is common for figures with a security and military nature within the party. However, his obituary as "the martyred Mujahid commander Hajj Adnan Harb," and the description of him by pro-Hezbollah pages as a "martyred commander," confirm that he was not just an ordinary member, but rather held a field leadership position. This was confirmed by the statement of the Israeli army, which provided specific details (albeit from its perspective) about his latest position.
What is the "Badr Unit" and What is Harb's Alleged Role in it?
According to the statement issued by the Israeli army following the assassination, Adnan Harb held the position of "commander of the logistical support system in the Badr Unit of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, which operates in the northern Litani area of Lebanon." The "Badr Unit," according to open sources and media reports, is considered one of the military units affiliated with the Jihad Council in "Hezbollah," and its geographical scope of operations appears to be concentrated in the southern Lebanon region north of the Litani River, extending to the city of Sidon. It is sometimes attributed with tasks related to advanced combat tactics or special operations, although the role attributed to Harb by the Israeli army focuses on the logistical aspect.
Hezbollah's Leadership Structure According to the Israeli Army's Claim
The Israeli statement claimed that Harb, through his position as "commander of logistical support in the Badr Unit," worked on "rehabilitating the combat capabilities of the Hezbollah terrorist organization" and contributed to "attempts to rebuild terrorist infrastructure south of the Litani River." The statement also accused him of working to "transfer weapons within Lebanese territory between the various units in the organization," considering his activities a "blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon" (in an implicit reference to Resolution 1701, which calls for a zone free of illegal weapons south of the Litani). Harb's association with the "Badr Unit" is reinforced by the appearance of photos of him published after his assassination, showing him with the prominent Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Muhammad Qubeisi ("Hajj Abu Musa"), who was also assassinated by Israel in a raid on the southern suburb of Beirut on September 24, 2024. Multiple sources indicate that Qubeisi was responsible for leading the "Badr" military unit north of the Litani between 2001 and 2018, before taking over command of the party's missile system.
The Israeli Assassination in Kfar Remman
Adnan Harb "Abu Hassan's" end came in an air raid carried out by an Israeli drone that directly targeted his car on the university road in the town of Kfar Remman, near the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, in the afternoon of May 6, 2025. The raid resulted in his death and the injury of three other people who were with him, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health.

Israeli drone strikes southern town of Majdalzoun
Agence France Presse/May 07/2025
An Israeli drone struck Wednesday a house in the southern town of Majdalzoun in the Tyre district, hours after Hamas said that one of its commanders was killed in an Israeli strike on Sidon.One person was lightly injured in the strike, local media reports said, adding that the targeted house was already destroyed. Israel has continued to launch regular strikes in Lebanon despite the November 27 truce which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of full-blown war. Under the deal, Hezbollah was to pull back its fighters north of Lebanon's Litani River, some 30 kilometers from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south. Israel was to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five positions that it deems "strategic".A Lebanese security source told AFP that Hezbollah had withdrawn fighters from south of the Litani and dismantled most of its military infrastructure in the area. Lebanon says it has respected its commitments and has called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its attacks and withdraw from the five border positions.

Turkey thwarted another attack with pagers in Lebanon last year, officials say
The Associated Press/Suzan Fraser And Bassem Mroue/May 6, 2025
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s intelligence service thwarted a remote attack using pagers last year in Lebanon, days after similar attacks by Israel killed dozens and wounded thousands, including members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, a Turkish daily and officials said Tuesday.
Daily Sabah reported that 1,300 pagers and 710 chargers rigged with explosives were confiscated inside a cargo shipment at Istanbul Airport that was on its way to Beirut from Hong Kong. A Turkish security official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, confirmed the report but would not provide further details.In Beirut, Hezbollah’s chief spokesman Youssef el-Zein told The Associated Press Tuesday that days after the Sept. 17 pagers attack in Lebanon and Syria, Hezbollah informed Turkish intelligence that a shipment of pagers was in Turkey and about to be sent to Lebanon. El-Zein said Turkish authorities confiscated the pagers and most likely destroyed them. He had no further details.The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report. Israel triggered the Sept. 17 attack when pagers all over Lebanon started beeping. The devices exploded even if a person carrying one failed to push buttons to read an incoming encrypted message. The next day, Israel activated walkie-talkies, some of which exploded at funerals for some of the people who were killed in the pager attacks. The attacks marked a major escalation in the Israel-Hezbollah war that started after Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, triggering the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. Although the Lebanon attack struck many Hezbollah members, civilians were also killed or wounded. At least 37 people were killed, including two children, and some 3,000 were wounded in the two-day explosions. Daily Sabah said that acting on a tip that a shipment of pager devices would be in Istanbul to be delivered to Lebanon two days after the attacks, Turkish intelligence agents launched an operation. The newspaper said that authorities discovered a shipment that arrived in Istanbul from Hong Kong one day before the Lebanon explosions. The cargo had 61 boxes and was scheduled to depart from Istanbul to Beirut on Sept. 27 through Istanbul Airport. The cargo was described as a shipment of food choppers, Daily Sabah said. Inside, authorities found 1,300 Gold Apollo brand pagers and 710 desktop chargers. After the pagers attack, Israel expanded the war against Hezbollah with strikes that killed nearly 500 people on Sept. 23, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes. On Sept. 27, Israeli airstrikes on a southern suburb of Beirut killed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader and one of its founding members, in the biggest blow for the Iran-backed group. The war ended on Nov. 27, when a U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect.

Ortagus reportedly warns Lebanon that Trump's patience is not unlimited
Naharnet/May 6, 2025 
Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus has advised Lebanese officials to speed up the implementation of what is required from Lebanon within a “reasonable timeframe,” in terms of removing Hezbollah weapons and the economic reforms, in order to “capitalize on the supportive U.S. momentum,” a media report published Wednesday said. Quoted by the al-Modon news portal, Ortagus reportedly stated bluntly: "Take advantage of Trump's time before his patience runs out and you are left to your fate with Israel."When she departed following her last visit, she was scheduled to return to Beirut early this month. However, the delay in the visit does not mean a lack of communication between her and Lebanese officials, al-Modon said. Senior diplomatic sources confirmed to the news portal that “discussions are ongoing with her to address the situation in the south, and she continues to remind Lebanon of the need to complete the process of disarming Hezbollah, not only from south of the Litani River, but from all Lebanese territory.”The sources added that Ortagus has repeatedly advised Lebanon to seize the opportunity and quickly disarm Hezbollah or Israel would continue its strikes without deterrence. “During a lengthy meeting Ortagus held with a senior diplomat, which lasted more than two hours, she emphasized that Lebanese officials must take continuous steps to permanently disarm Hezbollah,” al-Modon said.She noted that Lebanon “has an opportunity that must be seized, given the support of U.S. President Donald Trump, who still wants to help Lebanon.”“However, his patience is not unlimited, and he may abandon this support if the required steps are not implemented and he would withdraw his hand from Lebanon,” Ortagus reportedly warned. Ortagus meanwhile believes that while Lebanon has succeeded in eliminating “approximately 80% of Hezbollah's military stockpile,” the task has not been fully completed.

Lebanon welcomes return of Emirati tourists with pledges to ensure their safety
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/May 07/2025
BEIRUT: Three UAE planes arriving at Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport on Wednesday are scheduled to carry Emirati nationals for the first time since a travel ban was imposed in 2024 due to the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced that the security services “are ready to ensure the safety and security of our Arab brothers during the summer.”Salam welcomed the UAE’s decision to lift the ban on its citizens traveling to Lebanon.During a meeting on Tuesday with the ambassadors of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Salam expressed hope that “this will extend to other Arab countries in the coming weeks.”The meeting was attended by the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar, as well as the charge d’affaires of the UAE and Kuwait. On the Lebanese side, the meeting was attended by the ministers of defense, interior, tourism, and public works. Salam said he listened to the concerns of the ambassadors and assured them that “we will work to address them. I informed them of the security changes taking place at Beirut airport and its surroundings.”President Salam’s adviser, Mounir Rabie, told Arab News: “The Gulf diplomats raised their concerns regarding the return of their nationals to Lebanon, including the need to improve and develop airport procedures, as well as security and economic concerns.”
Rabie described the atmosphere as “positive.”He said Lebanon has proposed a plan that will include the formation of a tourism operations room to monitor all security and tourism issues. According to Salam’s office, the diplomats were briefed on the measures taken by the Lebanese authorities at Beirut airport and its surroundings, including on the roads leading to it, to reassure these countries before they decide to lift the ban on the return of their nationals to Lebanon. Emirati airlines resumed flights to Beirut last December, but without allowing Emirati citizens to come to Beirut.
The announcement comes after Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun met his UAE counterpart Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, after which it was announced that the ban would be lifted. A special reception is scheduled for the UAE passengers at the airport, with Information Minister Paul Morcos participating. Lebanese officials and the public are counting on this step to revitalize tourism and investment activity in the country, especially in light of the stifling economic crisis it is experiencing. A ministerial source said: “Efforts are focused on sending reassuring messages domestically and abroad that Lebanon is capable of attracting its Arab brothers once again, given the climate of stability it is keen to maintain through the security and political measures being implemented.”
The lifting of the ban on the return of Emiratis was accompanied by a series of conditions and procedures they must follow, most notably “mandatory registration in the Tawajudi service before traveling to Beirut to ensure their safety and the smooth running of the travel process, whether from the UAE or any other country. This is aimed at ensuring effective communication with citizens while abroad and avoiding the suspension of travel procedures or exposure to legal accountability.”Emirati citizens must also “fill in the required information, including their place of residence in Lebanon, emergency numbers, and reasons for the visit, with the necessity of updating this information in the event of any change.”

First Emirati planes land in Beirut after travel ban lifted
Naharnet/May 07, 2025
Two Emirati passenger planes landed Wednesday at the Rafik Hariri International Airport after the UAE lifted its travel ban on Lebanon. Flowers were distributed to the arriving Emirati citizens at the airport as they expressed joy for being able to visit Lebanon after the latest changes that the country witnessed, especially the election of a new president. The Emirati travelers also noted that more of their fellow citizens will visit Lebanon during the coming days, lauding the warm welcome that they received. Speaking at the airport, Information Minister Paul Morcos said the resumption of Emirati flights to Lebanon contributes to building confidence between Lebanon and the UAE, noting that ministerial committees are following up to resolve any obstacles impeding the travel of Gulf citizens to Lebanon. “Lebanon is inclined to reactivate tourism and strengthen its ties with nations and it calls for encouraging travel to Lebanon. The country welcomes Emiratis and Gulf nationals and we’re waiting for them all,” Morcos added. Lebanon’s Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported Tuesday that after the UAE allowed its citizens to travel to Lebanon, the fellow countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council are inclined to follow suit in the near future. “Intensive meetings are being held with political and security officials, most notably the meeting that PM Nawaf Salam will hold today (Tuesday) with the GCC ambassadors to explain the measures that the Lebanese state has taken at the airport, its vicinity and along the road leading to it with the aim of reassuring these countries before they take the ban lifting decisions,” the daily quoted a “highly informed source” as saying. “Subsequent meetings will be held between a number of ambassadors and senior security officials to discuss the taken measures and remove any legal and security obstacles,” the source added. The Emirati move came after President Joseph Aoun met with his UAE counterpart Mohamed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi last Wednesday, after which it was announced that the ban would be lifted. In 2021, the United Arab Emirates imposed the travel ban and withdrew diplomats from Beirut in solidarity with Saudi Arabia, after a Lebanese minister criticized the Riyadh-led military intervention in Yemen. Lebanese citizens were not banned from traveling to the UAE, although some experienced difficulties obtaining visas. Ties between Beirut and Abu Dhabi had soured in the past decade over Hezbollah's influence on Lebanon. But with the group weakened by its recent war with Israel, the UAE is the latest Gulf country to renew its interest in Lebanon. In March, Saudi Arabia said it would review "obstacles" to resuming Lebanese imports and ending a ban on its citizens visiting Lebanon.

KSA inclined to lift Lebanon travel ban on 1st day of Eid al-Adha
Naharnet/May 07, 2025
Saudi Arabia is inclined to lift the ban on the travel of its citizens to Lebanon on the first day of Eid al-Adha, which is expected to be marked on June 6, Al-Jadeed TV reported on Wednesday. LBCI television had reported Tuesday that “a specialized technical Saudi committee will visit Lebanon in the coming weeks to study the obstacles standing in the way of the travel of Saudi tourists and to find the appropriate mechanisms for addressing them.”Two Emirati passenger planes landed Wednesday at the Rafik Hariri International Airport after the UAE lifted its travel ban on Lebanon. Lebanon’s Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported Tuesday that after the UAE allowed its citizens to travel to Lebanon, the fellow countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council are inclined to follow suit in the near future. “Intensive meetings are being held with political and security officials, most notably the meeting that PM Nawaf Salam will hold today (Tuesday) with the GCC ambassadors to explain the measures that the Lebanese state has taken at the airport, its vicinity and along the road leading to it with the aim of reassuring these countries before they take the ban lifting decisions,” the daily quoted a “highly informed source” as saying. In 2021, the United Arab Emirates imposed the travel ban and withdrew diplomats from Beirut in solidarity with Saudi Arabia, after a Lebanese minister criticized the Riyadh-led military intervention in Yemen. Ties between Beirut and the Gulf countries had soured in the past decade over Hezbollah's influence on Lebanon. But with the group weakened by its recent war with Israel, several Gulf countries have renewed their interest in Lebanon. In March, Saudi Arabia said it would review "obstacles" to resuming Lebanese imports and ending a ban on its citizens visiting Lebanon, following a visit by President Joseph Aoun to the kingdom.

U.S. Embassy in Lebanon hosts Lebanese delegation To SelectUSA 2025 Summit
Naharnet/May 07, 2025 
Ambassador Lisa Johnson held Wednesday a reception at her residence to honor the Lebanese delegation to the SelectUSA 2025 Investment Summit to be held in Maryland, May 11-14. The SelectUSA Investment Summit is the largest annual event to promote Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the United States by bringing together international investors, U.S. state and local representatives and government officials to facilitate investment in the U.S. economy. Organized by the U.S. Department of Commerce, SelectUSA also provides information and services to help foreign investors navigate the process of investing in the U.S. The Lebanese delegation includes investors in Information & Communication Technology, Business & Professional Services, Energy, Financial Services, Food & Beverage, Design and Construction, and Equipment and Machinery. Ambassador Johnson thanked delegation members for their participation in the SelectUSA summit, noting the importance of U.S-Lebanon business and economic ties.

Solving the Hezbollah arms conundrum
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/May 07, 2025
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has engaged in a dialogue with Hezbollah over its arms. The Lebanese state and the president face a challenge. They need to disarm Hezbollah without clashing with the group and they need to be able to drive Israel out of Lebanon using diplomatic means. Israel is pretending it is enforcing UN Security Council Resolution 1701. It strikes Lebanon almost daily, claiming to be targeting arms depots. It has deployed troops in five locations in the south and says they will remain there indefinitely. Israel is pretending that the Lebanese state and its army are too weak to handle the disarmament of Hezbollah. However, this behavior emasculates the Lebanese state and undermines its position when negotiating with Hezbollah. The US has a dubious position in all this. It says that it wants a strong Lebanese state. Of course, only a strong Lebanese state can offer a viable alternative to Hezbollah. However, Washington is not behaving accordingly. Lebanon cannot pressure Israel. Israel has shown its disdain for international law. Therefore, any complaints Lebanon files with the UN will fall on deaf ears. The only actor that can pressure Israel is its patron: the US. Lebanon cannot resort to armed resistance to fight Israel. The only way it can deal with Israel is through diplomacy. However, diplomacy is ineffective unless it is coupled with the power of coercion and with consequences for noncompliance. The US can strengthen the position of the Lebanese state with Hezbollah if it pressures Israel. Israel’s behavior emasculates the Lebanese state and undermines its position when negotiating with Hezbollah.
If the Lebanese state shows it is capable of defending Lebanon and has effective diplomacy, then it will be in a stronger position with regard to Hezbollah and the entire narrative of the group will become obsolete. However, the US is exercising pressure solely on Lebanon, while giving Israel a free hand in the country. Israel wants to have freedom of operation in Lebanon and in the whole neighborhood. It has attacked Syria without a just cause. Israel is unbridled and the US is boosting its confidence and arrogance. Hezbollah, targeted by Israel, feels very insecure. Today, the group’s main aim is to secure its survival. Less than a year ago, it had full control of the country, but now its future as a political group is in doubt. Hezbollah has agreed to abide by Resolution 1701. It has agreed to disarm. However, precedents show that the stories of those who disarmed in the past did not have a happy ending.
Muammar Qaddafi was bombed after he gave away his chemical weapons stock. Iraq was invaded after Saddam Hussein destroyed his Somoud missiles. In Lebanon, the Lebanese Forces faced a grim outcome after they disarmed at the end of the civil war. Their leader, Samir Geagea, was imprisoned on bogus charges. Hezbollah definitely does not want to face the same fate as the Lebanese Forces. Hezbollah is facing a dilemma. Its weapons are the reason it, and Lebanon, is being targeted. However, they are also its only negotiating card. If it gives them up, it has nothing, no leverage. The group’s insecurity is understandable. However, the fate of the country cannot be jeopardized just to serve the interest of one group.
Israel has been targeting Hezbollah’s leaders. On the other hand, the group’s transgressions throughout the years — and the fact it brought war to Lebanon because of its support front for Gaza — have created a lot of anger among the rest of the Lebanese. Hence, the group faces both internal and external threats.
Hezbollah’s insecurity is understandable. However, the fate of the country cannot be jeopardized just to serve the interest of one group
Despite the fact it is weakened, Hezbollah still has support among the Shiite community. The group can portray any effort to contain it as an effort to corner this community. This, of course, can lead to internal unrest, especially since the Shiites have suffered the bulk of the destruction wreaked by Israel. Though Hezbollah does not have enough firepower to fight a war with Israel, it has enough arms and grassroots support to initiate a civil war. So, it has to be dealt with intelligently. Israel is saying it is in Lebanon because Hezbollah is not fully disarmed, while the group is saying there is no guarantee Israel will stop its aggression if it were to disarm. We are in a chicken and egg situation. Which should come first? The best way to solve this conundrum would be a step-by-step approach. This would allow Hezbollah to save face and transition into a political party, without the appearance of having suffered a total defeat by Israel.
The US is demanding the group’s disarmament “as soon as possible.” This should go hand in hand with a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. A timetable for both should be put on the table. The Lebanese military should immediately fill the positions vacated by the Israeli military. Tying Hezbollah’s disarmament to the Israeli withdrawal would compel the group to comply. How could it refuse to disarm if it would directly lead to the liberation of Lebanon from Israel? Aoun is right to follow the path of dialogue with Hezbollah to solve the issue of its arms. However, to make sure he can accomplish his task successfully and without any internal clashes, the US should pressure Israel to offer a timetable for its withdrawal from Lebanon that is linked to the disarmament of the group. **Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.

Lebanon’s tourism hopes rise as ties with Arab Gulf states warm
Nadia Al-Faour/Arab News/May 07, 2025
BEIRUT: At the boutique hotel of Albergo in Achrafieh, Beirut, a large table of Gulf citizens sat having breakfast last week as a waitress attended to them. This once-common sight had become a rarity in recent years, making the moment particularly significant for the staff. “We haven’t seen this in years,” the waitress told Arab News. “We are expecting more reservations to come through and more Gulf citizens to be staying with us this summer.”For the first time in many years, Lebanese hoteliers, restaurant and shop owners and retailers are hoping for a successful tourism comeback. The latest piece of good news came when the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced last Sunday that the ban on Emirati citizens traveling to Lebanon would be lifted from May 7.
Once a favored summer destination hub for Gulf and neighboring Arabs, Lebanon had been struck by one misfortune after another since the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war. Despite a relatively calm decade afterward, the 2020 port explosion followed by a devastating economic collapse and the growing power of Iran-backed Hezbollah had left the country in tatters. Rampant corruption and Hezbollah’s powerful presence soured the once warm Lebanese-Gulf relations. In 2021, both Saudi and Emirati citizens were banned from traveling to the country after a Lebanese minister criticized Arab Gulf intervention on the side of the UN-backed Yemen government against the Houthis, another Iran-backed militia. The Kingdom also halted all its fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon in the same year after shipments were found to be carrying the illicit Captagon drug smuggled inside.
FAST FACTS
• Lebanon’s tourism sector ranks as the second most vital revenue stream after expatriate remittances.
• The Hezbollah-Israel war inflicted an estimated damage of $14 billion on Lebanon’s economy.
• Despite the November ceasefire deal, Israel continues to strike Beirut, south Lebanon and Bekaa Valley.
With the devastating blows suffered by Hezbollah and allied militant groups last year during their war with Israel, the tide appears to be turning. The deaths of Hassan Nasrallah and other important Hezbollah figures and a stunning pager attack, which left thousands of its fighters and supporters immobile if not dead, have significantly weakened the once-powerful militia that had Lebanon in a prolonged chokehold.
The new Lebanese government, headed by President Joseph Aoun, seems determined to usher the country into a new era, going as far as removing flags and symbols of the militant group. Although the fate of international aid still hangs in the balance, structural and economic changes are expected of the new Lebanese government, alongside the full disarmament of Hezbollah.
According to the World Bank, during the 14-month Israeli-Hezbollah war that started shortly after the events of October 7, 2023, and the war in Gaza, the estimated damage and economic loss in Lebanon stands at $14 billion, with the country needing $11 billion for reconstruction.
Lebanon's new government faces the tough task of reviving the economy after decades of conflict and economic collapse, aggravated by the massive destruction on the country's infrastructure during last year's war between Hezbollah and Israel. (AFP/file)
Arab world policies, particularly from the Arab Gulf states, seem to be softening. In March, Saudi Arabia announced it would review “obstacles” to resuming Lebanese imports and ending the ban on its citizens visiting Lebanon. This announcement came after President Aoun met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on his first trip abroad since taking office in January.
The UAE’s loosening of restrictions on travel to Lebanon followed a meeting between President Aoun and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi last week. “This decision confirms the return of confidence in Lebanon and opens the door to developing the historical ties that unite the two countries,” Laura Al-Khazen Lahoud, Lebanon’s minister of tourism, said.
She expressed hope that “the remaining Gulf Cooperation Council countries will follow the UAE’s step the soonest possible, so that Lebanon can once again become a destination for its Arab brothers and a center for tourism and cultural activity in the region.”
Lahoud, who was appointed tourism minister in February 2025, has been actively working to restore trust in Lebanon’s tourism sector. With her background as executive director of the legendary Al-Bustan hotel and vice president of the Al-Bustan Music Festival, Lahoud brings valuable industry experience to her ministerial role. Lebanon has long relied on the tourism sector, making it a pillar of its GDP and a major source of income and employment. In 2019, prior to the COVID pandemic, Lebanon welcomed 1.95 million international visitors, generating over $8 billion in tourism revenue that accounting for nearly 19 percent of the country’s GDP.
Numbers have steadily plummeted since. In 2023, the tourism sector still accounted for an estimated 30 percent of the country’s GDP, bringing in $6 billion in revenue. Lebanon’s tourism sector, generating over $5 billion annually in recent years, ranks as the country’s second most vital revenue stream after expatriate remittances, which officially approach $7 billion.
The golden era of Lebanese tourism, when hotels boasted occupancy rates above 80 percent for 100 summer days, now seems like a distant memory. In 2010, Beirut recorded an impressive 72 percent annual occupancy rate. Last summer, however, this figure dropped to an average of just 60 percent on weekends and plummeted to 20-25 percent on weekdays — well below the threshold needed for profitability.
Owing to the decline in tourism the country witnessed last year as a result of the protracted Israel-Hezbollah war, when most airlines even canceled their flights to and from the war-torn country, Lebanon’s tourism sector continues to navigate troubled waters.
Khalaf Al-Habtoor, the head of Al-Habtoor Group, a multi-billion-dollar Dubai conglomerate with interests ranging from luxury hotels to shopping malls, had expressed an intention in January to invest in Lebanon once a new government was formed.
However, a week later, he announced in a post on X: “After consulting with the board of directors of the Al-Habtoor Group, I have made a painful decision that I never wanted to reach. However, the prevailing circumstances in Lebanon — marked by a lack of security, stability, and any foreseeable improvement — have compelled us to take this step.”
Despite the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon’s government announced on Nov. 26, 2024, Israeli military airstrikes in Beirut, southern Lebanon and parts of the Bekaa Valley are still taking place, sometimes with little or no warning, prompting many countries to warn their citizens against traveling to Lebanon. “I swear to you, we are tired. We are tired from just getting by,” says Rasha, a beautician at a hair salon in Beirut. “We have one of the most beautiful countries in the world; we used to barely have time to sit down, it was one customer after the other in the summertime, but that hasn’t been the case for years.”Rasha and her husband are the owners of the salon and have been running the business for 20 years, nestled in the streets near Sassine Square. “You see how the Syrians got their freedom? We are on the way to ours. We are tired of being held down and I think the new government realizes that. We really aren’t asking for much here. Just bring the happiness and the hope back,” she said, referring to the “golden days” when tourists flocked to the country and financial strain was not crippling every other household.
Hospitality industry executives say they can see signs of renewal. Pierre Achkar, president of the Syndicate of Hotel Owners, told a local newspaper in February that restoration efforts are underway across all Lebanese regions, with preparations progressing rapidly to welcome visitors as in previous years.
He said the current political climate and ongoing changes have encouraged tourism business owners to implement needed reforms ahead of the summer season. He added that the current momentum aligns with positive signs pointing to a potentially vibrant tourism season, reminiscent of Lebanon’s past.
For his part, Jean Abboud, president of the Syndicate of Owners of Travel and Tourism Offices in Lebanon, emphasized last month the sector’s preparedness, stating that “our travel agencies are fully prepared to support the expected tourism rebound this summer.”In an interview with a Lebanese TV channel, Achkar said he had sent a proposal to the Prime Minister’s Office to help bolster the country’s hospitality sector. In it, he called for the reopening of the Rene Mouawad airport in the country’s north for budget airlines and, more broadly, for the reintegration of Lebanon into the regional tourism market. While the traditional hotel sector has experienced a decline, guesthouses and boutique hotels in Beirut are experiencing growing success. With their smaller scale and personalized service, these establishments continue to attract a loyal and expanding local and regional clientele.
Cautious optimism permeates the city. Several well-known hotels such as Le Gray, a five-star hotel in downtown Beirut, are set to reopen, promising more employment opportunities and a sense of hope for the Lebanese community.
For now, less affluent regional visitors — Syrians, Jordanians, Iraqis and Egyptians — continue to fill hotel rooms in Beirut, while Qataris and Kuwaitis, who have long made Lebanon their summer destination, remain barred from entry for now.
A brighter outlook comes from the expected increase in the number of Lebanese expatriates returning home this summer. The hope is that the government will remain committed to state building, including addressing the issue of illegal weapons.
Adding to the cautious optimism is the UAE’s recent decision to lift its travel ban on citizens visiting Lebanon. This move could prompt other Gulf states to follow suit. However, travel remains subject to conditions: Emirati citizens must register through the Foreign Ministry’s Tawajudi service and specify their place of residence in Lebanon, among other requirements. Looking ahead, Achkar, head of the Syndicate of Hotel Owners, emphasized the sector’s broader ambitions. He said Lebanon is aiming for a year-round tourism model, much like other countries.
With its diverse offerings — from religious and recreational tourism to culinary, nature-based, and adventure experiences — Lebanon, he noted, is well positioned to attract visitors beyond the traditional summer season.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 07-08/2025
Black smoke pours from Sistine Chapel chimney, indicating no pope was elected as conclave opens
Nicole Winfield/The Associated Press/May 7, 2025
VATICAN CITY — Black smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel chimney on Wednesday, signalling that no pope had been elected as 133 cardinals opened the secretive, centuries-old ritual to choose a new leader of the Catholic Church. The cardinals participating in the most geographically diverse conclave in the faith’s 2,000-year history took just one round of voting Wednesday evening. After failing to find a winner on the first ballot, they retired for the night and will return to the Sistine Chapel on Thursday morning to try to find a successor to Pope Francis. They had opened the conclave Wednesday afternoon, participating in a rite more theatrical than even Hollywood could create, a wash of red-robed cardinals, Latin chants, incense and solemnity that underscored the seriousness of the moment. Outside in St. Peter’s Square, the scene was festive, as thousands of people flocked to the piazza to watch the proceedings on giant video screens, applauding when the Sistine Chapel’s doors slammed shut and the voting began. They waited for hours, watching screens that showed just a skinny chimney and occasional seagull. After the vote dragged on to dinnertime, some left in frustration, but those who stayed cheered when the smoke finally billowed out. “My hope is that cardinals will choose a man who can be a peacemaker and could reunify the church,” said Gabriel Capry, a 27-year-old from London.
A diverse group of cardinals
Hailing from 70 countries, the cardinals were sequestered Wednesday from the outside world, their cellphones surrendered and airwaves around the Vatican jammed to prevent all communications until they find a new pope. mFrancis named 108 of the 133 “princes of the church,” choosing many pastors in his image from far-flung countries like Mongolia, Sweden and Tonga that had never had a cardinal before. His decision to surpass the usual limit of 120 cardinal electors and include younger ones from the “global south” — often marginalized countries with lower economic clout — has injected an unusual degree of uncertainty in a process that is always full of mystery and suspense. Many cardinals hadn’t met until last week and lamented they needed more time to get to know one another, raising questions about how long it might take for one man to secure the two-thirds majority, or 89 ballots, necessary to become the 267th pope. “Wait and see, a little patience, wait and see,” said Cardinal Mario Zenari, the Vatican’s ambassador to Syria.
The oath and “Extra omnes”
The cardinals had entered the Sistine Chapel in pairs, chanting the meditative “Litany of the Saints” as Swiss Guards stood at attention. The hymn implores the saints to help the cardinals find a leader of the 1.4 billion-strong church. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the 70-year-old secretary of state under Francis and himself a leading contender to succeed him as pope, assumed the leadership of the proceedings as the senior cardinal under age 80 eligible to participate. He stood before Michelangelo’s vision of heaven and hell, “The Last Judgment,” and led the other cardinals in a lengthy oath. Each one followed, placing his hand on the Gospel and promising in Latin to maintain utmost secrecy. Earlier in the day, the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, presided over a morning Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica urging the voters to set aside all personal interests and find a pope who prizes unity. He prayed for a pope who could awaken the conscience of the world. He reminded the cardinals that the awesomeness of the Sistine Chapel’s frescoes is meant to remind the cardinals of the weighty responsibility they bear. In his regulations for the conclave, Re recalled, St. John Paul II wrote that in the Sistine Chapel, “everything is conducive to an awareness of the presence of God.” After the cardinals took their oaths, the master of papal liturgical ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, called out “extra omnes,” Latin for “all out” and anyone not eligible to vote left before the chapel doors closed. An elderly cardinal remained to deliver a meditation, but after he finished, he too, had to leave since he was too old to vote. While cardinals this week said they expected a short conclave, it will likely take at least a few rounds of voting. For much of the past century, it has taken between three and 14 ballots to find a pope. John Paul I — the pope who reigned for 33 days in 1978 — was elected on the fourth ballot. His successor, John Paul II, needed eight. Francis was elected on the fifth in 2013.
Lobbying before the conclave
The cardinals are supposed to resist any “secular” influences in their choice of pope, but such lobbying abounded in Rome in the days before the conclave as various groups reminded cardinals of what ordinary Catholics want in a leader. Young Catholics penned an open letter reminding cardinals that there is no church without young people, women and the laity. Conservative Catholic media slipped cardinals copies of a glossy book containing their assessments of contenders. Survivors of clergy sexual abuse warned cardinals that they would be held accountable if they failed to find a leader who will crack down on decades of abuse and cover-up. Advocates for women’s ordination sent pink smoke signals Wednesday over the Vatican to demand that women be allowed to be priests and participate in a conclave. Even the White House got involved, posting a photo of President Donald Trump dressed as a pope. Trump said it was a joke, but the gesture was denounced by former Italian Premier Romano Prodi as “indecent” political interference in matters of faith that hark back to times when secular rulers intervened in conclaves. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said there was also plenty of lobbying going on among cardinals themselves. “You invite each other out,” Dolan said on SiriusXM’s The Catholic Channel before the conclave began. “And you’re pretty blunt. Now, we’re not, you know, we’re not horse trading here. We’re saying, ‘Tell me about this guy. You’re from Latin America. Go through the list of bishops. Tell me some of these fellas. Am I right to be enchanted by this guy?’”Lisette Herrera, a 54-year-old tourist from the Dominican Republic, was deeply moved to find herself by chance in Rome as the conclave began. She decided Wednesday morning to skip the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain and pray instead in St. Peter’s Square. “I’m praying to the Holy Spirit for a young pope who would stay with us for a long time,” she said. “I don’t believe in conclave politics, I just feel that the Holy Spirit is here and that’s all we need to know.”
Challenges facing a new pope
Many challenges await the new pope and weigh on the cardinals — above all whether to continue and consolidate Francis’ progressive legacy on promoting women, LGBTQ+ acceptance, the environment and migrants, or roll it back to try to unify a church that became more polarized during his pontificate. The clergy sex abuse scandal hung over the pre-conclave talks. Since Francis chose 80% of the voters, continuity is likely, but the form it might take is uncertain and identifying front-runners has been a challenge.But some names keep appearing on lists of “papabile,” or cardinals having the qualities to be pope. In addition to Parolin, they include:
— Filipino Cardinal Luis Tagle, 67, a top candidate to be history’s first Asian pope. He headed the Vatican’s evangelization office responsible for the Catholic Church in much of the developing world.
— Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo, 72, the archbishop of Budapest, is a leading candidate representing the more conservative wing of the church.

Yemen’s Houthis to keep attacking Israeli ships despite US deal
AFP/May 07, 2025
SANAA: Yemen’s Houthi militants will continue targeting Israeli ships in the Red Sea, an official told AFP on Wednesday, despite a ceasefire that ended weeks of intense US strikes on the Iran-backed group. A day after the Houthis agreed to stop firing on ships plying the key trade route off their shores, a senior official told AFP that Israel was excluded from the deal. “The waterways are safe for all international ships except Israeli ones,” Abdulmalik Alejri, a member of the Houthi political bureau, told AFP. “Israel is not part of the agreement, it only includes American and other ships,” he said. The Houthis, who have controlled large swathes of Yemen for more than a decade, began firing on Israel-linked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in November 2023, weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war. They broadened their campaign to target ships tied to the United States and Britain after military strikes by the two countries began in January 2024. Alejri said the Houthis would now “only” attack Israeli ships. In the past, vessels visiting Israel, or those with tenuous Israeli links, were in the militants’ sights. The US-Houthi deal was announced after deadly Israeli strikes on Tuesday put Sanaa airport out of action in revenge for a Houthi missile strike on Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport. Sanaa airport director Khaled alShaief told the militants’ Al-Masirah television Wednesday the Israeli attack had destroyed terminal buildings and caused $500 million in damage. Oman said it had facilitated an agreement between Washington and the militants that “neither side will target the other... ensuring freedom of navigation.”US President Donald Trump, who will visit Gulf countries next week, trumpeted the deal, saying the Houthis had “capitulated.” “They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that’s... the purpose of what we were doing,” he said during a White House press appearance. The ceasefire followed weeks of stepped-up US strikes aimed at deterring Houthi attacks on shipping. The US attacks left 300 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Houthi figures. The Pentagon said last week that US strikes had hit more than 1,000 targets in Yemen since mid-March in an operation that has been dubbed “Rough Rider.” Alejri said recent US-Iran talks in Muscat “provided an opportunity” for indirect contacts between Sanaa and Washington, leading to the ceasefire. “America was the one who started the aggression against us, and at its beginning, we did not resume our operations on Israel,” he added. “We did not target any American ships or warships until they targeted us.” Scores of Houthi missile and drone attacks have drastically reduced cargo volumes on the Red Sea route, which normally carries about 12 percent of global maritime trade. The Houthis say their campaign — as well as a steady stream of attacks on Israeli territory — is in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Houthi spokesperson: US-Houthi ceasefire deal does not include Israel
Reuters/May 07, 2025
DUBAI: A ceasefire deal between Yemen's Houthis and the United States does not include operations against Israel "in any way, shape or form," the group's chief negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam told Reuters on Wednesday. Abdulsalam statement came after Israeli military reported on Wednesday that it had intercepted an unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) launched from the east. The US and the Houthis agreed a ceasefire, mediators announced, saying the deal would ensure "freedom of navigation" in the Red Sea where the Houthis have attacked shipping for months. The agreement comes after President Donald Trump announced that the US would end attacks against the Houthis after they agreed to stop harassing ships, though he made no direct mention of recent attacks on ally Israel. Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi on Tuesday said that "following recent discussions and contacts... with the aim of de-escalation, efforts have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides". "Neither side will target the other... ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping" in the Red Sea, he added in a statement. At the White House, Trump said the Houthis had "capitulated" after a seven-week US bombing campaign that left 300 dead, according to an AFP tally of Huthi figures. The Houthis' political leader Mahdi al-Mashat did not comment on the accord but promised a "painful" response to deadly Israeli strikes in retaliation for missile fire at Israel's main airport. Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdelsalam told Al-Masirah television channel that any US action would garner a response. "If the American enemy resumes its attacks, we will resume our strikes," he said. "The real guarantee for the accord is the dark experience that the United States has had in Yemen," he added. Mashat said attacks on Israel, the United States' main ally in the region, "will continue" and go "beyond what the Israeli enemy can withstand". The Houthi have been attacking Israel and merchant shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since late 2023, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.

Yemen, Iran will be left ‘unrecognizable’ if attacks continue, says Israeli envoy
Caspar Webb/Arab News/May 07, 2025
NEW YORK CITY: Israel’s UN ambassador threatened Yemen’s Houthi militia and Iran in remarks made during Israeli Independence Day celebrations. “If the Houthis and their Iranian masters want to play with fire, they will find their own lands unrecognizable,” Danny Danon said on Tuesday at UN Headquarters in New York City. The warning came as Israel launched a series of attacks on Yemen in retaliation for a Houthi missile attack on Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv days earlier. Israeli jets struck Sanaa’s international airport as well as the Red Sea port of Hodeidah on Tuesday. The Yemeni capital’s airport was left “fully disabled” by the attack, the Israeli military said in a statement. Washington and the Houthi militia on Tuesday also reached a deal to end the militia’s attacks on Red Sea shipping. But the ceasefire, mediated by Oman, does not include an agreement to limit Houthi strikes on Israel, officials from the militia said later. Dozens of ambassadors and Jewish community leaders took part in the Independence Day event in New York City. Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots football team who has deep ties to Israel, also attended. Danon said: “Israel is not a footnote in history — it is a driving force in history. Even after 77 years of independence, we are still forced to fight for our very right to exist in security and peace. “But time and again we have shown the world the unbeatable spirit of the Jewish people — the ability to turn suffering into strength, isolation into unity and despair into hope.”Malawi’s ambassador to the UN, Dr. Agnes Chimbiri-Molande, also took part in the event. She recently joined an Israeli-organized delegation to Auschwitz as part of the March of the Living organization. Chimbiri-Molande said: “Visiting Israel was a powerful and unforgettable experience for me. I stood in the face of destruction — but also in the face of hope. “Israel is a living example to the world of how one can continue to build and believe, even when attempts are made repeatedly to destroy it.” Kraft, founder of the Stand Up to Jewish Hate initiative, has led extensive pro-Israel campaigning efforts in the US. Last year, he likened nationwide university protests against the war in Gaza to the forces that led to the rise of Nazism in Germany during the 1930s. Kraft said at the Israeli Mission’s event: “Today more than ever we must stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel. The Jewish people have contributed to the entire world — in science, technology, medicine and humanity. “It is time for the world to recognize and protect this contribution.”

Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 59 as Israel prepares to ramp up its offensive
AP/May 07, 2025
GAZA CITY: Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 59 people, including women and children, hospital officials said Wednesday, as Israel prepares to ramp up its campaign against Hamas in a devastating war now entering its 20th month. The strikes included one attack on Tuesday night on a school sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians, which killed 27 people, officials from the Al-Aqsa Hospital said, including nine women and three children. It was the fifth time since the war began that the school in central Gaza has been struck. An early morning strike on another school turned shelter in Gaza City killed 16 people, according to officials at Al-Ahli Hospital, while strikes on targets in other areas killed at least 16 others. A large column of smoke rose and fires pierced the dark skies above the school shelter in Bureij, a built-up urban refugee camp in central Gaza. Paramedics and rescuers rushed to pull people out from the blaze. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes. Israel blames Hamas for the death toll because it operates from civilian infrastructure, including schools. The new bloodshed comes days after Israel approved a plan to intensify its operations in the Palestinian enclave, which would include seizing Gaza, holding on to captured territories, forcibly displacing Palestinians to southern Gaza and taking control of aid distribution along with private security companies. Israel is also calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to carry out the plan. Israel says the plan will be gradual and will not be implemented until after US President Donald Trump wraps up his visit to the region later this month. Any escalation of fighting would likely drive up the death toll. And with Israel already controlling some 50 percent of Gaza, increasing its hold on the territory, for an indefinite amount of time, could open up the potential for a military occupation, which would raise questions about how Israel plans to have the territory governed, especially at a time when it is considering how to implement Trump’s vision to take over Gaza.
Trump jars Israelis with remark on hostage figures
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials. The officials do not distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count. Trump on Tuesday stunned many in Israel when he declared that only 21 of the 59 hostages remaining in Gaza are still alive. Israel insists that figure stands at 24, although an Israeli official said there was “serious concern” for the lives of three captives. The official said there has been no sign of life from those three, whom the official did not identify. He said that until there is evidence proving otherwise, the three are considered to be alive. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details related to the war, said the families of the captives were updated on those developments. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing the families of the captives, demanded from Israel’s government that if there is “new information being kept from us, give it to us immediately.” It also called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt the war in Gaza until all hostages are returned. “This is the most urgent and important national mission,” it said on a post on X. Since Israel ended a ceasefire with the Hamas militant group in mid-March, it has unleashed fierce strikes on Gaza that have killed hundreds and has captured swaths of territory. Before the truce ended, Israel halted all humanitarian aid into the territory, including food, fuel and water, setting off what is believed to the be the worst humanitarian crisis in 19 months of war. Key interlocutors Qatar and Egypt said Wednesday that mediation efforts were “ongoing and consistent.” But Israel and Hamas remain far apart on how they see the war ending. Israel says it won’t end the war until Hamas’ governing and military capabilities are dismantled, something it has failed to do in 19 months of war. Hamas says it is prepared to release all of the hostages for an end to the war and a long term truce with Israel.

Israeli strikes on school housing displaced and market kill 38 in Gaza, medics say
Reuters/Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ramadan Abed/Wed, May 7, 2025
CAIRO/GAZA - Israeli strikes on a school housing displaced families and by a crowded market and restaurant in Gaza City killed at least 38 people on Wednesday, local health authorities said. Medics said two strikes targeted the Karama School in Tuffah, a suburb of Gaza City, killing 15. Later in the day, an Israeli strike near a restaurant and market in the city killed at least 23 people, including women and children, medics said. Reuters footage showed wounded men being rushed away on the back of pickups and carts. Ambulances sped down shattered streets and a woman in tears carried a baby away from the scene, with two young children beside her. An image posted on social media showed what appeared to be a family of three - mother, father and son - lying dead on the street in pools of blood. The young boy was carrying a pink backpack. Reuters could not immediately verify the image that was purportedly from the scene of the Tuffah strike.
There was no immediate Israeli comment.
Two Israeli airstrikes on another school, housing displaced people in Bureij camp in central Gaza, killed at least 33 people, including women and children, on Tuesday, local health authorities said. The Israeli military said it struck "terrorists" operating from a command center in the compound.
The strike smashed classrooms, destroyed furniture and left a large crater in the school campus. On Wednesday, survivors sifted through rubble to look for some of their belongings. "What happened is an earthquake. The Israeli occupation hit a school housing children. They are children," said eyewitness Ali Al-Shaqra. He said the school housed 300 families. "Here is the building; it was razed to the ground. We cannot find the gas cylinder, the flour bag we had, the kilo of rice, or the meal we got from the Tukkiyah (community kitchen). Thank God we are left with the clothes we had on," Shaqra added.
In Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt, residents and Hamas sources said Israeli forces, who have taken control of the city, continued to blow up and demolish houses and buildings. Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, said on Wednesday their fighters had detonated a pre-planted minefield targeting an Israeli armoured force east of Khan Younis in the south. They said they inflicted casualties, followed by mortar shelling of the area.
AID HALTED
Israel resumed its offensive in March after the collapse of a U.S.-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months. It has since imposed an aid blockade, drawing warnings from the UN that the 2.3 million population faces imminent famine. Israeli troops have already taken over an area amounting to around a third of Gaza, displacing the population and building watchtowers and surveillance posts on cleared ground the military has described as security zones. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will expand the offensive against Hamas after his security cabinet approved plans that may include seizing the entire Gaza Strip and controlling aid. But an Israeli defence official said on Monday the operation would not be launched before U.S. President Donald Trump concludes his visit next week to the Middle East, and there was a "window of opportunity" for a ceasefire and hostage release deal during Trump's visit. A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday Hamas would not agree to any interim truce in return for a resumption of aid for a few days, and insisted on a full ceasefire deal to end the war. Basem Naim said Hamas would not accept "desperate attempts before Trump's visit, through the crime of starvation, the continuation of genocide, and the threat of expanding military action to achieve a partial agreement that returns some (Israeli) prisoners in exchange for a few days of food and drink." The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's campaign has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Hamas-run health authorities, and reduced much of Gaza to ruins. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said two local journalists, Nour Abdu and Yehya Sbeih were killed in Wednesday's attacks, raising the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli fire since the war began to 214.

Israel says 24 hostages alive in Gaza after Donald Trump's comments alarm families
Sky News/May 7, 2025
Israel has said 24 hostages are alive in Gaza - after Donald Trump said there were 21. The US president told reporters on Tuesday that three more hostages held by Hamas in Gaza had died - alarming their families. In a post on X on Wednesday, Gal Hirsch, Israel's coordinator for hostage issues, said the Palestinian militant group was holding 59 hostages of whom 24 were alive and 35 dead - figures unchanged since before Mr Trump's comments. He said 54 of the 59 were Israeli citizens and five of them were foreign nationals. "All families of the kidnapped are always updated with the information we have about their loved ones," he said. The group representing the families of hostages had asked the Israeli government to share any new information with them immediately following Mr Trump's comments. It argues that Israel should stop the fighting and negotiate the release of the remaining hostages. "This is the most urgent and important national mission," it said on a post on X. Most of the hostages returned alive to Israel so far have been released as part of deals with Hamas during two temporary ceasefires in late 2023 and early 2025. The most recent ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners fell apart in March. Hamas took 251 hostages in its attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 in which it killed 1,200 people. Israel has responded with an air and ground assault on Gaza. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the war. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says its two war aims are to destroy Hamas and release the hostages. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an expansion of its offensive on Gaza - increasing its hold on the territory, for an indefinite amount of time. The plan includes seizing Gaza, holding on to captured territories, forcibly displacing Palestinians to southern Gaza and taking control of aid distribution along with private security companies.

U.S., Israel discuss possible U.S.-led administration for Gaza, sources say
Reuters/Alexander Cornwell/May 7, 2025
JERUSALEM - The United States and Israel have discussed the possibility of Washington leading a temporary post-war administration of Gaza, according to five people familiar with the matter. The "high-level" consultations have centered around a transitional government headed by a U.S. official that would oversee Gaza until it had been demilitarized and stabilized, and a viable Palestinian administration had emerged, the sources said. According to the discussions, which remain preliminary, there would be no fixed timeline for how long such a U.S.-led administration would last, which would depend on the situation on the ground, the five sources said. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the talks publicly, compared the proposal to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq that Washington established in 2003, shortly after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The authority was perceived by many Iraqis as an occupying force and it transferred power to an interim Iraqi government in 2004 after failing to contain a growing insurgency. Other countries would be invited to take part in the U.S.-led authority in Gaza, the sources said, without identifying which ones. They said the administration would draw on Palestinian technocrats but would exclude Islamist group Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which holds limited authority in the occupied West Bank. Islamist group Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, sparked the current war when its militants stormed into southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing another 251. The sources said it remained unclear whether any agreement could be reached. Discussions had not progressed to the point of considering who might take on core roles, they said. The sources did not specify which side had put forward the proposal nor provide further details of the talks. In response to Reuters questions, a State Department spokesperson did not comment directly on whether there had been discussions with Israel about a U.S.-led provisional authority in Gaza, saying they could not speak to ongoing negotiations. "We want peace, and the immediate release of the hostages," the spokesperson said, adding that: "The pillars of our approach remain resolute: stand with Israel, stand for peace."The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment. In an April interview with Emirati-owned Sky News Arabia, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he believed there would be a "transitional period" after the conflict in which an international board of trustees, including "moderate Arab countries", would oversee Gaza with Palestinians operating under their guidance. "We're not looking to control the civil life of the people in Gaza. Our sole interest in the Gaza Strip is security," he said, without naming which countries he believed would be involved. The foreign ministry did not respond to a request for further comment. Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, rejected the idea of an administration led by the United States or any foreign government, saying the Palestinian people of Gaza should choose their own rulers. The Palestinian Authority did not respond to a request for comment.
RISKS
A U.S.-led provisional authority in Gaza would draw Washington deeper into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mark its biggest Middle East intervention since the Iraq invasion. Such a move would carry significant risks of a backlash from both allies and adversaries in the Middle East, if Washington were perceived as an occupying power in Gaza, two of the sources said. The United Arab Emirates - which established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 - has proposed to the United States and Israel that an international coalition oversee Gaza's post-war governance. Abu Dhabi conditioned its involvement on the inclusion of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and a credible path toward Palestinian statehood. The UAE foreign ministry did not respond to questions about whether it would support a U.S.-led administration that did not include the PA. Israel's leadership, including Netanyahu, firmly rejects any role in Gaza for the Palestinian Authority, which it accuses of being anti-Israeli. Netanyahu also opposes Palestinian sovereignty. Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel would expand its attacks in Gaza and that more Gazans would be moved "for their own safety". Israel is still seeking to recover 59 hostages being held in the enclave. Its offensive has so far killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health ministry data. Some members of Netanyahu's right-coalition have called publicly for what they describe as the "voluntary" mass migration of Palestinians from Gaza and for the reconstruction of Jewish settlements inside the coastal enclave. But behind closed doors, some Israeli officials have also been weighing proposals over the future of Gaza that sources say assumes that there won't be a mass exodus of Palestinians from Gaza, such as the U.S.-led provisional administration.Among those include restricting reconstruction to designated security zones, dividing the territory and establishing permanent military bases, said four sources, who include foreign diplomats and former Israeli officials briefed on the proposals.

UAE mediating secret talks between Israel and Syria, sources say
Reuters/Timour Azhari and Suleiman Al-Khalidi/May 7, 2025
BEIRUT/AMMAN - The United Arab Emirates has set up a backchannel for talks between Israel and Syria, three people familiar with the matter said, as Syria's new rulers seek regional help to manage an increasingly hostile relationship with their southern neighbour. The indirect contacts, which have not been previously reported, are focused on security and intelligence matters and confidence-building between two states with no official relations, a person with direct knowledge of the matter, a Syrian security source and a regional intelligence official said. The first source described the effort, which began days after Syrian President Ahmed Sharaa visited the UAE on April 13, as currently focused on "technical matters," and said there was no limit to what may eventually be discussed. The senior Syrian security source told Reuters the backchannel was limited strictly to security-related issues, focusing on several counterterrorism files. The source said that purely military matters, particularly those concerning Israeli army activities in Syria, fell outside the scope of the current channel. The intelligence source said UAE security officials, Syrian intelligence officials and former Israeli intelligence officials were involved in the mechanism, among others. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation. Syria's presidency and the UAE foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The Israeli prime minister's office declined to comment. The mediation effort preceded Israeli strikes in Syria last week, including one just 500 metres (yards) from the presidential palace in Damascus, and Reuters could not establish if the mechanism has been used since the strikes occurred. Israel has framed the strikes as a message to Syria's new rulers in response to threats against Syria's Druze, a minority sect that is an offshoot of Islam with adherents in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Informal mediation between Israel and Syria aimed at calming the situation has taken place in the last week via other channels, according to one of the sources and a regional diplomat. They declined to elaborate. Syria's government has condemned Israel's strikes as escalatory and as foreign interference, and says the new government in Damascus is working to unify the country after 14 years of bloodletting. The new rulers have also made repeated efforts to show they pose no threat to Israel, meeting representatives of the Jewish community in Damascus and abroad and detaining two senior members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which participated in the October 7 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.A letter sent by Syria's foreign ministry to the U.S. State Department last month, seen by Reuters, said "we will not allow Syria to become a source of threat to any party, including Israel."
MINORITY FEARS
Israel has struck in Syria for years in a shadow campaign aimed at weakening Iran and its allies, including Lebanese Hezbollah, who grew their influence after entering the country's civil war on the side of former President Bashar al-Assad.
Israeli military operations have escalated since rebels ousted Assad in December, saying it will not tolerate an Islamist militant presence in southern Syria. Israel has bombed what it says are military targets across the country and Israeli ground forces have entered southwestern Syria. Reuters reported in February that Israel has lobbied the U.S. to keep Syria decentralised and isolated, framing its approach around suspicion of Sharaa - who once headed a branch of al-Qaeda before renouncing ties to the group in 2016. The UAE government also has concerns about the Islamist bent of Syria's new leaders, but Sharaa's meeting with President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan last month went very well, the sources said, helping to assuage some of Abu Dhabi's concerns. The sources noted the meeting lasted several hours, making Sharaa late for a subsequent engagement. The backchannel with Israel was established days later, the sources said. Damascus sees the UAE's ties with Israel, established in a historic U.S.-brokered deal in 2020, as a key avenue to address issues with Israel, given the absence of direct relations between the two states. Israel's latest strikes in Syria followed days of clashes between Sunni Muslim and Druze gunmen triggered by a voice recording of unclear origin purportedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed, leaving more than two dozen people dead. Syria's government has since reached an agreement with Druze factions in the Druze heartland region of Suweida to hire local security forces from their ranks, in a move that has so far reduced tensions. The fighting posed the latest challenge for Sharaa, who has repeatedly vowed to unite all of Syria's armed forces under one structure and govern the country, fractured by 14 years of civil war until Assad's overthrow. But incidents of sectarian violence, notably the killing of hundreds of pro-Assad Alawites in March, have hardened fears among minority groups about the now-dominant Islamists and sparked condemnation from global powers.

Trump plans to announce that the US will call the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf, officials say
Matthew Lee/The Associated Press/May 7, 2025
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump plans to announce while on his trip to Saudi Arabia next week that the United States will now refer to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia, according to two U.S. officials. Arab nations have pushed for a change to the geographic name of the body of water off the southern coast of Iran, while Iran has maintained its historic ties to the gulf. The two U.S. officials spoke with The Associated Press on Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. The White House and National Security Council did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. The Persian Gulf has been widely known by that name since the 16th century, although usage of “Gulf of Arabia” and “Arabian Gulf” is dominant in many countries in the Middle East. The government of Iran — formerly Persia — threatened to sue Google in 2012 over the company’s decision not to label the body of water at all on its maps. The U.S. military for years has unilaterally referred to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf in statements and images it releases. The name of the body of water has become an emotive issue for Iranians who embrace their country’s long history as the Persian Empire. A spat developed in 2017 during Trump’s first term when he used the name Arabian Gulf for the waterway. Iran’s president at the time, Hassan Rouhani, suggested Trump needed to “study geography.” “Everyone knew Trump’s friendship was for sale to the highest bidder. We now know that his geography is, too,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote online at the time. On Wednesday, Iran's current foreign minister also weighed in, saying that names of Mideast waterways do “not imply ownership by any particular nation, but rather reflects a shared respect for the collective heritage of humanity.”
“Politically motivated attempts to alter the historically established name of the Persian Gulf are indicative of hostile intent toward Iran and its people, and are firmly condemned,” Abbas Araghchi wrote on the social platform X. "Any short-sighted step in this connection will have no validity or legal or geographical effect, it will only bring the wrath of all Iranians from all walks of life and political persuasion in Iran, the U.S. and across the world."Trump can change the name for official U.S. purposes, but he can’t dictate what the rest of the world calls it. The International Hydrographic Organization — of which the United States is a member — works to ensure all the world’s seas, oceans and navigable waters are surveyed and charted uniformly, and also names some of them. There are instances where countries refer to the same body of water or landmark by different names in their own documentation. In addition to Saudi Arabia, Trump is also set to visit Doha, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, which also lie on the body of water. Originally planned as Trump’s first trip overseas since he took office on Jan. 20, it comes as Trump has tried to draw closer to the Gulf countries as he seeks their financial investment in the U.S. and support in regional conflicts, including resolving the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and limiting Iran’s advancing nuclear program. The U.S. president also has significant financial ties to the countries through his personal businesses, over which he has retained ownership from the Oval Office.
The move comes several months after Trump said the U.S. would refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. The Associated Press sued the Trump administration earlier this year after the White House barred its journalists from covering most events because of the organization’s decision not to follow the president’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” within the United States. U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled last month that the First Amendment protects the AP from government retaliation over its word choice and ordered the outlet’s access to be reinstated.

Syria’s Sharaa confirms indirect talks with Israel to ease tensions
AFP/May 07, 2025
PARIS: President Ahmed Al-Sharaa said Wednesday that Syria was holding “indirect talks” with Israel to calm tensions between the two countries, following Israeli strikes and threats against Syria since Bashar Assad’s ouster. “There are indirect talks (with Israel) taking place through mediators to calm the situation and try to contain the situation so it does not reach the point where it escapes the control of both sides,” Sharaa told a press conference in Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. “Random Israeli interventions... have violated the 1974” armistice, Sharaa said, adding that “since we arrived in Damascus, we have told all relevant parties that Syria is committed to the 1974 agreement.”Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on the country since Assad’s December ouster and has said it wants to prevent advanced weapons from falling into the hands of the new authorities, whom it considers jihadists. Israeli troops have also entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone along the 1974 armistice line on the Golan Heights and carried out incursions deeper into southern Syria. Sharaa said the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force must “return to the Blue Line of separation,” adding that UNDOF had made a number of visits to Damascus.Macron condemned Israeli strikes on Syria, saying they would not guarantee “Israel’s long-term security.”“As for bombings and incursions, I think it’s bad practice. You don’t ensure your country’s security by violating the territorial integrity of your neighbors,” Macron said. Sharaa said that “we are trying to speak with all countries that are in contact with the Israeli side to pressure them to stop interfering in Syria’s affairs, violating its airspace and bombing some of its facilities.” Sharaa said he and Macron discussed “the ongoing Israeli threats,” adding that “Israel has bombed Syria more than 20 times in the past week alone... under the pretext of protecting minorities.”Israel’s military said it launched strikes near Damascus’s presidential palace early Friday after the country’s defense minister threatened intervention if Syrian authorities failed to protect the Druze minority, after sectarian clashes in Druze areas last. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the move was a “clear message” to Syria’s new rulers. The clashes came after a wave of massacres in March in Syria’s Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast.

Syrian president meets Macron in Paris on first European visit
AP/May 07, 2025
PARIS: Ahmad Al-Sharaa, leader of the Syrian Arab Republic, on his first visit to Europe since taking power, arrived at the Elysee palace in Paris on Wednesday where he was greeted by President Emmanuel Macron. Ahead of the high-profile talks at the Elysee Palace, Al-Sharaa met a whistleblower known as “Caesar” who smuggled out tens of thousands of pictures depicting the tortured corpses of detainees under ousted ruler Bashar Assad. Al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani “met with Farid Al-Madhan, known as ‘Caesar,’ on the sidelines of their visit” to Paris, the Syrian presidency said in a statement, posting images of the meeting. Al-Madhan revealed his identity in February during an interview with Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera after being known for years only as a Syrian military photographer under the pseudonym Caesar. He fled Syria in 2013 with some 55,000 graphic images taken after Syria’s war erupted two years earlier with the brutal repression of anti-government protests, smuggled in a flash drive. He testified to a US Congress committee and his photographs inspired a 2020 US law which imposed economic sanctions on Syria and judicial proceedings in Europe against Assad’s entourage. Germany, the Netherlands and France have since 2022 convicted several top officials from the Syrian intelligence service and militias. After war erupted, Al-Madhan told Al Jazeera he was tasked with “taking pictures of victims of detention.”He had said that these included “old men, women and children, who were detained at security checkpoints in Damascus, and from protest squares that called for freedom and dignity.” He said he postponed his defection from the government forces and fleeing the country in order to be able to “collect the largest number of pictures documenting and incriminating the Syrian regime apparatuses of committing crimes against humanity.”In March, Al-Sharaa signed into force a constitutional declaration for a five-year transitional period during which a “transitional justice commission” would be formed to “determine the means for accountability, establish the facts, and provide justice to victims and survivors” of the former government’s misdeeds.

Syria's interim leader al-Sharaa makes first trip to Europe with Paris visit
The Associated Press/May 7, 2025
PARIS— Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa arrived in Paris on Wednesday for talks with President Emmanuel Macron. It's his first trip to Europe since taking office in January, and a possible opening to broader ties with Western countries. It also comes amid renewed sectarian bloodshed in Syria, where al-Sharaa took power after his Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led an offensive that toppled former President Bashar Assad in December. Assad, a member of Syria’s Alawite minority, ruled for more than two decades. Al-Sharaa is scheduled to meet with Macron early evening, according to Syrian state media.He will discuss post-war reconstruction and economic cooperation, mainly in aviation and electricity, as well as ongoing Israeli airstrikes and Syria's relations with Lebanon, Syria's state news agency reported. The presidential Elysee Palace said Macron will restate France’s support for “a free, stable, sovereign Syria that respects all components of its society,” while emphasizing the importance of regional stability, particularly in Lebanon, and the fight against terrorism. The visit comes a week after clashes between forces loyal to al-Sharaa and fighters from the minority Druze sect that left nearly 100 people dead. This followed earlier violence in Syria’s coastal region between Sunni gunmen and members of the minority Alawite sect, which left more than 1,000 people dead, many of them Alawite civilians killed in revenge attacks. Religious minorities in Syria, including Alawites, Christians and Druze, fear persecution under the predominantly Sunni Muslim-led government. Al-Sharaa has repeatedly pledged that all Syrians will be treated equally regardless of religion or ethnicity. The 14-year conflict has killed nearly half a million people and displaced millions. Syria’s infrastructure lies in ruins, and international sanctions remain a major barrier to reconstruction. The visit to Paris is being closely watched as a potential test of Europe’s willingness to engage with Syria’s new leadership. The European Union has begun easing sanctions, suspending measures targeting Syria’s oil, gas and electricity sectors, as well as transport, including aviation, and banking restrictions. In late April, the British government announced it was lifting sanctions on a dozen Syrian entities, including government departments and state-run media outlets. The Trump administration has yet to formally recognize the new Syrian government led by al-Sharaa, and HTS remains a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. Sanctions imposed on Damascus under Assad remain in place. However, Washington eased some restrictions in January when the U.S. Treasury issued a general license, valid for six months, authorizing certain transactions with the Syrian government, including some energy sales and incidental transfers.

At least 26 killed in Indian airstrikes on Pakistan; Pakistani shelling kills 10 in India
Darryl Coote/UPI/May 7, 2025
Dozens of people were killed as India and Pakistan exchanged attacks in the ongoing aftermath of a mass killing of tourists in Pahalgam in April. Pakistan said 26 people were killed and 46 were injured after New Delhi launched strikes against alleged terrorists within Pakistan's borders as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Wednesday that Pakistan has the right to retaliate against India's "act of war.""The cunning enemy has carried out cowardly attacks on five locations in Pakistan," Sharif said in a statement on X. "Pakistan has every right to respond forcefully to this act of war imposed by India, and a forceful response is being given." India's army later said that 10 civilians were killed in shelling by Pakistan on its side of the border between the neighboring nations. Attaullah Tarar, Pakistan's minister for information and broadcasting, had earlier said in a statement that "Pakistan has befittingly retaliated against Indian Aggression."
He said the Pakistani military had downed at least three Indian fighter jets and an Indian drone. "The entire nation stands united in prayers and solidarity with our brave officers and soldiers," Tarar said. India launched Operation Sindoor over Tuesday night, attacking what it called terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the Pakistan-controlled western region of Kashmir, whose sovereignty is disputed by both Pakistan and India. The Indian Armed Forces said in a statement that it attacked nine alleged sites in retaliation for the deadly April 22 massacre of 26 tourists in the mountainous Pahalgam region of India-administered Kashmir. The Indian government has described the targets as "terrorist camps.""Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature," the Indian Armed Forces said. "No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution."India has blamed Pakistan for the Pahalgam attack, alleging it was conducted by Pakistan-based terrorists. Late last month, Tarar said Pakistan had credible intelligence showing India intended to attack it over the Pahalgam massacre. "Indian self-assumed hubristic role of judge, jury and executioner in the region is reckless and vehemently rejected," he said in a statement on X. "Pakistan has been the victim of terrorism itself and truly understands the pain of this scourge."New Delhi has previously launched strikes into Pakistan after Pakistan-based terrorists attacked it on accusations that Islamabad was harboring the militants. In 2019, India fighter jets conducted airstrikes against Jaish-e-Mohammed camps in Pakistan after the terrorist group killed more than 40 Indian Central Reserve Police Force personnel in a suicide bombing in India's Jammu and Kashmir. "The world must show zero tolerance for terrorism," Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's external affairs minister, said Wednesday on X.

India fires missiles on Pakistan. Islamabad calls it an 'act of war' and says it downed Indian jets
The Associated Press/Munir Ahmed, Sheikh Saaliq, Riazat Butt, Rajesh Roy And Aijaz Hussain/May 7, 2025
ISLAMABAD — India fired missiles at Pakistan early Wednesday, in what it said was retaliation for last month’s massacre of Indian tourists. Pakistan called the strikes an act of war and claimed it downed several Indian fighter jets. The strikes targeted at least nine sites “where terrorist attacks against India have been planned,” India’s Defense Ministry said. Pakistan’s military said the missiles hit six locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the country’s Punjab province and killed more than two dozen people, including children. Pakistan said it reserved the right to respond, raising the specter that the back-and-forth could spiral into all-out conflict. Already, it’s the worst confrontation between the rivals since 2019, when they came close to war. Following the strikes, there was a heavy exchange of fire that officials in each country said left more people dead. Three planes fell onto villages in India-controlled territory, according to Indian police and residents, though it was not immediately clear if they were downed by Pakistan. Tensions have soared between the nuclear-armed neighbors since an April attack in which gunmen killed 26 people, mostly Indian Hindu tourists, in India-controlled Kashmir, in some cases killing men before their wives’ eyes. India accuses Pakistan of being behind the attack, which was claimed by a militant group calling itself Kashmir Resistance. India has said the group is linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a disbanded Pakistani militant group.
Islamabad denies involvement.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is split between them and claimed by both in its entirety. In the wake of the massacre, the rivals have expelled each other’s diplomats and nationals, closed their borders and shuttered airspace. India has also suspended a critical water-sharing treaty with Pakistan.
The escalation raises the risk of war
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the airstrikes and said his country would retaliate. “Pakistan has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed being given,” Sharif said. It was not clear if Pakistan’s claim that it shot down fighter jets constituted its retaliation or if more might be coming. The country's National Security Committee said Pakistan reserves the right to respond “in self-defense, at a time, place, and manner of its choosing.”The statement said the strikes were carried out “on the false pretext of the presence of imaginary terrorist camps” and said they killed civilians. South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman said the strikes were some of the highest-intensity ones from India on its rival in years and that Pakistan’s response would “surely pack a punch as well.” “These are two strong militaries that, even with nuclear weapons as a deterrent, are not afraid to deploy sizeable levels of conventional military force against each other,” Kugelman said. “The escalation risks are real. And they could well increase, and quickly.”In 2019, the two countries came close to a war after a Kashmiri insurgent rammed an explosive-laden car into a bus carrying Indian soldiers, killing 40. India carried out airstrikes in Pakistani territory, and Pakistan shot down an Indian warplane and captured the pilot, later releasing him. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for maximum restraint because the world could not “afford a military confrontation” between India and Pakistan, according to a statement from spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. China also called for calm. Beijing is the largest investor in Pakistan by far and has multiple border disputes with India, including one in the northeastern part of the Kashmir region. Pakistan’s National Security Committee met Wednesday morning. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a special meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security and postponed his upcoming trip to Norway, Croatia and the Netherlands. Several Indian states held civil defense drills Wednesday to train civilians and security personnel to respond in case of attack.
Scenes of panic and destruction
The missile strikes hit six locations and killed at least 26 people, including women and children, said Pakistan’s military spokesperson, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif. Officials said another 38 people were injured in the strikes, and five more people were killed in Pakistan during exchanges of fire across the border later in the day. In Muzaffarabad, the main city of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, resident Abdul Sammad said he heard several explosions as blasts ripped through houses. He saw people running in panic and authorities immediately cut power to the area. People ran into the streets or open areas. “We were afraid the next missile might hit our house,” said Mohammad Ashraf, another resident. Indian jets damaged infrastructure at a dam in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, according to Sharif, the military spokesman, calling it a violation of international norms.
The strikes also hit close to at least two sites previously tied to militant groups that have since been banned, according to Pakistan. One hit Subhan Mosque in Punjab’s Bahawalpur city, killing 13 people, according to Zohaib Ahmed, a doctor at a nearby hospital. The mosque is near a seminary that was once the central office of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a militant group outlawed in 2002. Officials say the group has had no operational presence at the site since the ban. Another missile hit a mosque in Muridke in Punjab, damaging it. A sprawling building located nearby served as the headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba until 2013, when Pakistan banned the militant group and arrested its founder. India’s Defense Ministry called the strikes “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature.""No Pakistan military facilities have been targeted,” the statement said, adding that “India has demonstrated considerable restraint."Indian politicians from different political parties lauded the operation, which was named “Sindoor,” a Hindi word for the vermillion powder worn by married Hindu women on their foreheads and hair. It was a reference to the women whose husbands were killed in front of them in the Kashmir attack. Exchanges of fire and planes fall on villages in India-controlled Kashmir
Along the Line of Control, which divides the disputed region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan, there were heavy exchanges of fire. Indian police and medics said 12 civilians were killed and at least 40 wounded by Pakistani shelling in Poonch district near the highly militarized de facto border. At least 10 civilians were also injured in Kashmir’s Uri sector, police said. Shortly after India’s strikes, aircraft fell in three villages: two in India-controlled Kashmir, a third in India's northern Punjab state. Sharif, the Pakistani military spokesperson, said the country’s air force shot down five Indian jets in retaliation for the strikes. There was no immediate comment from India about Pakistan’s claim. Debris from one plane was scattered across one village, including in a school and a mosque compound, according to police and residents. Firefighters struggled for hours to douse the resulting blazes. “There was a huge fire in the sky. Then we heard several blasts also,” said Mohammed Yousuf Dar, a resident of Wuyan village in India-controlled Kashmir. Another aircraft fell in an open field in Bhardha Kalan village. Resident Sachin Kumar told The Associated Press he heard massive blasts and saw a huge ball of fire. Kumar said he and several others rushed to the scene, where they saw Indian soldiers carry away the pilots. A third aircraft crashed in a farm field in Punjab, a police officer told the AP, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on May 07-08/2025
The Next Pope Needs to Preserve Judeo-Christian Civilization
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/May 7, 2025
Some Catholics who are sensitive to the Holy See's influence on international affairs may be hoping for a Pope who exercises decisive moral clarity in condemning brutal behavior, whether in Africa, China or elsewhere.
Pope Francis seemed to be infrequent in his condemnation of Islamist atrocities and when he did condemn them, he would be quick to criticize those who equated the religion of Islam with violence. Mass murders of Catholics and other Christians by Islamists take place daily in Nigeria, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
There are heroic candidates among the "Papabiles" (Papal possibles) such as the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who offered himself in exchange for the hostages seized by the Gaza terrorist group Hamas.
Although the Vatican's reason for being is to guide souls to God, its pronouncements on secular affairs not only have a profound impact, literally, on the lives of millions of Catholics, but on preserving the Judeo-Christian values upon which civilization is built, as well.
While the world's 1.4 billion Catholics wait prayerfully for the elevation to the papacy of the 267th pope, successor to the Christ-appointed St. Peter, most of the rest of humanity may be wondering what impact the new pontiff could have on global affairs.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership, which did not send a representative to the funeral of Pope Francis, has cause to be attentive. If this week's Papal Conclave selects Philippines Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the Archbishop of Manila, CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping would have reason for concern.
Tagle, who is part-Chinese, could serve as a powerful opponent of Xi's agenda to incorporate Taiwan. Tagle could also powerfully remonstrate against Beijing's aggressive behavior toward Philippine Coast Guard vessels and fishing boats in disputed waters off the Philippine islands. A Philippine Pope could also influence the tens of millions of "Overseas Chinese" who reside in Archipelago and Mainland Southeast Asia, especially with regard to the CCP's colossal claims of territorial and maritime sovereignty in the South and East China Seas.
Some cynics may quote Stalin who, discounting the influence of the Vatican, which opposed Soviet occupation of largely Christian East Europe, sarcastically asked "How many divisions does the pope have?" Significantly, Pope John Paul II, when he took on the Kremlin directly, contributing to the collapse of Communist rule in East Europe and within the USSR itself, had no divisions.
Although the CCP did permit the Shanghai-born 93-year-old Joseph Cardinal Zen Ze-kiun from Hong Kong to fly to Rome for the ecclesiastical ceremonies, China has tightened direct CCP control over organized religion by implementing several restrictive measures since Xi came to power in 2013. During the 12-year papacy of Francis, the CCP insisted on a decisive role in the approval process of China's new Catholic Bishops, a failed Vatican compromise which the democracy advocate, Zen, opposed. According to this deal, signed in 2018 and renewed last year, candidates to the Episcopal Sees (Bishoprics) in China judged acceptable to the Party were recognized by the CCP as belonging to the "Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association."
The Chinese regime has moved swiftly, since the death of Francis, to appoint two new bishops deemed acceptable to the CCP. There is, however, a large "underground" Catholic Church throughout China which holds some services in private domiciles, similar to some Islamic countries such as Iran.
As the majority of the approximately 130 eligible electors in the College of Cardinals were appointed by Pope Francis, it is logical to assume that the next Pope will be most concerned with pastoral matters around the world's poor, oppressed and marginalized.
Geopolitically, however, the papal selection process may reflect the Catholic Church's phenomenal growth in the Global South. Pope Francis intensified appointments of Cardinals from countries which once were hinterlands of the Faith. Francis deliberately named new Cardinals from countries where the Church is expanding, especially Africa, where he appointed about two-thirds of the continent's electors. No longer is the Vatican tucked away just in the Euro-Atlantic World: 82 of the approximately 135 electors are not from Europe. Pope Francis even selected a Cardinal for Mongolia.
Some Catholics who are sensitive to the Holy See's influence on international affairs may be hoping for a Pope who exercises decisive moral clarity in condemning brutal behavior, whether in Africa, China or elsewhere.
Pope Francis seemed to be infrequent in his condemnation of Islamist atrocities and when he did condemn them, he would be quick to criticize those who equated the religion of Islam with violence. Mass murders of Catholics and other Christians by Islamists take place daily in Nigeria, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Significantly, the DRC is where the 65-year-old Fridolin Cardinal Ambongo Besungu resides as the Archbishop of Kinshasa. An African Pope might satisfy the needs of the church to be a pastoral aide to the downtrodden, but also a theological traditionalist, as most African Catholics are religiously conservative, particularly on issues of gender and sexuality.
Africa is flooded with the blood of today's martyrs. It is also where the Catholic Church has seen phenomenal growth. Perhaps a Pope with outspoken moral clarity could help educate the Euro-Atlantic world to Islam's threat to Judeo-Christian Civilization.
Many Catholics who embraced the pastoral emphasis of Pope Francis also want a heroic Pope, not reticent about clearly delineating publicly between noble behavior and that which, in a civilized world, should be deemed intolerable. Many Catholics found it difficult to accept the Pope Francis' sometimes seemingly characterization of the war in Gaza as a struggle between morally equivalent opponents, despite the demonic atrocities that Gazans meted out to innocents in Israel on October 7, 2023. There are heroic candidates among the "Papabiles" (Papal possibles) such as the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who offered himself in exchange for the hostages seized by the Gaza terrorist group Hamas.
Although the Vatican's reason for being is to guide souls to God, its pronouncements on secular affairs not only have a profound impact, literally, on the lives of millions of Catholics, but on preserving the Judeo-Christian values upon which civilization is built, as well.
**Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
© 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.

In an interview, Peter Harling discusses the fate of religious communities in the Syrian transformation.
Syria’s Misunderstood Minority Question
Michael Young/Diwan/May 7, 2025
In an interview, Peter Harling discusses the fate of religious communities in the Syrian transformation.
Peter Harling is the founder and director of Synaps, a Mediterranean research organization that provides in-depth analysis to find practical solutions to the problems of the day. Previously, Harling worked at the International Crisis Group for almost a decade, and has almost 30 years of experience in the Middle East, living in Damascus between 2006 and 2014. Diwan interviewed him in early May to get his perspective on the evolving situation in Syria, especially the relationship between the current Sharaa regime and the country’s minorities in light of recent sectarian tensions in the country.
Michael Young: Can you give us a broad-brush view of how the Assad regime from the time of Hafez al-Assad dealt with minorities, and compare this to what we are seeing today in Syria, under the new Ahmad al-Sharaa regime?
Peter Harling: It’s a mistake to simplify this question, as if the former regime’s approach to minorities had been straightforward. Although it was often perceived by sympathizers as “protecting minorities,” it was far more ambivalent. It both coopted the Druze and repressed them, notably in a brutal crackdown in 2000. It manipulated and contained the Kurds. It sheltered Christians while promoting forms of Sunni activism that terrified them. And while it relied on the loyalty of Alawites, it undermined their community’s internal structures to consolidate their dependency, ultimately treating such Alawite supporters as an army of slaves. Likewise, today’s emerging power structure is likely to “engineer” a set of complex, ambivalent, shifting relations with different communities, rather than adopt a single, unified approach.
MY: You have written that the attacks involving the Druze last week are quite different than the massacres on the coast in March involving mainly Alawites. Yet you also have made the point that one should not analyze such rounds of sectarianism separately from each other. What did you mean and why is this the case?
PH: The anti-Alawite pogroms could be rationalized as collective punishment for the community’s association with the former regime, absent any transitional justice mechanism. The violence included other elements too, such as extensive looting in a starved economy on the part of armed groups who have only superficially been folded into the state. The question, for other minorities, was “would it stop at the Alawites?” The showdown with the Druze has shown to all that it wouldn’t.
This latest incident wasn’t limited to violence. The fighting was accompanied by a shocking outpour of spontaneous sectarian animosity on social media: The Druze have been accused of colluding with Israel, of aligning with former regime loyalists, of attacking the security services unprovoked. Such arguments are driven by emotions and reflect a purge mentality which is surprisingly widespread on a popular level—an instinctive desire to fix Syria, somehow, by suppressing this or that social group seen as standing in the way of a successful transition. We’ve now seen two bouts of frenzied attempts to quell a community as a whole, and we can expect more, as the focus moves on. Syria’s current leadership has sought to translate such rounds of violence into political arrangements, but nonetheless these clashes are tearing at the foundation of trust which Syrians must have in each other for the transition to succeed.
MY: Since perhaps 1966, Syria has been under a leadership in which minorities, particularly the Alawite minority, have played a leading role in the country, despite the former Baath regime’s desire to accentuate the country’s Arab nationalist identity. How will this legacy play out as a more explicitly Sunni regime asserts itself?
PH: Historically, the regime grew out of a much broader base than the Alawites. It formed an alliance of the provincial fringes, which included other minorities but also Sunnis from Hawran, Raqqa, and Idlib. Prior to the 2011 uprising, the Syrian Interior Ministry was known for being stacked with Idlibis, while Alawites were a majority within the security services. Bashar al-Assad also cultivated relations with the Sunni business class, in Aleppo for instance. But he neglected the regime’s historical base, which explains in part why the uprising centered in the early stages on areas, Daraa for example, where the Baath Party had originally been very strong.
The notion that the regime was minority-based is therefore wrongheaded and distracts from an essential aspect of Syria’s transition: the diversity of identities and interests within the Sunni “majority” itself. Indeed, there is no such thing as a Sunni community in Syria. Sunni tribes in the east have little in common with the conservative urban underclass, which shares even less with the traditional trading elites, not to mention Sunni seculars. Cities such as Aleppo and Damascus, Homs and Hama, at best ignore each other, at worst compete. The balance of power between armed groups from Idlib and elsewhere, such as Douma, is extremely precarious, and could quite easily give rise to clashes like the ones we’ve just seen with the Druze.
So, the Assad regime’s legacy really is three things: a fragmented territory where all social groups have repeatedly been played against each other rather than being pulled into a unified national identity; a state whose institutional capacity is extraordinarily weak, given the fact that keeping the country whole was almost entirely the responsibility of the security services; and an economy on its knees, shackled with layers of sanctions, an obstructive bureaucracy, and a laissez-faire mentality in lieu of public policy.
MY: There appears to be a clear intention by Israel to fragment Syria and replace it with sectarian or ethnic entities, which has contrasted with a Turkish intention to bolster Syrian unity. Do you think that a project of fragmentation, or partition, can work, and what do you see as the outcome of the Israeli-Turkish rivalry in Syria?
PH: Israel also has a clear intention to make 2 million Gazans somehow disappear, while denying accusations of genocide. It is going through an extremely destructive moment of hubris, in which all sorts of fantasies are coming out: Israel will end the Palestinian question, bomb all resistance into oblivion, finish off the so-called Axis of Resistance, break Syria apart, push millions into Jordan, normalize with the Gulf and Lebanon, reshape the region, rewrite history, you name it. Most importantly, it won’t concede anything, will get away with it all, and can achieve these results without so much as a plan.
Forging alliances with the region’s minorities, in Syria and beyond, is just one of these old and worn-out Israeli tropes. They reflect a lack of novel, realistic thinking. More than a policy as such, Israel today presents us instead with a dangerous imaginary, which has tragic consequences on the ground. The Turks will have far more traction in Syria, because their posture, however intrusive, heavy-handed, and self-serving, is also practical, intelligible, and transactional. It gives Syria’s leadership something to negotiate. By contrast, everyone currently is at a loss when it comes to negotiating with Israel, because it wants it all and for free. And it has been led by its Western partners to believe that it can have it.
MY: Can a Syrian revival, or even a Lebanese revival, take place if Syria fails to reach some sort of settlement with its various sectarian and ethnic communities? Or do you see Syria going back to being a country at the center of regional rivalries, as outside states seek to exploit communal divisions and discord?
PH: Unity tends to be a mantra in the modern Arab world, as if divisions were shameful, catastrophic, and irreparable. They are, however, the natural state of any society, in this region as elsewhere. Politics consist, precisely, in organizing such differences so that they might peacefully coexist, rather than attempting to erase them. A political transition like the one Syria is going through will inevitably put on display all sorts of disagreements. Sectarian and ethnic tensions tend to be particularly taboo, but they are just a facet of far more complex identities. What about class, or the redistribution of national wealth? The many shades of Sunni Islam? The role of tribes in today’s polities? The relations between center and periphery? Because of this obsession with unity, even something as straightforward as administrative decentralization brings up fears of disintegration.
I hope that Syria will set a new precedent in that respect, with a system that recognizes and represents differences politically, to break with this false alternative between oppressive unity and destructive factionalism. The regional context isn’t particularly helpful, but it isn’t at its worst either. We’re far from the level of external intrusions that pulled Iraq apart post-2003. In Syria itself, a foreign-funded civil war has occurred already. Despite Turkish and Israeli encroachment, we now see few signs on the part of anyone of a desire to arm proxies. Yet, although Syria is not a battleground anymore, it’s not a building site either: External players have little interest in investing resources to stabilize the country. That means that any stabilization will flow not from some influx of cash but from internal politics. It raises the stakes and risks in this transition, but in the best of scenarios it could also produce more solid outcomes.

In Israel, wildfire and war are heating things up. How will we ever recover? | Opinion
Uriel Heilman/USA TODAY/May 7, 2025
MODIIN, Israel – About the same time that sirens sounded throughout Israel on April 30 marking a moment of silence on the nation’s Memorial Day, a major blaze broke out in the forest not far from my home.
The fire was concentrated in a wooded area near the main highway connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and within hours spread to Canada Park, an idyllic expanse of forested hills where I frequently go mountain biking.
By afternoon, fierce winds and high temperatures fueling the conflagration forced the evacuation of nearby communities and prompted Israeli authorities to cancel public parties planned for that evening’s Independence Day celebrations. All available emergency personnel were needed to deal with the fire, which ended up burning 5,000 acres.
The turn of events ‒ having a fire emergency overshadow Israeli Independence Day ‒ felt like an apt metaphor for what has been a particularly bleak year in Israel. More than 18 months since Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel still is mired in a war that shows no sign of ending.
On the contrary, things are heating up again.
Israel Defense Forces calling up tens of thousands of Israelis for reserve duty
On May 3, the Israel Defense Forces sent orders summoning tens of thousands of Israelis for reserve duty ahead of what’s expected to be an intensification of the war in Gaza.
After a three-month hiatus in Israeli casualties on the Gaza front, Israeli soldiers started getting killed there again in late April, with seven deaths over the past two weeks, darkening the national mood.
In Syria, Israel has been stepping up military interventions to protect Syrian Druze communities that have come under attack by Syrian government forces, and Druze communities in Israel want the IDF to do more.
In Lebanon, despite a tenuous ceasefire that ended the two-month war last fall between Israel and Hezbollah, the Israeli Air Force has been carrying out strikes against targets in the Beirut suburbs and points south, and the IDF is still stationed at some key points in southern Lebanon.
Two weeks ago, while on holiday with my family in northern Israel, my kids and I used binoculars at a lookout point to peer into Lebanon, where we observed an Israeli tank and surveillance drone monitoring a partially destroyed Lebanese town.
For my children, war has become routine
Destruction in Lebanon from the war between Israel and Hezbollah in the fall of 2024 is visible from the Israeli side of the border on April 15, 2025.
The day before my kids were due to return to school after Israel’s Independence Day weekend, we woke up to news that the start of classes May 4 would be delayed due to a teachers’ strike. While I sat on the couch reading a book to my 7-year-old daughter, an air raid siren suddenly sounded, sending us running to our in-home bomb shelter.
It was a missile attack from the Houthis in Yemen. We heard a huge boom, and minutes later learned that the missile had struck the grounds of Israel’s main airport, quickly prompting a growing number of foreign carriers to announce the suspension of all flights to Israel. My teenage son, working on his homework in the bomb shelter, barely noticed the boom.
For him, attacks by the Houthis have become routine.
Sometimes I feel like this war is harder on adults than on children. My kids’ experience of the war is limited to what they feel directly: the air raid sirens, the news that a friend’s older brother was called back for more reserve duty, the banner hanging on our neighbor’s apartment building memorializing a 26-year-old who grew up there and was killed in Gaza last December.
We adults worry about our children’s future and struggle amid the constant flow of upsetting news. More than 575 days since the Oct. 7 attacks, 59 of the 250 people snatched from Israel and dragged into Gaza are still being held captive; only 24 are thought to be alive.
The Hamas attack killed 1,200 people in Israel in one day. Over the past year, the Israeli death toll climbed by an additional 320 soldiers and security personnel. In Gaza, the Palestinian death toll is estimated at more than 50,000.
Israel’s minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, has suggested that it would take another year for Israel to declare victory.
Meanwhile, inside Israel there’s a fierce battle for control of Israel’s democratic institutions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bids to curb the independence of Israel’s judiciary have prompted massive protests.
Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s domestic security agency, Shin Bet, has announced he's resigning June 15 ‒ after accusing Netanyahu of trying to fire him for refusing to spy on Israeli citizens leading the protests and of asking him to provide a security pretext to halt Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial.
Ami Ayalon, a former head of the Shin Bet, warned in a recent opinion column in The Guardian that Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state is at risk.
“The very fabric of the state of Israel and the values on which it was founded are being eroded,” Ayalon wrote. “The truth is that our hostages in Gaza have been abandoned in favour of the government’s messianic ideology and by a prime minister in Benjamin Netanyahu who is desperate to cling to power for his own personal gain.”
One method I use to maintain my sanity amid all this turmoil is to ride my bike. My go-to route takes me through picturesque vineyards and yellow wheat fields into forested hills where the pleasant sounds of birds tweeting and wind blowing through pines help drown out the cacophony elsewhere in my life.
But the recent wildfire ravaged that route, and it will take years for the area to recover.
Surely, I’ll find some alternative route to pedal out my frustrations. But sometimes I wonder what kind of a country this will be when all this is over, what kind of long-term trauma this war is inflicting upon us, and whether, after so much conflict and upheaval, we can ever fully heal.
**Uriel Heilman, a native of New York, is a journalist living in Israel.

World peace and security in the balance once again
Mohamed Chebaro/Arab News/May 07, 2025
This week, the world is celebrating the 80th anniversary of Europe’s victory over Nazi fascism in the Second World War. However, after that victory was declared in early May 1945, all the warring parties — allies and foes, victors and vanquished — interpreted it in ways that best suited their narrative, or simply turned it into a purely ceremonial occasion. Today, the world looks as splintered and conflict-ridden as it did in the late 1930s. The protagonists on all sides, whether democratic or autocratic, seem to be caving under the weight of disappearing trust, diminishing legitimacy, limited resources and ever more persistent global warming. Meanwhile, the glaring gap between rich and poor is increasingly prominent, with no real efforts being made to bridge it. Will anyone seek to save the era of relative peace, prosperity and rule of law-based order that has existed for the past 80 years?
For the victors in Europe who have been celebrating this week, the continent appears to be at the same point it was before the Second World War. The chaos overshadowing transatlantic relations, the war in Ukraine, the rise of ultranationalist and populist right politics, weak economic performance and ever lower satisfaction among the populace are a recipe for conflictive politics and an explosive, divisive narrative that could undermine European cohesion.
The victims of Nazi atrocities in Europe are being remembered at ceremonies this week. Veterans who fought in the war may be appearing for the last time due to old age, as their numbers continue to dwindle. The questions on everybody’s mind are how much the war is remembered and what lessons have been drawn from it. Societies throughout the world and, alarmingly, the youth in particular, seem to know little about history and are at risk of repeating the mistakes of 80 years ago or tolerating new ones being made. Societies throughout the world seem to know little about history and are at risk of repeating the mistakes of 80 years ago. A simple reason for this is that the world system we live in seems to be under duress. One does not need to look very hard to see the killing fields dotting the world map today, accompanied by a deafening silence or even complicity.
OK, one could easily point to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the appetite to reopen the history books and tap into nationalistic fervor by some actors to justify the invasion of another sovereign country. And it was only natural for others to try to uphold the rules of international law and order to try to support Ukraine in defending itself. But they have also failed miserably to defend innocents or uphold the same rules of international humanitarian law in other conflicts.
Israel’s continuing onslaught against Gaza is another conflict that demonstrates the breakdown of the rules-based order established 80 years ago. The absurd failure of the international community to exert pressure on Israel and stop the killing, destruction and starvation of Gaza, regardless of the gravity of what Hamas committed on Oct. 7, 2023, is no less a crime than those committed during the Second World War and that inspire the Victory in Europe Day commemorations.
The same could be said about the thousands of victims of the Sudan war, which many believe was also avoidable. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is experiencing another conflict, not to mention Yemen, as well as other human-made so-called forever wars, just because they are complicated ethnic, tribal or religious conflicts, such as those in Afghanistan, Somalia and recently Syria or Myanmar. These seem ever harder to tackle, even with seasoned conflict-resolution and peacekeeping missions.
A close friend recently asked me what else an activist could do to raise their voice and help stop the killing in Gaza and elsewhere. This friend voiced the concern, which is today shared by many people, that such wars are now tolerated and are even becoming normalized. For a moment, I felt unable to answer. Then I found myself repeating the need to keep engaging, believing and raising one’s voice against carnage and injustice everywhere. Later, when I looked at the figures as I was researching this article, it became clear that the task of finding peace is really daunting — but there are not many choices. We live in an era in which the number of conflicts taking place keeps growing. According to the UN, more than 300 million people need humanitarian aid and protection. Meanwhile, resources continue to dwindle and paralysis grips the decision-making level due to the growing rivalries between major powers.
Multilateralism is surely dying. It needs resuscitating to continue its efforts to open dialogues, attempt conflict resolution and mount crucial peace missions that might preserve some hope. In the complex world we live in, war and conflict are the products, not causes, of the global competition that has led to disorder
Instead of cutting aid budgets and funding for international agencies, major powers ought to double down on funding crucial peacemaking and peacekeeping organizations, regardless of their lack of immediate impact in many cases. President Donald Trump’s blunders in his tariff, culture and other wars reduce certainty and weaken resolve everywhere. The US is $1.2 billion in arrears to the UN’s peacekeeping budget and maybe its funding will soon come to an end entirely.
In the complex world we live in, war and conflict are the products, not causes, of the global competition that has led to disorder. The origins of this disorder are primarily political, ideological or interest-driven. It could be attributed to historical rivalries, recent acts of instability or even political fragmentation and the rejection of globalization and the old international rulebook. This disorder is compounded by a less-than-upstanding tech realm that is fueling toxic narratives and distortions of truth, thus empowering the rising tide of populism and authoritarian right-wing politics disguised as ultranationalism. But, in essence, it is primarily down to fear overcoming hope, resulting in a “me-first” mantra and all the prejudice and loss of faith, trust and moral purpose that comes with it.
Despite all that, despair could be the worst enemy for people all over the world. The Victory in Europe Day celebrations would be useless if people allowed themselves to be overwhelmed by the complexity and sheer volume of relentless, upsetting and challenging news stories. An “I don’t care” attitude and loss of empathy, as witnessed in many circles today, could undermine the actions of those who sacrificed their lives 80 years ago.
**Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years’ experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy.

A new regional order brings major challenges
Nadim Shehadi/Arab News/May 07, 2025
If Francis Fukuyama can get it wrong about the end of history, I can take such a risk about the new regional order in the Middle East. Amid all its complexity, there might be a simple solution to the region’s problems and it all boils down to coming to terms with the phenomenon of political Islam, with its various manifestations. Please note that I said “simple,” I did not say “easy.”
What I am trying to explain is that the new order may have one major challenge instead of a multiplicity of smaller ones. In every conflict in the region, if one digs deep enough, we find at its root an as-yet-unresolved relationship between religion and state. This is not specific to the Middle East, Europe struggled with this one for centuries. It may not even be a problem with religion; it is probably much more of a problem with the state. Religions have been there for centuries, states are the newcomers.
Relations between Islam and the state were much healthier in the liberal first half of the 20th century, before a new order of secular nationalists came about in the early 1950s and suppressed religion. Under the oppressive boot of military dictatorships, religion was radicalized and radicalism became contagious, spreading across the region through Egyptian, Syrian and Iraqi militants.
There is little doubt that change is happening in the region. As if the advent of Donald Trump as president of the US was not enough, the Gaza war has shaken up the region, with Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen all joining in through their nonstate actors — Islamist militias with links to Iran. These were the culmination of the Shiite revival that started in Iran in the 1950s, spreading through the region and becoming radicalized under suppression by the shah and Saddam Hussein.
In every conflict in the region, if one digs deep enough, we find at its root an as-yet-unresolved relationship between religion and state
The collapse of the Assad regime complicated matters but also made us revise our ideas. It all came too suddenly and challenged our perceptions and understanding of radical Sunni Islam. World leaders are sending their officials to snoop around and figure out the new Syrian leadership, while also meeting President Ahmad Al-Sharaa on the sidelines of international events.
Even the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was at the point of being resolved 30 years ago, when Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the Oslo Accords. That was until it became a problem between the PLO and Hamas, and it still is: the state represented by the PLO needs to find a way to coexist with a radicalized version of political Islam. It is true that Hamas won the 2006 elections, but that was almost two decades ago and a whole new generation has been born since. The EU and the US, which pushed for the elections to be held, had to reject the outcome and there have not been any elections since.
In Egypt, where the institution of the army has dominated politics since the 1950s, relations with the Muslim Brotherhood are also unresolved. Elections in 2011 after the so-called Arab Spring brought in Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, but a massive popular revolt brought him down. There are similar complex relations between the state and political Islam in Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco. Unresolved relations between religion and state may become part of a global revolt against politicians.
But again, it is not a simple division between religious and secular people. There is significant overlap, with individuals sometimes crossing from one side to the other. The French debate over radical Islam is interesting, particularly the analysis of Olivier Roy, who says that it is not Islam that is radicalized, it is radicalization that is Islamized. I tend to agree with this and there is plenty of evidence to support it, with Marxists and nationalists having joined Islamist movements, particularly in the 1980s. For them, religion was seen as a useful tool to recruit followers, in the same way Latin American liberation theology used Catholicism.
Two cases are illustrative of this phenomenon. Firstly, the Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh initially trained with the PLO in Lebanon. Part of the reason for him shifting allegiance was the PLO’s support for Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq War. The second is the case of a Christian Palestinian member of the PLO’s student brigade, Munir Shafiq. Shafiq was a Maoist who converted to Sunni Islam and had great influence through his writings.
The main division in Israel is between the religious and the secular elements of society, both of which can go to extremes
Israel is also not immune to this problem of the relationship between religion and state. The main division in the country is between the religious and the secular elements of society, both of which can go to extremes. Radical religious parties can have far more influence because of the particularities of the electoral system. Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, operation also helped radical Jewish politicians win more support. Radicals from both sides indirectly support each other.
Turkiye is a perfect example of this division between religious and secular tendencies. Even Iran is changing. I am told by Iranian friends that in some areas of Tehran you might think you are in Paris, with art galleries and music concerts attended by a mixed audience and with women barely wearing their headscarves.
I may have simplified a complex problem for the sake of understanding it better. A new order in the region will have to resolve the issue of the relationship between religion and state, but there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Every society will have to find its own way of dealing with this regionwide challenge.
A new order is not announced on state television or through communiques; it evolves by millions of individuals going through a process of revising their ideas. We do not need aid, we need to get our act together. After more than 70 turbulent years in the history of the region, a new generation may be looking for something better.
**Nadim Shehadi is an economist and political adviser. X: @Confusezeus