LEBANON HAS THE RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF
Matt Bradley and Ziad Jaber and Alexander Smith
Sat, October 19, 2024
AITOU, Lebanon — The scene of carnage in northern Lebanon showed heartbreaking snippets of everyday family life.
A dead baby inside a destroyed pickup truck; a child’s severed arm buried in nearby rubble; toddler clothing and books shredded; flies swarming as officials collected body parts, some too small for body bags ending up in clear ziplock bags.
Pervading everything, the overwhelming stench of rotting flesh mixed with concrete dust at the scene where 23 people including two children were killed, according to local officials.
This was the aftermath of an airstrike Monday on the Lebanese Christian village of Aitou that Israel said had targeted a position held by Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group.
Until then, this region of hilly olive groves and winding, sea-view roads had been a relative haven, one that felt far away from the war dominating Beirut and the country’s south.
Just last week, the area “was calm; everything was quiet,” Illy Edwan told NBC News as he surveyed the wreckage of his villa, which was reduced to rubble in the blast, its insulation and inner structure ripped to pieces, an adjacent vehicle twisted open like a burnt pretzel.
“My house used to be three-story, but look at it today,” he added.
Illy Edwan, whose villa in Aitou, Lebanon, was destroyed in the blast.
Surrounding homes had glass and twisted metal strewn across their patios. Some nearby olive trees, laden with fruit ahead of the upcoming harvest, were also destroyed, their green leaves covered in gray soot from the explosion.
Hezbollah doesn’t usually have a presence here. But Edwan, who was not at home at the time of the bombing, said an official from the group had been visiting houses donating money to displaced people, some of whom had fled from southern Lebanon to escape the Israeli invasion, and asking about their concerns.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it had struck “a target belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in northern Lebanon,” and that the reports of civilian casualties were “under review” and “being examined.”
Calling for “a prompt, independent and thorough investigation,” Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said Tuesday that his organization had “real concerns” about the strike with respect to the “laws of war and principles of distinction, proportion and proportionality.”
Since Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Hamas launched its terror attacks on Israel, in which officials say 1,200 people were killed and around 240 were taken hostage, Hezbollah has been firing rockets and other projectiles into northern Israel, in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group. Israel’s offensive in Gaza since then has killed more than 42,000 people, according to health officials in the enclave.
Pages from a children’s book are strewn across the wreckage following an Israeli strike in Aitou, northern Lebanon, on Tuesday.
And for months, as the pair traded tit-for-tat attacks, more than 60,000 people were displaced from their homes in northern Israel, according to government tallies — and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli ministers cited this as the reason for launching a military campaign into southern Lebanon last month.
More than 2,300 people, including 127 children, have been killed in Lebanon since the Oct. 7 attack and an estimated 1.2 million have been displaced, according to Lebanese officials. A large number of these left their homes after Israel began its widespread bombing on Sept. 17, when pagers belonging to members of Hezbollah exploded across the country.
Since then, the Lebanese have suffered “the worst humanitarian crisis in decades,” the U.N.’s humanitarian office said in a statement Tuesday.
Lebanese people are “fleeing with almost nothing,” said Rema Jamous Imseis, Middle East director of the U.N.’s refugee office, adding that they were “being forced out into the open, they’re sleeping under the skies as they try to find their way towards safety and support.”
Some are choosing an unlikely route.
The port of Tripoli, 10 miles from Aitou, isn’t known for its beauty, much less its accommodations for civilian passengers. The grimy industrial hub is soundtracked by the banging of heavy machinery and creaking 40-foot containers being unloaded from ships docked here.
Still, hundreds of people are now turning to the city as one of the only ways to escape their homeland. Since Sept. 20, this previously passengerless terminal has launched seven ships to the southern Turkish port of Mersin, each vessel carrying up to 300 passengers paying $350 a head.
“People are scared, so they leave the airports and come to us, to the ships here,” said Mohamed Youssef, 57, the owner of a ship. “Everyone is exhausted, and the situation is very complicated,” he added. “So whoever can afford it travels. They travel however they can. If they can’t, they will remain in Lebanon.”
Emergency responders move a body bag following an Israeli strike in Aitou, Lebanon, on Tuesday.
It is a diverse exodus, evidenced by dusty vehicles from the 1990s alongside shiny Range Rovers and Porsches. While some wore smiles while completing their bureaucratic stamp work, for others the reality of their impending journey began to set in.
Nermin Khair, 28, said she had no plans to return with her daughter, Sandy, 3, and is temporarily leaving behind her husband, who said he will try to join her in a month’s time.
“It is my country but it makes us tired,” she said. “We left everything: We left our dreams, we left our stuff, we left everything here — my sisters, my brothers, everyone here.”
Her husband, Bashar Hanouf, 33, held his daughter’s hand as she and her mother walked the gangplank up to the waiting vessel. It’s up to him to figure out how, and when, he’ll get to see them again.
“I hate Lebanon. Every year we have a new situation,” he said. The family, he added, “is looking for a better life for my wife, my daughter. We have to.”
Matt Bradley and Ziad Jaber reported from Aitou and Alexander Smith from London.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Some Lebanese Americans endorse Harris, expect more Lebanon support
Andrea Shalal
Updated Fri, October 18, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris departs from Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids
By Andrea Shalal
GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (Reuters) -Some prominent Lebanese Americans on Friday endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris for president, saying in a letter that the U.S. had been "unrelenting" in its support for Lebanon under the Biden administration and they expect additional backing if Harris wins in November.
The endorsement came amid ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon that have killed at least 2,350 people over the last year, according to the Lebanese health ministry, with more than 1.2 million people displaced. Militant group Hezbollah has also fired on Israel and about 50 Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed.
Signatories include former members of Congress Donna Shalala and Toby Moffett, former President Barack Obama's onetime transportation secretary Ray LaHood, academics, CEOs and investors.
A number of Arab Americans and Muslims are abandoning the Democratic Party over the Biden administration's support for Israel in its war with Hamas.
More than 42,000 Palestinians have died in Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, health officials in the enclave say. The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting some 250 others.
Some Arab Americans and Muslims have declined to endorse Harris, while others are backing her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, or third-party candidate Jill Stein of the Green Party.
The letter was organized by Ed Gabriel, president of the American Task Force on Lebanon, a Washington policy group, in his personal capacity. Gabriel is one of several Arab American and Muslim leaders who met with Harris when she visited Flint, Michigan, on Oct. 4.
The signers wrote they had been reassured that their concerns about the violence in Lebanon and the need for economic and political reforms would be supported if Harris wins the Nov. 5 election. Her views stood in "stark" contrast to Trump, they wrote, without elaboration.
Trump's campaign had no immediate comment, but a source close to the campaign said it planned more outreach events in Michigan next week. Trump also stopped by a campaign headquarters in Hamtramck, a suburb of Detroit, on Friday.
Trump has called Israel's attacks on Lebanon "unacceptable," but has not laid out any strategy. His affiliates are trying to win Arab American votes, with the help of Lebanese American businessman Massad Boulos, whose son is married to Trump's daughter Tiffany.
"The Lebanese people have suffered terribly from the loss of innocent lives and massive displacement of families and one of the worst economic disasters in the world caused by wide-spread corruption. They cannot afford another long drawn out war that further destroys Lebanon," the letter said, as it called for a ceasefire.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Rod Nickel and Leslie Adler)
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