The head of the Lebanese Phalange Party, MP Sami Gemayel, pointed out in a press conference in Bikfaya that “Lebanon is bleeding, and we are all going through the most difficult stages in our history. We are in pain with every scene we see of killing, victims, and homes being destroyed, and our country is gradually turning into a second Gaza,” stressing that “our pain is great in the face of what we see of destruction, and silence is no longer possible in the face of what the Lebanese are suffering.
We did not come today to hold anyone accountable, and it is not the time for evaluation and accountability, but the time for accountability will come.”
He called on Hezbollah to “end its support role and hand over its weapons and fighters to the Lebanese army. This is not surrender, but rather a return to the state and belonging and abandoning regional adventures. It is time to unite the path with the Lebanese people instead of Iran or Hamas or others. Only the Lebanese are paying the price .” He considered that “all justifications have fallen and we have heard all of Hezbollah’s narrative and we want to say no, no party or man can single-handedly drag all of Lebanon into war, this war is not defensive but rather a support war to support Hamas and have mercy on the Lebanese people, enough, stop this war”, explaining that “the war supporting Gaza is not our war, we can defend the Palestinians, but not at the expense of the Lebanese state, the goal of the support front is to distract the Israelis and Hezbollah took the decision to drag the Israeli crimes and you can stop it”. He added, “Hezbollah said that the support war is a negotiating card but the lives of the Lebanese are not a negotiating card, and who said that the failure of 100 thousand Israelis to return to northern Israel deserves killing and destruction? What will you say to the displaced, the wounded and those who lost their eyesight?
washadad ealaa ‘ana “kulun lubnaniin yajib ‘an yakun mrtahan wamutmayina, lidhalik ‘awqafuu airaqat aldima’ walqatl waldumue fahayaat allubnaniiyn wasalamatuhum ahum bikathir, waqarar waqf jabhat alaisinad yaeni fasl almasarat walailtizam bialqararat alduwaliat waldusturi”. fi siaq akhari, “karir aldaewat lifath majlis alnuwaab limunaqashat ma yahsul litaeud aldawlat watastalim zimam almubadarati, wanantakhib ryysan li’ana alshaeb rahinat min jihat hu rahinat hizb allah wamin jihat rahinat alt alharb alasarayiyliati, nahn tahawulna li’akyas raml wala naqbal bi’an tamura al’umur hakadha faqad tatawarat alaihadath wala buda min qawl alhaqiqati”
He stressed that “all the Lebanese want the bloodshed and killing to stop. emphasizing that the lives and safety of the Lebanese is much more important than any support role, stressing that the decision to stop the support role means adhering to international resolutions and the constitution.” In another context, “he repeated the call to open the parliament to discuss what is happening so that the state can return and take the initiative, and we can elect a president because the people are hostages on the one hand, hostages of Hezbollah and on the other hand hostages of the Israeli war machine, we have turned into sandbags and we do not accept this to go on as events have developed and the truth must be told.”
Gemayel’s comments come after Israel rejected proposals on Thursday for a ceasefire with Hezbollah, defying calls from allies including the United States for a halt in fighting.
“There will be no ceasefire in the north,”Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X. “We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organization with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes seeking safety in the face of the heaviest Israeli bombardment of Lebanon since a major war in 2006. World leaders have voiced concern that the conflict – running in parallel to Israel’s war in Gaza – was escalating rapidly.
Hezbollah has faced off against the Israeli military since the Shi’ite movement was created by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to counter an Israeli invasion of Lebanon. It has since evolved into Tehran’s most powerful Middle East proxy.
But Tehran seems to be distancing itself from Hezbollah.
More than 600 people have been killed since Monday in Israel’s strikes on Lebanon, which follow nearly a year of cross-border fire with Hezbollah in parallel with the Gaza war.
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of missiles at targets in Israel including, for the first time, its commercial hub Tel Aviv, although Israel’s aerial defence system has ensured that the damage has been limited.
After nearly a year of war against Hamas in Gaza, Israel is shifting its focus to the northern frontier, where Iran-backed Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas. The Israeli Air Force said it struck 1,600 Hezbollah targets on Sep. 23. Lebanon’s health ministry
said 492 people had been killed.
The Israeli military said it had attacked dozens of Hezbollah targets including fighters, military buildings and weapons depots, in several areas on Thursday morning.
Around 45 projectiles were fired from Lebanon towards the western Galilee area, some of which were intercepted with the rest falling on open ground, said the Israeli military.
The relentless fighting has led some neighbouring countries to worry about the safety of their citizens in Lebanon. Turkey is making preparations for the possible evacuation of its citizens and foreign nationals from Lebanon, a Turkish defence ministry source said.
Israel has made a priority of securing its northern border and allowing the return there of some 70,000 residents displaced by near-daily exchanges of fire, which Hezbollah initiated a year ago in solidarity with the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.
Israel’s airstrikes have sharply intensified since Monday, when more than 550 people were killed in Lebanon’s deadliest day since the end of a 1975-1990 civil war.
The bombing follows attacks last week when pagers and walkie talkies exploded across Lebanon, killing scores of people and wounding thousands including Hezbollah members.
Source: El Nashua
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.