Hezbollah rejects timetable as Lebanese Cabinet discusses disarmament
"We do not agree to any timetable that is presented to be implemented under the umbrella of Israeli aggression," Qassem said in a speech in Beirut.
His remarks came as the Lebanese Cabinet held a session to debate the disarmament of the Iran-backed militia, following pressure from the United States for concrete steps towards disarmament.
The Cabinet met at the presidential palace in the presence of President Joseph Aoun to discuss the issue, with two ministers belonging to the Hezbollah party in attendance.
Qassem criticized a memorandum delivered by US envoy Tom Barak, describing it as 'a recipe for surrender, not stability.'
He emphasized that Hezbollah would not agree to a new deal while Israel continues to violate the existing ceasefire and Lebanon remains under pressure.
Before the recent war with Israel, the Shiite organization was one of the most heavily armed non-state actors in the world.
Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire after the beginning of the Gaza War in October 2023, eventually resulting in an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon.
A ceasefire came into effect in November 2024. According to the agreement, Hezbollah is to be disarmed initially in the south and near the border with Israel.
But the Israeli military is still launching almost daily attacks in Lebanon, citing the desire to enforce disarmament.
Israeli soldiers are also stationed at five posts in southern Lebanon.
The demand to disarm Hezbollah nationwide is politically risky for Lebanon's government.
There are fears that the country could slide into another political crisis if Hezbollah members withdraw from the government in protest.
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
5 minutes ago
- Axios
Trump doesn't oppose Netanyahu plan for full Gaza occupation: U.S. officials
President Trump does not oppose Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to launch a new military operation to occupy the entire Gaza Strip, U.S. and Israeli officials say. Why it matters: The Israeli Security Cabinet is expected to approve on Thursday a highly controversial plan to expand the war. According to the sources, Trump has decided not to intervene and to let the Israeli government make its own decisions. The big picture: The new operation to occupy additional areas of central Gaza, including Gaza City, is expected to take at least several months and involve displacing around 1 million Palestinian civilians. The Israel Defense Forces would also be moving into areas where Israel believes hostages are being held, possibly risking their lives. Netanyahu is poised to escalate the war despite massive international pressure to stop the fighting and prioritize the humanitarian crisis in the enclave — and over the objections of his own top generals. What they're saying: Two U.S. officials tell Axios Trump won't intervene in the Israeli decision-making around the new operation. When asked on Tuesday about a possible Israeli full occupation of Gaza, Trump said: "I really can't say. It is going to be pretty much up to Israel." Netanyahu and his aides claim Hamas isn't interested in signing a comprehensive ceasefire and hostage deal on terms Israel can accept, and that only military pressure can change that. "We are not willing to remain in the current limbo and we are not willing to surrender to Hamas' demands — so essentially only one option is left, to take a drastic step. This is the last card we have left," a Netanyahu aide told Axios. Behind the scenes: One U.S. official said Trump was moved by the video released by Hamas of an Israeli hostage digging his own grave. "It influenced the president, and he is going to let the Israelis do what they need to do," the official said. At the same time, the U.S. official said the Trump administration doesn't support Israeli annexation of parts of Gaza — another possibility discussed by Israeli officials. Between the lines: The IDF has been reluctant to attack the areas in Gaza that the new plan focuses on for fear of accidentally killing hostages. According to Israeli officials, IDF Chief of Staff Gen. Eyal Zamir told Netanyahu such a move would endanger the hostages and could lead to Israeli military rule in Gaza with full responsibility over 2 million Palestinians. "You are walking into a trap," Zamir told Netanyahu in a meeting on Tuesday, according to multiple reports in the Israeli press. It appears that Netanyahu was unmoved. Split screen: The White House plans to focus in the coming weeks on addressing the starvation crisis in Gaza, though the expansion of the war would make that more difficult. In a meeting Monday evening at the White House, Trump and special envoy Steve Witkoff discussed plans for the U.S. to significantly increase its role in providing humanitarian aid to Gaza. "The United States remains committed to helping alleviate the situation in Gaza and is supportive of efforts to increase humanitarian aid. However, the United States is not 'taking over' the aid effort," a U.S. official told Axios. What to watch: The Trump administration plans to increase its funding to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in order to open new aid centers in parts of Gaza to which displaced Palestinians will be relocated, both in north and central Gaza, sources say.
Boston Globe
5 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Dozens killed seeking aid in Gaza as Israel weighs further military action
Advertisement Another escalation of the nearly 22-month war could put the lives of countless Palestinians and around 20 living Israeli hostages at risk and would draw fierce opposition both internationally and within Israel. Netanyahu's far-right coalition allies have long called for the war to be expanded and for Israel to eventually take over Gaza, relocate much of its population, and rebuild Jewish settlements there. President Trump, asked by a reporter Tuesday whether he supported the reoccupation of Gaza, said he wasn't aware of the 'suggestion' but that 'it's going to be pretty much up to Israel.' Of the 38 Palestinians killed while seeking aid, at least 28 died in the Morag Corridor, an Israeli military zone in southern Gaza where UN convoys have been repeatedly overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds in recent days, and where witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire. Advertisement The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots as Palestinians advanced toward them, and that it was not aware of any casualties. Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, said another four people were killed in the Teina area, on a route leading to a site in southern Gaza run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American contractor. The Al-Awda Hospital said it received the bodies of six people killed near a GHF site in central Gaza. GHF said there were no violent incidents at or near its sites and that the one in central Gaza was not open on Wednesday. It said the violence may have been related to the chaos around UN convoys. Two of the Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza City, in the north of the territory, killing 13 people there, including six children and five women, according to the Al-Ahli Hospital, which received the bodies. The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its militants are entrenched in heavily populated areas. Israel facilitated the establishment of four GHF sites in May after blocking the entry of all food, medicine, and other goods for 2 1/2 months. Israeli and US officials said a new system was needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off humanitarian aid. The United Nations, which has delivered aid to hundreds of distribution points across Gaza throughout the war when conditions allow, has rejected the new system, saying it forces Palestinians to travel long distances and risk their lives for food, and that it allows Israel to control who gets aid, potentially using it to advance plans for further mass displacement. Advertisement The UN human rights office said last week that some 1,400 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid since May, mostly near GHF sites but also along UN convoy routes where trucks have been overwhelmed by crowds. It says nearly all were killed by Israeli fire. This week, a group of UN special rapporteurs and independent human rights experts called for the GHF to be disbanded, saying it is 'an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law.' The experts work with the UN but do not represent the world body. The GHF called their statement 'disgraceful' and urged the UN and other aid groups to work with it 'to maximize the amount of aid being securely delivered to the Palestinian people in Gaza.' The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots when crowds threatened its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray and fired into the air on some occasions to prevent deadly crowding at its sites. Israel's air and ground war has destroyed nearly all of Gaza's food production capabilities, leaving its people reliant on international aid. A new report by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN satellite center found that just 8.6 percent of Gaza's cropland is still accessible following sweeping Israeli evacuation orders in recent months. Just 1.5 percent is accessible and undamaged, it said. The military offensive and a breakdown in security have made it nearly impossible for anyone to safely deliver aid, and aid groups say recent Israeli measures to facilitate more assistance are far from sufficient. Advertisement Hospitals recorded four more malnutrition-related deaths over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 193 people, including 96 children, since the war began in October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Jordan said Israeli settlers blocked roads and hurled stones at a convoy of four trucks carrying aid bound for Gaza after they drove across the border into the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli far-right activists have repeatedly sought to halt aid from entering Gaza. Jordanian government spokesperson Mohammed al-Momani condemned the attack, which he said had shattered the windshields of the trucks, according to the Jordanian state-run Petra News Agency. The Israeli military said security forces went to the scene to disperse the gathering and accompanied the trucks to their destination.
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Opinion - Antisemitism's newest safe space: Teachers' unions
At Nysmith School in Virginia, three Jewish siblings were expelled after their parents notified the headmaster about the relentless antisemitic bullying faced by one of the daughters. At Concord-Carlisle High School in Massachusetts, students gave Nazi salutes in school hallways, divided themselves into teams called 'Team Auschwitz' and 'Team Hamas' during athletic games, drew swastikas in notebooks and on school property and told Jewish students to 'go to the gas chamber.' At Etiwanda School District in California, a 12-year-old Jewish student was beaten by another student, and when she called for help, she was told to 'shut [her] stupid Jewish ass up.' You have likely seen the recent onslaught of antisemitism in K-12 schools. But is it surprising that Jewish and Israeli K-12 students are experiencing antisemitism in schools, when so many teachers unions are promoting antisemitic curricula and engaging in anti-Israel political advocacy? Nor should it be surprising that, across the country, Jewish teachers are facing the same antisemitism, only from their own peers, employers and the very people who are supposed to be protecting them from this kind of harassment in the first place — their unions. In many instances, teachers unions play a role in curriculum development, resolve disputes between teachers and administrators and address issues related to school resources. Unions are also the bargaining representative of teachers. As such, federal labor law imposes on a union the legal duty to fairly represent all its employees. Unions cannot choose to favor one protected identity over another or facilitate discrimination against a group of its members. By developing antisemitic curricula and encouraging teachers to include discriminatory materials and propaganda in the classroom, the bias is clear. The Massachusetts Teachers Association, the state's largest teacher union, released a curriculum resource list earlier this year whose materials on the Israel-Palestine conflict not only heavily favored the anti-Israel narrative, but were also outwardly antisemitic. They included, for example, a poster that read, 'Zionists f— off' and a replica of the Star of David made out of folded dollar bills. When some union members pushed back against this, the union's board of directors claimed that the protesters were 'weaponizing' antisemitism to 'suppress learning about the Palestinians.' Three thousand miles away in California, unions have come under fire for similar actions. Last year, the United Teachers of Los Angeles union tried to implement a vehemently antisemitic and one-sided 'liberated ethnic studies curriculum' that identifies Israel as a 'colonialist,' and 'settler state,' created through 'genocide,' 'ethnic cleansing' and 'apartheid.' The Oakland Teachers Association encouraged teachers to bring unauthorized materials — including a book for elementary students with the lesson, 'I is for Intifada, Intifada is Arabic for rising up for what is right, if you are a kid or a grown-up!' — into the classroom, and vowed to protect teachers who faced discipline for doing so. Following in their neighbor's footsteps, the California Teachers Association recently opposed a bill that would strengthen the state's capacity to prevent and respond to antisemitism. The bill, which passed the state assembly unanimously, would strengthen anti-discrimination protections, increase accountability for schools and districts, establish California's first-ever State Antisemitism Coordinator to lead statewide efforts, and more. Opponents of the bill claim that it would be 'weaponized to silence critical perspectives on Palestine and global injustice and sets a troubling precedent for censorship in our state.' This kind of underhandedness isn't just happening at the state level. The most prominent national teachers union — in fact, the largest labor union in the country — is the National Education Association. Its annual Representative Assembly debated last month whether Jewish American Heritage Month was worth recognizing. Attendees discredited rates of antisemitism in schools. Members also endorsed a proposal to cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, which was ultimately unsuccessful. According to a joint letter from numerous Jewish organizations to National Education Association leadership, Jewish attendees who spoke out against the resolution were harassed and ostracized, left fearing for their safety, and felt abandoned by their union. Through these actions, teachers unions are putting all other identities above 'Jewish.' They are saying that discrimination and harassment is okay, as long as it's against one of the Jewish members. Not only are actions such as these — actions by the group that is tasked with protecting its members — morally reprehensible, they are illegal. When a union violates its duty to fairly represent the interests of its Jewish employees, it also violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Unfortunately, teachers unions are not unique cases. Jewish union members in every sector are feeling isolated as labor unions continue to adopt more anti-Zionist approaches in their workplace, as evidenced in Brandeis Center's recent legal claims brought against the unions of New York Legal Assistance Group and the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys. From posters that supported Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre to retaliatory expulsions, Jewish union members are being shunned or outwardly harassed, their concerns silenced and their heritage spat on. They are being told that they are not worthy of protection because of where they are from and who they are. Teachers unions have extraordinary power to make positive change, including the power to fight antisemitism now and in future generations. They must acknowledge their role in molding young minds and take responsibility for protecting children from bigotry in the classroom. Without action by union leaders to discourage the use of antisemitic materials and language, Jewish teachers feel ostracized in union spaces, and Jewish children will feel unsafe in their own classrooms. But it's not just the unions: Parents, educators, policymakers and community leaders must insist on zero tolerance for antisemitism in our schools and unions alike, including ensuring curricula are free from bias and propaganda. If we fail to act now, we allow hatred to shape our children's education and their future. Kenneth L. Marcus is the chairman and CEO of The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the former assistant secretary for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Education under two administrations. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
