Day: April 7, 2023

Early this morning, the IDF informed UNIFIL that they will begin an artillery response to yesterday’s rocket launches.

Immediately after, UNIFIL personnel heard loud explosions around the city of Tyre.

UNIFIL’s Head of Mission and Force Commander, Major General Aroldo Lázaro, is speaking with authorities on both sides of the Blue Line.

Our liaison and coordination mechanisms are fully engaged.

Both sides have said they do not want a war.

The actions over the past day are dangerous and risk a serious escalation.

We urge all parties to cease all actions across the Blue Line now.

Source: National news agency – Lebanon

The Lebanese army announced, in a tweet on Friday that ” an army unit found a rocket launcher in the Marjayoun Plain containing a number of unfired missiles, and work is underway to dismantle it.”

Source: National news agency – Lebanon

The Israeli bombardment caused damage to a cattle barn today, as a missile fell near an army checkpoint at the entrance to Al-Rashidiyah, south of Tyre. The partial explosion of the missile killed 6 sheep and birds.

The bombing also caused damage to the electricity transformer in the Ras al-Ain area, and in the words of a project branching from the town’s pools, and damage to homes and cars as a result of the pressure caused by the bombing.

A number of Syrian families working in agriculture have been displaced from Ras al-Ain to remote areas due to the bombing.

Source: National news agency – Lebanon

Minister of National Defense Maurice Slim met in his office in Yarzeh with Italian Defense Minister Guido Crossetto and the accompanying delegation, in the presence of Italian Ambassador Nicoletta Bombardieri.

The meeting dealt with cooperation relations between the two countries and their development in all fields, especially in the military field.

Slim considered that the development taking place in the south “constitutes a direct threat to security and stability in the south.”

Emphasizing that Lebanon is committed to UN Security Council Resolution 1701, the minister stressed that “the army was and will remain keen on the highest levels of cooperation with UNIFIL and taking appropriate measures to control security and maintain stability and calm in the south and constant readiness to confront any aggression.”

Minister Slim praised the Italian participation in the international force in the south, UNIFIL, and the coordination between it and the Lebanese army units deployed in the international operations area. He thanked Italy for its continuous support to the army, especially the provision of humanitarian and military aid.

The minister also discussed with his visitor the issue of the displaced Syrians, stressing that “addressing the issue of the displaced Syrians in Lebanon also helps the efforts made in this direction.”

He also hoped to “support Lebanon’s position, which demands the return of the displaced Syrians to their country, before the international community.”

Crossetto

Crossetto expressed total readiness to cooperate and assist the Lebanese army and security apparatuses, noting the “high competence of the army and the strength of cooperation with the army of his country.”

He touched on the displacement crisis, expressing his country’s deep understanding of Lebanon’s suffering from the Syrian displacement crisis, which has weighed heavily on the economic and social situation, pointing out that he will convey the Lebanese position on displacement to Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni.

Crossetto addressed the issue of illegal immigration across the Mediterranean and the importance of cooperation to confront it, given the dangers it poses to the intended communities and the migrants themselves.

Source: National news agency – Lebanon

Lebanon will file a complaint with the United Nations against Israel’s aggression at dawn today on areas in southern Lebanon, the Foreign Ministry’s media office said Friday.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Abdullah Bou Habib, and after consulting with Prime Minister Najib Mikati, instructed Lebanon’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York to submit an official complaint to the UN Security Council, “as a result of the deliberate Israeli bombing and aggression at dawn today on areas in southern Lebanon, which constitutes a flagrant violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and a flagrant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1801, and threatens the stability that the Lebanese south enjoyed.

Source: National news agency – Lebanon

All of our thoughts and hearts travel to Thee in begging for Thy atonement for our sins, Maronite patriarch Bshara Rahi, uttered these traditional words in his Good Friday’s Stage of the Cross homily at the Chapel of the Resurrection in Bkirki today.

The patriarch read verses from the gospels of St. Luke, St. John and the Book of Revelation to invoke the tragic memory of Good Friday and Jesus’s ultimate death during the last Stage of the Cross in Golgotha/Jerusalem as recounted in the Christian New Testament tradition.

Rahi has been assisted during the service by two bishops and four priest with high-ranking Maronite leaders and laity comprising most of the congregation.

Source: National news agency – Lebanon