Deputy Mayor of Kafrah: Today we are proud of what the families gave and for their sacrifice. Due to their blood we are standing here and we are still here in this land and this village. Well stay till the end, till death or till victory.
Gadi Francis: This is an example of each and every southern Lebanese town…every Sunday a grand funeral is being held.
The Public Relations Department of Beirut Municipality issued a statement confirming that, following directives from Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Interior and Municipalities Minister Ahmad Al-Hajjar, and under the guidance of Beirut Governor Judge Marwan Abboud, the Beirut City Guard Regiment, in coordination with the Ramlet al-Bayda police station of the General Directorate of Internal Security Forces, completed the removal of all illegal tents erected on public and private properties in multiple areas of the capital.
This action is part of a comprehensive plan to address encroachments on public and municipal properties.
Following the removal process, debris, wooden remains, and waste were cleared, and the sites were thoroughly cleaned.
The Beirut Governorate emphasized that these measures are part of an ongoing plan to protect public and private properties, eliminate encroachments and violations, enhance public safety, and preserve order and the urban landscape. These efforts aim to ensure a safer and cleaner environment for the city’s residents and visitors, with field campaigns continuing across various districts and legal actions being taken against violators.
Days after the Shiite militia group erected images of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, with the phrase “Thank you, loyal Iran,” the banners were removed and replaced with others bearing the slogans “Lebanon First” and “Lebanon Unites Us.”
Those new banners, in turn, were burned Sunday by unknown assailants, reigniting the dispute and turning one of Lebanon’s most visible public gateways into a symbolic battleground between the party and the state.
Ghiyath Yazbek, a member of Parliament, told Alhurra that the state had a duty to remove the images, saying they violated the law and damaged the image of the state.
“If the state is unable to remove pictures hanging on the airport road, how will it be able to disarm Hezbollah?” he said.
Mohi Eddine al-Shehimi, a professor of law and foreign policy in Paris, told Alhurra that Lebanese law does not allow the display of images of foreign leaders or foreign flags in streets and public squares, except in cases related to diplomatic missions.
What is the purpose of an armed Hezbollah, outside of Lebanese state authority, if a state of peace exists with Israel?
If there are no more rockets launching into Northern Israel, and Israel isn’t bombing Southern Lebanon, the militia would be unnecessary.
That’s the actual threat that frightens Hezbollah.
From Al Jazeera:
The Hezbollah leader on Saturday condemned proposals to tie the Israeli withdrawal to the group’s disarmament. “Linking the Israeli withdrawal to the disarmament of the resistance throughout Lebanon is a very dangerous proposition that crosses all red lines,” he said.
Earlier, Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah representative in the parliament, said Lebanese authorities would not be able to enforce the framework agreement unless, with US support, “they go to civil war”.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that "Hezbollah supporters rode motorbikes through the streets of Beirut" including a central area near the parliament and along a road leading to the airport "in protest at the framework agreement announced between Lebanon and Israel", adding that they blocked at least one road with burning tyres.
People were seen riding motorbikes and chanting slogans along one road as well as Lebanese army temporary checkpoints set up along several streets of the capital.
According to the source, only American officials are promoting the idea of a ceasefire agreement, while military operations remain ongoing on the ground.
"The Americans are the only ones claiming there is an agreement," the source told Kurdistan24. "The attacks are continuing, and we will respond to every attack. Once Israel stops its attacks and completely withdraws from Lebanese territory, Hezbollah will stop its operations.
Addressing discussions within Lebanon about bringing all weapons under state control, the source rejected the possibility of Hezbollah surrendering its arms to the Lebanese state.
"We will not hand over our weapons under any circumstances," the source said, arguing that Hezbollah's weapons are intended to defend its land and people.
New York leads the world with 146 billionaires, the highest concentration of billionaire wealth in any city.
Chinese cities account for 34% of billionaires across the top 32 cities, with Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing all ranking in the global top four.
Asia is home to 58% of the billionaires represented in the ranking, highlighting the region’s growing role in wealth creation.
According to LBCI sources, and based on a letter received from Interpol by the Lebanese Public Prosecution at the Court of Cassation, an individual identified as R.T. was interrogated on suspicion of importing equipment allegedly used in the manufacture of drones for Hezbollah.
LBCI sources added that the suspect was detained and referred to the Government Commissioner at the Military Court, Judge Claude Ghanem, who ordered his continued detention and transferred him to First Military Investigative Judge Ghada Abu Alwan.
The Hezbollah chief extended his gratitude to Iranian officials involved in the negotiations, including Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
He also thanked Iranian Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Mojtaba Khamenei, President Masoud Pezeshkian, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian armed forces and the Iranian people.
“We saw them in the squares of Iranian cities and heard their demands to sacrifice their lives to save the resistance and its people,” he wrote.
Two US senior officials in Washington who spoke with i24NEWS outlined three core elements of the agreement. "The more that the Iranians are willing to work with us on their nuclear program, on verifying that they're not building a nuclear weapon, and on not funding radicalism and terrorism in the region, the more that they're going to be welcomed into the world economy," the first official said. "If they're willing to behave like a normal country, then we're willing to treat them like a normal country."
Not a condition of the deal is Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon. According to the second official: “The deal is a ceasefire, and it will not be a one-way ceasefire, meaning that if Iran is not able to control Hezbollah and if they attack Israeli positions or Israeli towns, Israel will have the right to defend themselves and respond.”
Media sources reported the death of Hezbollah commander Ali al-Hajj in an Israeli airstrike. The strike targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Sources indicated that the airstrike targeted a building in a densely populated area within Beirut’s southern suburbs, resulting in casualties, including a Hezbollah commander.
So far, there has been no official confirmation from either Israel or Hezbollah. The nature of the attack or its final toll remains unclear.
Hezbollah commander Ali al-Hajj killed in an airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs
“It’s clear why Tehran rejected the ceasefire,” Salam, who gives the impression of a man who thinks faster than he speaks, told The Times. “Tehran wanted to say Lebanon is a card in our pocket, that ‘we decide on Lebanon’s behalf … we are the decision-makers’.”
This was illustrative, Salam said. “If this tells you something it’s how much the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guards are in control not only of the military and security apparatus of Hezbollah but also of the decision-making.”
When the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, he called Nabih Berri, the Shia speaker, who held some leverage with the militants.
“‘Mr Speaker, I’m very concerned. I’m really troubled’,” Salam recalled telling Berri, who replied that he was planning to meet leaders of the militia that day. When Berri called him back a day later, he was optimistic. “He said, ‘I met them, and I’ve called to reassure you. Don’t worry, they won’t [join the war]’,” Salam recalled.
The U.S. and China are home to 55% of the world’s ultra-high-net-worth individuals.
The United States is home to 251,352 ultra-high-net-worth individuals, more than any other country in the world. China ranks second with 121,677, giving the two nations a combined total of over 373,000 ultra-rich residents.
“We congratulate you on your election and reaffirm our loyalty to your command, as we were to the martyred leader and to Imam Khomeini,” Qassem said. “We remain steadfast in supporting religion, justice and humanity until justice is achieved,” adding his wishes for the new leader’s success in fulfilling the aspirations of Iran and oppressed peoples worldwide.
Qassem expressed hope that the new leadership “will continue the revolutionary Islamic path — ideologically, politically, morally, and practically — to guide oppressed peoples toward justice and independence.”
Hezbollah criticized Lebanese political figures who accused Iran of destabilizing the region. The movement rejected what it called “baseless accusations” against Tehran and argued that some positions adopted by Lebanese officials effectively aligned with US and Israeli interests.
Hezbollah urged Lebanese authorities to “seize the opportunity” and reassess their relationship with Iran, arguing that closer engagement could help secure Israeli withdrawal from occupied areas, facilitate reconstruction efforts, return displaced residents, and secure the release of Lebanese detainees held by Israel.
The statement emphasized that Iran has consistently supported Lebanon politically, economically, and militarily, including during periods of reconstruction following Israeli attacks.
Hezbollah also expressed gratitude to Iran’s leadership, government, parliament, armed forces, and the IRGC for what it described as steadfast support for Lebanon and the Resistance.
“The issue of Lebanon is not only related to Iran,” said Farshad Shariat, a professor of political science at Imam Sadiq University. “It concerns the broader Islamic world.”
Developments in Lebanon, Shariat told Mondoweiss, are often viewed by Iranian political elites as part of a wider struggle over sovereignty, foreign intervention, and the future direction of the region.
“As with the question of Jerusalem, Lebanon is not seen merely as a local issue,” he said. “Many believe that all Muslim countries have responsibilities regarding these developments.”
Lebanon is becoming more than a regional flashpoint. It is emerging as a test case for a broader Iranian effort to redefine the terms on which future negotiations with Washington will be conducted.
Recent statements from Iranian officials suggest that Lebanon now occupies a far more central place in Tehran’s diplomatic calculations than it once did.
Retired Lebanese Brigadier General Bassam Yassin, who headed Lebanon's delegation during the US and UN-mediated maritime border negotiations with Israel in 2020, described the zones as designated areas where the Lebanese army would deploy.
"The army enters it, searches it and ensures that no weapons other than those belonging to the Lebanese state are present," Yassin told The New Arab.
He said the concept envisages dividing territory into multiple zones that would be implemented sequentially, with the army moving from one area to the next.
The zones are intended to function as gradual test areas where the Lebanese state can demonstrate exclusive authority before any possible expansion of the model elsewhere.
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Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who leads the country's Shiite Amal party that often aligns with Hezbollah, criticized the current ceasefire arrangement, saying the ceasefire declaration had been “booby-trapped with pilot zones without the entry of any actors.”
Lebanon's president and prime minister are criticizing Iran for rejecting the latest ceasefire deal between the Lebanese government and Israel.
PM Salam criticized Iran -- Hezbollah's patron and primary weapons and funding supplier -- for involving south Lebanon in its conflict with the United States and rejecting a new U.S.-mediated cease-fire understanding achieved between Lebanon and Israel in Washington on Wednesday.
He accused Iran of using south Lebanon and its people as "a bargaining chip" to improve the terms of its negotiations with Washington, saying the ongoing war "is not being fought for Lebanon's interests, but rather on Lebanese soil and at the expense of the Lebanese people."
President Aoun said military activities or military solution will never provide you with security and safety to the northern people, we are ready to sit and talk. Aren’t you fed up with war since 1948? Do you want really to live in peace? Let’s sit and talk. For the Israeli government. It’s a time … for the power of reason to prevail over the reason of power,”.
Lebanon and Israel have officially been in a state of war since Israel’s establishment in 1948.
The briefing explicitly noted the localized tracking of “dozens of Hezbollah elements” within the parameter of Tyre’s Christian Quarter, re-emphasizing that these geographic coordinates remain under constant 24/7 technological and intelligence surveillance amid the accelerating operational developments and high-intensity clashes rolling across the northern border theater. The Israeli military further claimed that the deliberate placement of military assets and personnel inside populated civilian sectors complicates ongoing kinetic operations, significantly compounding the volatile nature of the security environment across southern Lebanon.
In a parallel context, the Israeli military firmly reiterated that personnel operating within those highlighted domains “are not safe,” serving as an explicit military and political indicator that potential air and artillery strikes will continue targeting any sites or installations suspected of maintaining links to Hezbollah, whether embedded within or positioned outside residential zones.
A dramatic new twist has emerged in the Middle East crisis after a senior Lebanese official informed the Trump administration that Hezbollah is prepared to commit to a full and immediate ceasefire with Israel, even as Iran reportedly suspended negotiations with the United States over escalating Israeli actions in Lebanon.
Berri rejected Trump’s approach and instead proposed a broader ceasefire covering ground, air and maritime operations. The proposal would also require Israel to stop demolishing homes in southern Lebanon.
"We are sure Hezbollah will commit to a total ceasefire. We think it will be more productive. We know time is running out," Berry’s top adviser Ali Hamdan said. However, US and Israeli officials reportedly remain uncertain whether Berri can ultimately guarantee Hezbollah's compliance.
As Washington weighs Hezbollah's ceasefire signal against Iran's negotiating freeze, the future of a wider regional settlement now appears increasingly uncertain.