The launch of three rockets from Lebanon towards Israel on Thursday raised the spectre of Lebanon-based militant groups becoming involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but analysts say that the incident was probably a one-off and that further escalation is unlikely for now.
The rockets were fired from Lebanon into the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of northern Israel and caused no damage, the Israeli military said.
Lebanese security officials refused to confirm or deny the incident. Several news agencies quoted unnamed Lebanese security forces confirming Israeli claims, saying the rockets were fired from the Qlaileh region, south of the coastal city of Tyre.
A spokesman for Unifil, the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, confirmed to The National that an unknown number of rockets were fired. But it was unclear where they had landed.
Unifil launched an investigation into the incident and urged “maximum restraint to prevent further escalation”.
Lebanon and Israel have been technically at war since the foundation of Israel in 1948.
The Lebanese Army issued a statement in the early hours of Friday saying that they had found three rockets in the Palestinian camp of Rashidieh, five kilometres south of Tyre. An army representative said the discovery was not linked to the rocket launch.
No individual or group has yet claimed responsibility and Lebanese security officials made arrest announcements.
Al Rashidieh camp is under the control of Palestinian party Fatah, which The National could not reach for comment. A Hamas official said the group had no knowledge of the incident.
Various Palestinian groups are represented in Lebanon's 12 official refugee camps, from which the Lebanese Army has been barred since the country's 1975-1990 civil war. These groups do not participate in national politics.
Anis Mohsen, a Palestinian journalist and human rights activist with family members in Al Rashidieh camp, said that the launch of the rockets was “just a personal action”.
“The rockets launched looked very old. These kinds of rockets can be found anywhere in the camp. So, it’s not a big deal,” he said.
In case of a war in the region, would the Israeli defence systems be capable of intercepting thousands of rockets?
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
Mr Mohsen said Palestinian officials were rumoured to have stopped several people involved in the launch. Officials usually hand over detainees to the Lebanese Army.
Palestinian factions in Lebanon have tried to stay under the radar since the end of the civil war, which they are still widely blamed for igniting. One exception is the small Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, which is not part of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and is aligned with Damascus. Israeli raids targeted the group's positions in east Lebanon in the summer of 2019.
The Lebanese political party Hezbollah is the strongest power-broker in the region. Allied with Iran and Hamas, Hezbollah has representatives in the Lebanese government and parliament and operates a powerful military wing that is present in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Hezbollah told Lebanese media that it had nothing to do with the rockets launched on Thursday night.
“Considering how embarrassed everyone is [by the incident], this might indicate solo action,” said Karim El Mufti, professor of political science at Saint Joseph University in Beirut.
“I’m sure that everything is being done under the co-ordination of Hezbollah so that there is no interference in the southern [Lebanon] front so far,” he said.
But the launch could also represent a "warning shot", he said.
"A lot of anti-Israeli factions in the region, including Hezbollah, could be aiming to put more pressure on Israel and the Biden administration in return for non-intervention in the Israel-Palestine conflict," he said.
US President Joe Biden has so far adopted a policy of avoiding engagement in Middle East issues, including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Arab diplomats told The National this week that Washington had ignored their urgent warnings about a crisis building up in Jerusalem for weeks.
Hezbollah's role is "to hold the front" unless Iran decides to escalate tension, said Prof El Mufti. Israeli media regularly claim that Hezbollah hides hundreds of thousands of rockets in Lebanon, ready to fire at Israel.
In a speech on Tuesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah praised Hamas for confronting Israel.
“In case of a war in the region, would the Israeli defence systems be capable of intercepting thousands of rockets?” he said.
For Prof El Mufti, Iran is using Hezbollah's military strength as a "bargaining chip" amid the ongoing clashes.
“Iran will use the war to advance its pawns with the Biden administration," he said. "Non-interference is a sign of goodwill. But the question is: what will they get in return?”
THE BIO
Age: 33
Favourite quote: “If you’re going through hell, keep going” Winston Churchill
Favourite breed of dog: All of them. I can’t possibly pick a favourite.
Favourite place in the UAE: The Stray Dogs Centre in Umm Al Quwain. It sounds predictable, but it honestly is my favourite place to spend time. Surrounded by hundreds of dogs that love you - what could possibly be better than that?
Favourite colour: All the colours that dogs come in
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
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From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
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