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The Lebanese military will begin implementing its plan to disarm Iran-backed Hezbollah, the government said on Friday following a cabinet meeting, amid opposition from the group and its allies.The cabinet discussed the plan on Friday despite a walkout by Shiite ministers in protest at the proposals.In August, the Lebanese government ordered the military to draw up plans to disarm the once-dominant militant group by the end of the year, having come under pressure from the United States and Israeli strikes.In a statement after Friday’s meeting, information minister Paul Morcos said that Beirut welcomed the army’s proposed measures “to extend the state’s authority through its own forces and to restrict the possession of weapons to legitimate authorities”.Responding to questions from journalists, Morcos said “the Lebanese army will begin implementing the plan, but in accordance with the available capabilities, which are limited in terms of logistics, material and human resources”.The cabinet decided to keep the details of the army’s plan confidential according to the statement, but Morcos said the military would “submit a monthly report on the matter to the cabinet”.Five Shiite ministers, including those from Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement, walked out of the meeting, with the Lebanese armed group adamant it would hold onto its weapons.The walkout happened as Lebanon’s army chief entered the meeting to present a plan for disarming the group, local media reported.Hezbollah and Amal ministers have now walked out of cabinet meetings three times over the disarmament issue.Multi-confessional Lebanon has a sect-based power-sharing system in which legitimacy unofficially derives from consensus.The government says disarming Hezbollah is part of implementing the US-brokered ceasefire agreement from November that ended over a year of hostilities between the group and Israel. – Israeli strikes -The cabinet session came amid intensified Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon over the past two days, which killed at least five people, according to the health ministry and the state-run National News Agency.David Wood, a senior Lebanon analyst at the International Crisis Group, told AFP that “Israel is trying to send a message that only concrete action on disarmament, rather than pledges and words, will do the job”.In August, the government agreed to objectives outlined in a US paper presented by Washington’s envoy Tom Barrack. The paper included details on the timetable and mechanism for dismantling Hezbollah’s arsenal, and stipulated Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon. Beirut said at the time that “the Israeli side has not yet shown any commitment” to the contents of the American proposal and “has not taken corresponding steps” in exchange for Lebanon’s commitment. It insisted any progress in implementing the paper was conditional on other parties, primarily Israel.- Power shift -In late August, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said “the path of monopolising arms, extending state authority and monopolising decisions on war and peace is a path that has begun and there is no turning back”.Ahead of the session, posters depicting Salam and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun were put up in the streets of Beirut with the caption: “We are all with you. One army, one arsenal, one state. A new era for Lebanon”.Hezbollah was the most powerful political force in Lebanon before its most recent war with Israel, able to sway and disrupt governments. The balance of power has since shifted, with Hezbollah badly weakened by the war as well as the overthrow of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria.”A solution must be found, and it is preferable that it be done in a proper manner, and that disarmament be achieved through mutual understanding,” Abdul Rahman Trabulsi, a 60-year-old Beirut resident, said, adding that he believes Hezbollah’s role “has ended”.In contrast, Ali Khalil, a 20-year-old restaurant worker, said that “weapons will not be taken, it’s impossible,” adding, “let them go first and fix the government and the state, then think about the weapons”.”If they decide today to seize the weapons, there will be a confrontation,” he added.Hezbollah was the only group to keep its weapons after Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, doing so in the name of resistance against Israel, which occupied the south until 2000.

At its premiere, a powerful new Gaza film at the Venice Film Festival sparked 23 minutes of sustained applause. But the next day hate emails flooded in, the director said Friday.”The Voice of Hind Rajab” from French-Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania is a strong contender for the festival’s Golden Lion to be awarded Saturday. It has already garnered the support of famous Hollywood names attached as executive producers. Between Wednesday night, after the film’s premiere, and Thursday, “my producers, including the well-known American names Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix, had their mailboxes flooded with thousands and thousands” of intimidating messages, Ben Hania told AFP. The same message, sent over and over, was “super intimidating,” she added. The film covers the last minutes of the life of a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli fire last year while trying to escape Gaza with her family. It uses real-life recordings of the desperate telephone calls she made to the Red Crescent rescue service.Ben Hania procured the audio from the Red Crescent — with the permission of the Hind Rajab’s mother — but employed actors to portray the emergency workers who struggled to coordinate her rescue as Israeli tanks got ever closer. The director has said the dramatisation is “very close to what they experienced”.Ben Hania told AFP that, after hearing about Hind Rajab’s death in January 2024, she felt “a lot of anger, a lot of despair, but also a sense of ‘What can I do?'”Cast members told a press conference they felt it their “duty” to make the film. Regardless, “I didn’t make this film to keep people comfortable in their seats,” Ben Hania told AFP. “The Voice of Hind Rajab” received strong reviews, with critics citing its emotionally devastating audio recordings, although some pointed to a moral grey area in their use.   The Guardian said that, with her film, Ben Hania was “grabbing one of the most relevant issues of our time with both hands and finding a way to thrust it under our noses”. The movie, which will be released in Tunisia later this month, does not yet have a US distributor. Tunisia has already chosen the film as its entry for the 2026 Academy Awards. Next up for the film is the Toronto International Film Festival, then festivals in London, San Sebastian and Busan.The Venice premiere, the festival circuit, and a potential run for the Oscars, is “very important”, Ben Hania said. “For a film like this, it allows enormous visibility. And I want the film to be seen a little bit everywhere in the world.

The Israeli military destroyed a high-rise in Gaza City on Friday, shortly after announcing it would target tall buildings identified as being used by Hamas ahead of its planned seizure of the urban hub.Despite mounting pressure at home and abroad to halt its nearly two-year offensive in Gaza, Israel has been calling up reservists, intensifying its bombardments and closing in on Gaza City ever since announcing its intention to capture the Palestinian territory’s largest city.In a statement Friday, the military said it had “identified significant Hamas terrorist activity within a wide variety of infrastructure sites in Gaza City, and particularly in high-rise buildings”, adding it would target those sites “in the coming days”.Less than an hour later, it said it had struck one such high-rise, accusing Hamas of using it “to advance and execute attacks against troops in the area”.AFP footage showed the Mushtaha Tower in the city’s Al-Rimal neighbourhood collapsing after a massive explosion at its base, sending a thick cloud of smoke and dust billowing into the sky.AFP photographs of the aftermath showed Palestinians inspecting the rubble and debris of the collapsed building.The army said that before the strike, “precautionary measures were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians”, including prior warnings.Arej Ahmed, a 50-year-old displaced Palestinian who lives in a tent in the southwest of Gaza City, told AFP that her husband “saw residents of the Mushtaha Tower throwing their belongings from the upper floors to take them and flee before the strike”.”Less than half an hour after the evacuation orders, the tower was bombed,” she said by telephone.- ‘No safe place’ -Gaza civil defency agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal accused Israel of carrying out “a policy of forced displacement against civilians” in its targeting of high-rise buildings.The agency said Israeli strikes in and around Gaza City killed at least 19 people, among at least 32 Palestinians killed across the territory on Friday.Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military requested timeframes and coordinates to comment on specific strikes.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.”The news about Israel beginning to bomb towers and apartment buildings is terrifying,” said Ahmed Abu Wutfa, 45, who lives in his relatives’ partially destroyed fifth-floor apartment in western Gaza City.”My children are terrified, and so am I. There is no safe place — we only hope that death comes quickly.”A member of Hamas’s political bureau, Izzat al-Rishq, said Israeli claims the militant group was operating in the high-rises were “nothing but flimsy pretexts and blatant lies.” The United Nations estimates that nearly one million people live in Gaza City and its surroundings, an area where it last month declared a famine. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged Israel to stop the “catastrophe” of people starving to death in Gaza, where the health ministry says more than 370 people have died from malnutrition since the war began. Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot meanwhile told AFP that the European Union was “not living up to its responsibilities in this enormous humanitarian crisis”.- ‘Gates of hell’ -Defence Minister Israel Katz said “the bolt has now been removed from the gates of hell in Gaza,” vowing to intensify operations until Hamas accepts Israel’s terms to end the war.Israel expects its new offensive will displace around a million people towards the south.Seven hundred days after its attack on Israel that sparked the war, Hamas’s armed wing released footage purporting to show two hostages seized in the assault alive in Gaza City late last month.The video shows hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal in a car calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to carry out the planned offensive on Gaza City.  It later shows him meeting another captive, Alon Ohel — the first time he has been seen in a video since his abduction during the October 2023 attack.The prime minister’s office said Netanyahu had spoken with the families of both hostages.Relatives and supporters of the hostages rallied in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Friday to demand a deal to secure their release.Of the 251 hostages seized during the Hamas attack, 47 are still in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

The Israel-Premier Tech team insists it will ride on in the Vuelta a Espana, even though repeated roadside pro-Palestinian protests forced one stage to be curtailed and several of its riders say they are scared.The third most important race in the international calendar started in Italy on August 23 and once it entered Spain four days later, demonstrators began lining roads waving red, green, black and white Palestinian flags.Protestors have run into the road, some have attempted to lie in the path of the peloton. At times riders have had to swerve or stop.”The management and especially the riders are afraid. They are exposed on their bikes and we don’t know what might happen,” Eric Van Lancker, one of Israel-Premier Tech’s two sporting directors, said.Italian rider Simone Petilli, who rides for the Intermarche-Circus-Wanty team, crashed Tuesday after encountering one protest.On Wednesday, organisers cut short the 11th stage in Bilbao by three kilometres (1.8 miles) after protesters and police clashed near the finish line. The race was again briefly halted during Friday’s stage. “We are afraid. We are being subjected to insults and all kinds of verbal attacks, it’s hard,” the team’s other sporting director, Spaniard Oscar Guerrero, told Onda Cero radio.Israel-Premier Tech is a private organisation and not a state team like UAE, for example. The team enjoys enhanced security protection during races and has long asked its riders not to wear jerseys bearing the word “Israel” when training to avoid being targeted.”I imagine that some of our riders are thinking of withdrawing, and if that were the case, the team would not prevent them from doing so,” Van Lancker, a Belgian who is not at the race but is in contact with his colleagues, told the Flemish media outlet De Ochtend.Since the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, several races, including the Tour de France, have been marked by pro-Palestinian demonstrations.But the scale of the protests during this 80th edition of the Vuelta has reached a new level in a country where support for the Palestinian cause is strong.Some members of Spain’s left-of-centre government have encouraged the protesters. Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz praised Spain’s “commitment in the face of genocide”.Israel-Premier Tech is owned by Sylvan Adams, 66-year-old Israeli-Canadian property developer who says he is a “self-proclaimed ambassador for Israel”The team has one Israeli rider, Nadav Raisberg, in its Vuelta squad. “It’s hard for me to express an opinion on what’s happening in Gaza,” said sporting director Guerrero, “but I’m not happy with what I’m seeing and many people in the team are not happy with what’s happening in Gaza.”- ‘Massive support’ -Cycling administrators are also divided.The Vuelta technical director Kiko Garcia, said that, for the safety of the peloton, Israel-Premier Tech should withdraw.Several competitors from other squads also called for the team to quit on a WhatsApp group run by the riders’ union.The sport’s global governing body, the International Cycling Union (UCI), “strongly condemned” the “actions” of the protesters in Bilbao and reiterated “the fundamental importance of political neutrality in sporting competitions within the Olympic movement”.Withdrawing the Israel team would “set a dangerous precedent”, said team owner Adams, who welcomed the “massive support” of UCI President David Lappartient.”If we give up, it will be the end not only of our team but of all the others as well. Tomorrow, they will protest against the Bahrain, UAE and Astana teams. There would be endless boycotts,” Adams told Israeli media outlet Sports Channel on Friday.Adams called the protesters “terrorists” because they are “violent people” filled with “hatred”.Protests are planned along much of the route through to the final stage on September 14 in Madrid — another hotspot for Palestinian solidarity. Adams said he was convinced the team would make it to the finish line.Israel’s retaliatory offensive to the 2023 Hamas attacks has killed at least 64,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot told AFP Friday that the EU’s credibility on foreign policy was “collapsing” due to the bloc’s failure to act over Israel’s war in Gaza.”It is undeniable, we are not going to bury our heads in the sand, that the European Union at this stage is not living up to its responsibilities in this enormous humanitarian crisis,” Prevot said in an interview at his office in Brussels.Belgium has said it will recognise the State of Palestine at this month’s UN General Assembly, while unilaterally imposing new sanctions against Israel, in view of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.That move comes as the EU has so far failed to take action against Israel in the face of the dire situation in Gaza, because of deep divisions among its 27 member states.”It is clear that, in the eyes of the public, the credibility of the European Union’s foreign policy on this particular issue is collapsing,” Prevot said.The EU’s executive in July proposed cutting funding to Israeli start-ups over the war, but so far the move has not got the backing of a majority of countries.Prevot said Belgium’s decision on recognising the State of Palestine and sanctioning some Israeli ministers was meant to send a “strong political and diplomatic signal” to the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.The recognition will take legal effect via royal decree, subject to two conditions: the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, and the militant group’s full exclusion from Palestinian governance.Prevot said the aim was to “put pressure on the Israeli government to respond as quickly as possible to the humanitarian emergency” in Gaza.”There is a moral obligation, and there is also a legal imperative to act; countries are parties to international conventions and treaties that oblige them to take all necessary measures to prevent genocide from occurring,” said Belgium’s top diplomat.”We must be proactive defenders of international law.”In July, French President Emmanuel Macron said France would recognise a Palestinian state at the UN meeting, due to be held from September 9 to 23 in New York.More than a dozen other Western countries have since called on others to do the same.

China said Friday it would impose temporary anti-dumping duties on European Union pork imports, delivering another blow to shaky ties between the economic powerhouses as Brussels vowed to protect its producers. The two sides have navigated a challenging relationship in recent years, complicated greatly by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.Chinese authorities launched the probe into European …

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Shiite ministers walked out of a Lebanese cabinet meeting Friday called to discuss efforts to disarm Hezbollah, state media reported, with the group adamant it would hold onto its weapons.The walkout by five ministers, including those from Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement, happened as Lebanon’s army chief entered the meeting to present a plan for disarming the group, local media reported.The official National News Agency (NNA)reported that they had left the meeting, but did not say why. The Lebanese government had ordered the military to draw up plans to disarm the once-dominant militant group by the end of the year, having come under pressure from the United States and Israeli strikes.Hezbollah and Amal ministers have three times now walked out of cabinet talks over disarmament. Multi-confessional Lebanon has a sect-based power-sharing system in which legitimacy unofficially derives from consensus.Politics in the multi-confessional country is delicately balanced along confessional lines, with Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and Druze all represented. Hezbollah reiterated its opposition to the move on Wednesday, with its parliamentary bloc calling on Lebanese authorities to “reverse their… unpatriotic decision”.The government says disarming Hezbollah is part of implementing the US-brokered ceasefire agreement from November that ended over a year of hostilities between the group and Israel. – Israeli strikes -Friday’s cabinet session comes amid intensified Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon over the past two days, which killed at least five people, according to the health ministry and the NNA.David Wood, a senior Lebanon analyst at the International Crisis Group, told AFP that “Israel is trying to send a message that only concrete action on disarmament, rather than pledges and words, will do the job”.Should the cabinet approve the plan, Wood said Hezbollah could consider other options like pressuring Shiite ministers to resign or “trying to organise mass protests”.In an attempt to ease tensions, speaker of parliament and head of the Amal movement Nabih Berri had called on Sunday for discussions to be “a calm and consensual dialogue”.Fadi Makki, the only Shiite minister not affiliated with Hezbollah or Amal who also walked out on Friday, told AFP before the meeting began that there were “no details yet” on the army’s plan.In late August, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said “the path of monopolising arms, extending state authority and monopolising decisions on war and peace is a path that has begun and there is no turning back”.Ahead of the session, posters depicting Salam and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun were put up in the streets of Beirut with the caption: “We are all with you. One army, one arsenal, one state. A new era for Lebanon”.- Power shift -Hezbollah was the most powerful political force in Lebanon before its most recent war with Israel, able to sway and disrupt governments. The balance of power has since shifted, with Hezbollah badly weakened by the war as well as the overthrow of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria.”A solution must be found, and it is preferable that it be done in a proper manner, and that disarmament be achieved through mutual understanding,” Abdul Rahman Trabulsi, a 60-year-old Beirut resident, said, adding that he believes Hezbollah’s role “has ended”.In contrast, Ali Khalil, a 20-year-old restaurant worker, said that “weapons will not be taken, it’s impossible,” adding, “let them go first and fix the government and the state, then think about the weapons”.”If they decide today to seize the weapons, there will be a confrontation,” he added.The group’s leader Naim Qassem accused Lebanon’s government of handing the country to Israel by pushing for its disarmament.Qassem also said Hezbollah and Amal had postponed a previous call for protest to allow room for discussion and “to make adjustments before we reach a confrontation that no one wants”.However, he added, “if it is imposed on us, we will face it”.Hezbollah was the only group to keep its weapons after Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, doing so in the name of resistance against Israel, which occupied the south until 2000.

The Lebanese government began discussing on Friday an army plan to disarm Hezbollah, which the Iran-backed militant group says plays into the hands of Israel and the United States.In August, under heavy US pressure and fearing Israel would intensify its strikes, Lebanon’s government ordered the army to draw up a plan for disarming Hezbollah by the end of the year.Hezbollah reiterated its opposition to the move on Wednesday, with its parliamentary bloc calling on Lebanese authorities to “reverse their… unpatriotic decision”.Local media reported Shiite ministers, including representatives of Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement, were at the meeting Friday, after pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al Akhbar said they may refuse to discuss the plan.The government says disarming Hezbollah is part of implementing the US-brokered ceasefire agreement from November that ended over a year of hostilities between the group and Israel. Friday’s cabinet session comes amid intensified Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon over the past two days, which killed at least five people, according to the health ministry and the state-run National News Agency.David Wood, a senior Lebanon analyst at the International Crisis Group, told AFP that “Israel is trying to send a message that only concrete action on disarmament, rather than pledges and words, will do the job”.Should the cabinet approve the plan, Wood said Hezbollah could consider other options like “imposing pressure on the Shiite ministers to resign from the government” or “trying to organise mass protests”.In an attempt to ease tensions, speaker of parliament and head of the Amal movement Nabih Berri called on Sunday for discussions to be “a calm and consensual dialogue”.Fadi Makki, the only Shiite minister not affiliated with Hezbollah or Amal, told AFP before the meeting began that there were “no details yet” on the army’s plan.- ‘New era’ -In late August, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said “the path of monopolising arms, extending state authority and monopolising decisions on war and peace is a path that has begun and there is no turning back”.Ahead of the session, posters depicting Salam and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun were put up in the streets of Beirut with the caption: “We are all with you. One army, one arsenal, one state. A new era for Lebanon”.Hezbollah was the most powerful political force in Lebanon before its most recent war with Israel, able to sway and disrupt governments. The balance of power has since shifted, with Hezbollah badly weakened by the war as well as the overthrow of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria.”A solution must be found, and it is preferable that it be done in a proper manner, and that disarmament be achieved through mutual understanding,” Abdul Rahman Trabulsi, a 60-year-old Beirut resident, said, adding that he believes Hezbollah’s role “has ended”.The group’s leader Naim Qassem accused Lebanon’s government of handing the country to Israel by pushing for its disarmament.Qassem also said Hezbollah and Amal had postponed a previous call for protest to allow room for discussion and “to make adjustments before we reach a confrontation that no one wants”.However, he added, “if it is imposed on us, we will face it”.Hezbollah was the only group to keep its weapons after Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, doing so in the name of resistance against Israel, which occupied the south until 2000.