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More than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in the past year, while more than a million people are displaced. Israel has effectively declared war on half of Lebanon’s territory, while the population of the other half is living in fear of war spreading into the rest of the country.
Israel has ordered residents of more than 100 villages to leave their homes, rescue workers are being attacked, the nightly bombings by Israel are a trauma for much of the country and shelters are overwhelmed.
“I remember Albert Einstein's quote saying 'what counts the most is what cannot be counted.' The most terrible price has been paid by the victims,” said Karim Bitar, a professor of International Relations at Saint Joseph University in Beirut.
“What is also difficult to count and will be very important in the next few years is the psychological trauma that has been endured by millions of Lebanese,” he added.
In Beirut's Martyr's Square, dozens of displaced families camp out in the open while cars belonging to people who fled Israel's attacks jam the roads.
Hezbollah's war
The displacement is the result of a year of war between Hezbollah and Israel – a war “Hezbollah is responsible for dragging Lebanon into”, according to Khalil Helou, a retired Lebanese army general and a lecturing professor in geopolitics.
Hezbollah has engaged Israel in a cross-border conflict in support of its ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip since October 8, 2023 – the day after Hamas infiltrated Israel, setting off a series of events that set the region aflame.
Hezbollah always insisted it did not want a full-on war, but was ready for it if it was imposed – something that came to fruition last month.
In mid-September, thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah to avoid communication interceptions by Israel exploded simultaneously, setting off the Lebanon phase of Israel’s war to eradicate its enemies in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and Lebanon.
“I don't think that what anyone expected, be that inside or outside Lebanon, was just how badly Hezbollah would be damaged by these latest Israeli attacks,” said David Wood, senior Lebanon analyst at Crisis Group.
The government has largely been a helpless bystander while the Lebanese Army has stayed away.
What had been a low-intensity war suddenly became the major conflict Lebanon’s population had long feared was inevitable. Israel launched an air assault on various parts of Lebanon and Beirut, targeting Hezbollah’s command structure and weapons stores.
The party’s charismatic leader of three decades, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated in late September – leaving serious questions about Hezbollah’s ability to fight off a major Israeli ground and air invasion. By October, Israeli troops were in southern Lebanon.
Since then, as Hezbollah fights a ground battle with Israel on its own turf, at least eight Israeli soldiers have been killed – also raising serious questions about Israel’s entry into what could prove to be yet another un-win-able war.
Meanwhile, thousands of displaced people throughout Lebanon are still sleeping in streets and orchards, under shop awnings, and in abandoned, decrepit homes.
Israeli strikes on Beirut – in pictures
They are the unlucky thousands – of some 1.2 million people displaced by the Israeli air assault.
But perhaps they’re lucky to be alive. The Israeli assault has wiped out entire families, targeting different villages each day. Since Israel escalated its campaign on Hezbollah and Lebanon on September 16, more than 1,401 people have been killed. According to the UN, about 400,000 children have been displaced.
Lebanon has lost a lot of its friends in the international community
David Wood
“Doctors tell us of treating children who are bloodied, bruised, and broken, suffering both physically and mentally. Many are experiencing anxiety, flashbacks, and nightmares related to explosions,” said Unicef Regional Director Adele Khodr.
The Lebanese Army, regarded as paling in comparison in strength to Hezbollah, has maintained a policy of non-involvement.
Rebuilding
“It's obvious the immediate damage that the war has brought to Lebanon in terms of destroying things,” said David Wood, senior Lebanon analyst at Crisis Group.
“There's also this potential for domestic tensions to be inflamed, which is something that we are really worried about. That's a really serious issue and depending on how the war goes, it's likely to gather the wrong kind of momentum.”
There's also the cost of rebuilding. When Israel and Hezbollah last fought an all-out war in 2006, Lebanon could count on an array of powerful international friends to help rebuild. But many of them, chiefly the Gulf states, have significantly reduced their engagement – in large part because of Hezbollah.
“Lebanon has lost a lot of its friends in the international community. Its elites, through the complete pursuit of self-interest and wastefulness, have made any potential donors very reluctant to give money to the country,” said Mr Wood.
“Even in a best-case scenario if there was a quick resolution to the conflict, I struggle to imagine that reconstruction would be anything other than an incredibly painful and incomplete recovery.”
The country had already been entrenched in one of the worst economic crises in modern times. Efforts to correct the financial system and enact economic reforms were already dragging at a snail's pace – and the war has hardly helped matters.
Lebanon was hardly in the ideal situation before October 2023 and politicians and diplomats had warned that the country was unable to handle the impact that a wider war would inflict.
“Economic cost, human cost, cost in terms of mental health for an entire population and political cost in the sense that today Lebanon's very existence is jeapordised,” explained Prof Bitar.
“There is a serious risk of civil strife, of seeing Lebanese unity and national unity put to the test.”
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
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Company%20profile
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The five pillars of Islam
HEADLINE HERE
- I would recommend writing out the text in the body
- And then copy into this box
- It can be as long as you link
- But I recommend you use the bullet point function (see red square)
- Or try to keep the word count down
- Be wary of other embeds lengthy fact boxes could crash into
- That's about it
World Cricket League Division 2
In Windhoek, Namibia - Top two teams qualify for the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, which starts on March 4.
UAE fixtures
Thursday February 8, v Kenya; Friday February 9, v Canada; Sunday February 11, v Nepal; Monday February 12, v Oman; Wednesday February 14, v Namibia; Thursday February 15, final
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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ABU%20DHABI%20CARD
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Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
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Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Specs
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RESULT
RS Leipzig 3
Marcel Sabitzer 10', 21'
Emil Forsberg 87'
Tottenham 0
HIJRA
Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
Results
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
