According to the newspaper, “the first of these developments is Israel’s general election. The international conference to support the Lebanese Army has also been, and remains, a central issue for the President of the Republic, through which he seeks to demonstrate the solid popular base supporting the Lebanese president’s negotiating approach and preventing a return to a devastating war. This dimension was strongly evident yesterday during President Joseph Aoun’s tour of Nabatieh and its surrounding areas, which reinforced calls for state legitimacy alone to prevail in the south and for the rejection of unauthorized weapons.”
President Aoun’s tour appeared to respond to an appeal from residents of Nabatieh and its surrounding areas. Amid expressions of welcome, confidence in the state and faith in its institutions, President Aoun arrived early at the government headquarters in Nabatieh under tight security and amid a Lebanese Army deployment. The Army had begun positioning itself in Nabatieh’s neighborhoods two days earlier as part of its deployment plan in South Lebanon.
Addressing residents who warmly welcomed him, Aoun said: “The purpose of my visit to Nabatieh is to assess the needs of the citizens,” noting that “there are no new negotiations with Israel at the present time.”
He continued: “It was my duty to come here a long time ago, but circumstances did not allow it. Today I am here, and our objective is clear. I have repeated it hundreds of times and will continue to do so: Israeli withdrawal, the return of the prisoners, the return of our displaced people to their towns and villages, and the reconstruction of the south. This is an objective that is clear to everyone, and I cannot imagine anyone disagreeing with it.”
A number of Nabatieh residents welcomed President Aoun and the accompanying delegation, to whom he said: “It is our duty to remain by your side, and we will never abandon you.” He added: “The reason for my visit to Nabatieh alongside the heads of the security agencies and the Army commander is to tell you that we stand by you, and that we are working to provide sufficient services to enable you to remain here and to ensure your security.”
President Aoun added: “We hope that the wound of the south will be closed once and for all. The people of the south have the right to live in safety, to build their homes knowing that they will not be demolished or destroyed, to cultivate their land and live with dignity, and to enjoy lasting security after continuous suffering since 1969, generation after generation. We lived through war, but must our children suffer through it as well? Is it not our duty to enable them to live with dignity? This is our duty toward all of Lebanon, and particularly toward the people of the south, because if the wound of the south is not closed, Lebanon’s wound as a whole will not be closed.”
Amid these developments, the Israeli army carried out a series of explosions in Arnoun and Wadi al-Saluki. It also conducted a major demolition operation targeting several homes in Mansouri and a similar operation in the town of Ainata in the Bint Jbeil district. A massive explosion was heard in Taybeh.
An Israeli drone dropped explosive materials on several homes near the site of an explosion that occurred a few days earlier east of Khiam, in the vicinity of Birket al-Hammam, causing fires and columns of smoke. Artillery shelling was also reported in Ali al-Taher, Mays al-Jabal and Dawhat Kfar Remman. Earlier at dawn, artillery fire had targeted Nabatieh al-Fawqa, Wadi al-Saluki, Wadi al-Hujeir, Dawhat Kfar Remman, Talet al-Dabcheh and Mansouri.
According to An-Nahar, “the ironic paradox amid these developments was that Hezbollah remained completely absent from public statements, media appearances and commentary regarding the fall of the Ali al-Taher heights, without any reaction from either the party or Iran. It continued its denial, attempting to obscure its setback in the south by attacking the Lebanese state and threatening it with its anger.”
Hezbollah’s Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc MP Hussein Hajj Hassan said: “We—the resistance, its supporters, its people and its allies—if we are exercising restraint and patience, it is because we have our own calculations. No one, whoever they may be, should think they can treat us as weak. Beware the anger of the patient when he is angered. We have our calculations and our own approach, and we are not weak—not at the resistance level, nor politically, nor popularly.
“The other side is betting on America, while we place our trust in Almighty God, in our strength, faith, patience and steadfastness, in Hussein in our hearts and the awaited Mahdi before us, peace be upon them, and in the fathers and mothers of the martyrs who make sacrifices with full acceptance and steadfastness.”