Beirut earmarks $1 million to help Gazans, declares official day of mourning
Lebanon”s Cabinet said on Tuesday it would donate $1 million to help Palestinians affected by continuing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
"The Cabinet has decided to provide $1 million in immediate assistance to aid the injured and afflicted in Gaza," Information Minister Tarek Mitri told reporters after the ministers met at Baabda Palace for a session presided over by President Michel Sleiman .
The government also announced that it will also launch a drive to raise funds for Gaza relief efforts. In addition, Wednesday was declared a day of national mourning, with flags at state institutions to be flown at half-mast.
Mitri stressed the "necessity of lifting the blockade against Gaza and ensuring access of medical and humanitarian assistance to the wounded."
The news came as Israel bombed Gaza for a fourth day in a row. A medical official in the enclave said at least 368 Palestinians, including more than 50 civilians, had been killed in the raids.
Since Saturday, militants in Gaza have responded by firing more than 250 rockets and mortar rounds into Israel, killing four people, one of them a soldier, and wounding two dozen more.
The Cabinet also called for "Arab and Palestinian unity" in face of the assault.
Mitri said the Cabinet called for "accelerating the convening of the emergency Arab summit to take the required measures to counter this aggression, to stop the bloodshed and to push the international community to live up to its responsibilities."
Foreign ministers from the Arab League are due to meet on Wednesday in Cairo, where the 22-member pan-Arab grouping is based, to discuss the Gaza onslaught.
An Arab summit due to take place in Qatar on Friday is in doubt because some countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia are not in favor of it, Arab diplomatic sources have said.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Mohammad Jawad Khalifeh said that meetings were being held with representatives from the Palestine Liberation Organization and other Palestinian factions to coordinate the means to provide Gazans with assistance.
In an interview on Tuesday with Voice of Lebanon radio station, Khalifeh said: "The problem lies in the possibility to deliver this assistance or take the wounded out of Gaza."
He added: "Nothing is organized until now; however the International Committee of the Red Cross and [the United Nations Relief and Works Agency] are supposedly able to do this job, and we will receive a response today."
The health minister also said the Lebanese authorities, in coordination with the Palestinians, have set a "specific list of assistance urgently needed."
"The greatest share of this assistance will be provided by the Ministry of Health, while nongovernmental organizations and civil groups also expressed their willingness to help," Khalifeh added.
The minister also said that the ministry was willing to secure use of an airplane to help the delivery process.
Also, the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union is expected to hold an emergency meeting in support of Gaza in the southern port town of Tyre on Thursday, upon a request by Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
The conference will discuss the Israeli attacks on Gaza and means to support the Palestinian people. According to a report carried by Lebanon”s official National News Agency, Arab delegations started to arrive in Beirut on Tuesday. The meeting is to be held at the Bassel Assad Cultural Center in Tyre.
Meanwhile, a number of Lebanese politicians aligned with the US-backed March 14 Forces criticized Hizbullah”s secretary general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who urged Egypt”s government on Monday to open its Rafah border crossing with Gaza, in order to help Gazans survive the Israeli assault.
Nasrallah called on Egyptians to "massively" take to the streets to press their government to open the crossing to allow aids to flow in and the wounded to be evacuated.
During a massive rally in support of Gaza in Beirut”s southern suburbs, he also urged Sleiman "to press for an Arab summit in support of Gaza."
The president was quick to respond, with Baabda Palace issuing a statement just hours later calling for an Arab summit to be held with all haste.
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt on Tuesday rejected criticism of Egypt and other Arab states and called for focusing on uniting Palestinian factions to confront the Israeli aggression on Gaza.
Jumblatt, in a interview with Iran”s Press TV station, also ruled out the possibility of "the situation escalating between Lebanon and Israel" because of the Gaza onslaught.
"Where would such attacks against the Egyptian regime lead us?" Jumblatt asked.
"Why don”t we criticize the Syrian regime for not fighting to liberate its occupied territories?" he added.
Jumblatt urged the "international community and the [United Nations] Security Council to exert pressure on Israel to halt its barbaric aggression on Gaza."
The ongoing violence in Gaza, he warned, would only result in "more terror."
Phalange Party leader and former President Amin Gemayel also criticized Nasrallah”s remarks about Egypt”s acquiescence in the Israeli siege of Gaza, arguing that they did not reflect the opinion of "the Lebanese majority."
Gemayel also advised Sleiman to be "cautious" against attempts by certain powers to push Lebanon into siding with "attempts to split the Arabs." The Phalange leader also criticized "certain groups" for staging street protests "against an Arab state," in reference to Egypt.
Addressing the same issue on Tuesday, Lebanese Forces boss Samir Geagea warned against what he called attempts to topple Arab regimes.
Geagea, speaking to reporters at Bkirki after meeting Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, asked whether "we are trying to rescue Gaza or sparking a major revolution in the Middle East?"
"I urge the Lebanese Army to be on alert to prevent anyone from hurling Lebanon into the ongoing confrontation in Gaza," he said.
He also warned against attempts aimed at changing the "Arab-Israeli conflict into an Arab-Arab conflict."
Separately, Palestinians staged a demonstration in the Hay al-Sikkeh neighborhood of Lebanon”s largest refugee camp, Ain al-Hilweh, on Tuesday to protest the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
US and Israeli flags were set ablaze during the sit-in.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Palestinian children, along with representatives of Lebanese NGOs, held a demonstration in the Beddawi camp near Tripoli.
The children addressed a memorandum to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling for "providing international protection to the Palestinians in Gaza."
In related news, the area around the Egyptian Embassy in Beirut was calm on Tuesday after Lebanese security threw up a cordon. The neighborhood had witnessed clashes between protesters in support of Gaza and security forces on Sunday.