الكاتب: kafej

There is a place in Lebanon called Alma al Shaab which clings to the sunburnt hills that rise up from the Mediterranean.

The community is surrounded by olive groves and trees with ripe oranges, yet this a nerve-shredding time to live there.

In fact, the vast majority of its 900 residents have already left for cities like the capital Beirut as the rockets and shells fly over their heads.

Their village is now situated in the warzone, as militant factions like Iran-backed Hezbollah, as well as fighters belonging to groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, launch munitions over the border into Israel.

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Using the trees and hills that surround the community, their operations are increasing and the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, says he is introducing powerful new weapons to the battlefield.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Hezbollah is making a “fatal mistake”, while his defence minister Yoav Gallant has threatened to send Lebanon back “to the stone age”.

Despite the war of words – or perhaps because of them – the conflict is quickly escalating.

Those residents who remain in largely Christian Alma al Shaab have found themselves caught in the crossfire.

They gather every morning at the local shop to drink thick Lebanese coffee and talk about what happened overnight.

Anton Konsul is the headteacher at the local high school.

He said: “When I tell you we’re not afraid, we are afraid, you don’t want to know what’s going to happen. When you wake up in the morning you think, thank God, we are still alive.”

“Is this your war?” I asked. “Is this a battle you have a stake in?”

He replied: “It has nothing to do with us, this is the problem, it’s sad, but what can you do?”

On the question of blame, no one we spoke to in the village was prepared to point fingers – and that seems like a reasonable precaution.

Alma al Shaab is the only Christian village among 104 communities in southern Lebanon – the others are largely Shia Muslim.

When I asked the group at the local shop whether they have seen militants from Hezbollah operating in the district, no one seemed keen to talk.

“Maybe, like 20 days ago,” said Milad Eid, who runs the local guest house. “We stay in our homes. They don’t come near.”

He added: “You can’t blame anyone, well, it’s difficult to say. It’s happened, it’s happened.”

This small band of residents seems determined to stay put for as long as they possibly can.

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Sipping coffee in a black shirt was the head of the local Maronite Church, called Monseigneur Maroun Ghaffari.

His friends at the shop joked that Monseigneur Ghaffari had “lost himself a lot of customers” since the conflict broke out and the church leader admitted that his once buoyant congregation has fallen to six.

“I am from the village and have (much) experience of Lebanon’s wars, so I will stay with our people, there are old people, they have nobody, we must be near them during this tragic situation,” he says.

Monseigneur Ghaffari pointed out that neither side had hit the centre of town and he hoped they would outlast the war.

He said: “I am not suicidal, but the situation is still bearable. We believe that if we leave the village it could turn into a battlefield.”

The body of a man who went missing in August has been found in the Colorado mountains with his dog alive and still by his side.

Rich Moore, 71, and his Jack Russell terrier Finney disappeared on 19 August on a planned hike to Blackhead Peak, near Pagosa Springs.

Taos Search and Rescue (TSAR) revealed his body had been found on 30 October with the dog “alive and with his body”.

It said one if its members and her own dog had been involved in the initial search after being dropped on the mountain by helicopter because the area was so steep.

“He was found 2.5 miles east of the mountain-top beneath where we were inserted,” said TSAR’s Delinda Vanne-Brightyn.

The pair were finally found after being spotted by a local hunter – with a team flying in to recover the body, Denver Gazette reported, citing the Archuleta County Sheriff’s office.

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The dog was reportedly taken to a vet’s for a check-up and treatment before being reunited with family.

TSAR wrote on Facebook: “Delinda and TSAR would like to send our condolences to the family, but are glad they were able to gain some closure as well as bring their dog back home.”

The families of Israeli hostages have begun a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to demand government action to secure the release of those being held by Hamas.

Hamas kidnapped around 240 people – aged between nine months and 85 – during the 7 October attack, the Israeli military has said.

Four people have since been released, including two elderly women taken to the Egyptian border on 24 October.

Israel believes the remaining hostages are being held in tunnels below the Gaza Strip.

The country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is facing pressure from the families of some of the hostages, who believe the government has not done enough to see them freed.

Yair Mozes told Sky News’s international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn in Tel Aviv that he is marching for his parents.

“We don’t know if they are getting their medicines,” he said. “We are marching to tell the government the first goal is to work only on this.”

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Matan Eshet is marching to Jerusalem for his cousin and friend who were both taken hostage at the Nova music festival.

He said he wants to “make as much noise as he can” on the march.

“Thirty-nine days without any connection with our loved ones,” he said. “It drives you insane. I don’t think I’ve had more than two hours sleep since 7 October. It doesn’t let you go.”

Marchers told Sky News they fear the world cares more about the humanitarian situation Palestinians in Gaza are facing, than their loved ones being held hostage.

As well as hoping to place pressure on Mr Netanyahu and the Israeli government, they are calling for the UN and the Red Cross to do more to find their loved ones and ensure their welfare.

The march is expected to last until Saturday and to finish outside Mr Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem.

Another protester, Ilan Zecharya, is marching for his niece Eden who was taken at the music festival and whose boyfriend was killed.

“Is the world doing enough to release our families?”, he asked Sky News.

“I don’t hear the loud cry for our families from the world. I hear ‘Free Palestine’ from the world, so world wake up. Yes my government should do more but definitely, definitely for sure the world should do more”.

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Mr Netanyahu has said he would only consider pausing the fighting if all of the hostages were freed.

Liverpool star Luis Diaz has been reunited with his father who was kidnapped and held hostage by a guerilla group in Colombia.

The pair were visibly emotional – with Diaz’s father in tears – as they embraced for the first time since the ordeal.

The footballer’s father, Luis Manuel Diaz Jimenez, had been held hostage for 12 days in a mountainous area of Colombia by National Liberation Army guerrillas.

He was kidnapped along with Diaz’s mother, Cilenis Marulanda, by armed men on motorcycles at a petrol station in the town of Barrancas. Ms Marulanda was rescued within hours by police.

Diaz, 26, had pleaded with his father’s kidnappers to release him and said he and his brothers were “desperate” to see him returned.

Mr Diaz Jimenez was eventually released last Thursday in the vicinity of the Serrania del Perija, a mountainous area of difficult access on the border between Colombia and Venezuela.

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Finnish authorities record a sharp rise this week in number of asylum seekers arriving over its border with Russia.

Finland has accused Russia of funnelling asylum seekers to its border and says it will take action against what it says is a jump in the number of arrivals.

The Finnish Border Guard said on Tuesday that the number of arrivals from Russia has soared this week with about 60 asylum seekers coming since early on Monday. That compares with a total of 91 people arriving without required documents from August 1 to November 12.

Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said the number of crossings at Finland’s southeastern border has risen substantially since August due to what the government suspects is a change in Russia’s border policy and enforcement.

Finnish and Russian border authorities have for years cooperated in stopping people without the necessary visas or passports before they can try to enter either of the two countries.

But Russia has started allowing undocumented travellers to access the border zone and enter crossing stations where they can request asylum in Finland, Rantanen said.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said at a press conference that the asylum seekers were being “helped and they are also being escorted or transported to the border by border guards”.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow.

Finland last year adopted legislation that allows its Border Guard to stop receiving asylum applications at certain crossing points if the Nordic nation became a target of mass immigration orchestrated by another country.

Finland shares a 1,340km (833-mile) border with Russia, which also serves as the European Union’s external border.

‘Hybrid warfare’ claim

Rantanen said she was unable to explain why Moscow’s border policy suddenly changed.

“Maybe [Russian officials] are annoyed by something in Finland`s activities. You have to ask the Russian authorities about that,” she said. “We do hope that Russia changes its policy back as it was before.”

After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Finland ended its longtime neutrality, applied to join NATO and became the military alliance’s 31st member in April.

Finnish Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen accused Russia of deliberately ushering migrants towards the border zone as a type of “hybrid warfare”. Officials in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have made similar allegations against Russia’s ally Belarus in recent years.

Hakkanen said he would inform NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and the European Union about the situation.

Thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, tried to cross into Finland through its northernmost border crossing with Russia in 2015 and 2016.