⋯ Video showcasing Hezbullah's Quds Day celebration in Sidon.

The Secretary-General of the Islamic Resistance Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is expected to speak today after 4:00 pm on the occasion of Al-Quds day.

Al-Quds day is commemorated each year on the last Friday in Ramadan.

⋯ Speech started moments ago. English highlights can be found here.

Israel bullying Orthodox Christians is apparent in Holy Week

Today's Holy Fire Saturday in the Julian calendar was tarnished by Israel drastically limiting access to the Holy Sepulchre Church, cancelling permits for Gaza Christians, imposing a booking system, and deploying 200 IDF troops & border police inside the church, some of them displaying their kippa!

Unprecedented, except for COVID-19, «the restrictions include a limit of 2,000 on the number of worshippers (down from 10,000 in previous years), 200 police stationed inside the church, and security checkpoints throughout the Old City (impeding access for worshippers and the subsequent procession)», warned World Council of Churches on 12 ⁠April. Israel cites safety concerns, but church leaders slammed “heavy-handed and unnecessary restrictions” and blamed instead the “growing threat” of extremists in Israeli society.

The Greek Orthodox and Armenian Patriarchates have vowed not to comply. “The ceremony will be held as customary for two millennia.”

⋯ As noted last week by Al-Jazeera: «Since 2005, Christian celebrations around Holy Week, particularly Holy Fire Saturday, have brought military barricades and harsh treatment from soldiers and settlers alike [...]. Incidents against Christians in Jerusalem have reportedly become more violent and common.»

Extremist Jewish settlers often spit on priests and nuns («a daily occurrence»), take down Christian symbols, hammer statues of Jesus, attack priests with iron bars, but the «police do little to investigate, and dismiss or minimise the religious motivations behind these attacks». Under threat, Christians in Jerusalem are «currently about 10,000, or just over 1% of the city’s population, compared with a quarter [25%] a century ago».

www.aljazeera.com/feature…

⋯ Among church leaders, Archbishop Theodosios [Atallah] Hanna, from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, is the most vocal against such persecution.

After his speech for Quds Day (video), Israeli politicians are now threatening to arrest him.

Overnight, the Israeli Iron Dome fired a missile towards an Israeli 155mm illumination artillery shell that was fired over the Lebanese border.

Situation quickly returned to routine, after the incident turned out to be a misidentification.

🔴 The Saudi minister of Foreign Affairs landed in Damascus, Syria, in a historic visit to end the isolation of the republic after its 12-year civil war.

Saudi Arabia aims to restore peaceful ties with Iran and Syria, while ending the war in Yemen.

🗳 The Lebanese Parliament has voted today to postpone once again the municipal elections for one year. It extends the mandates of the incumbent mayors until 31 ⁠May 2024. The reason is a lack of necessary funding at the Ministry of Interior.

French court sentences this innocent Lebanese for 1980 bombing

Lebanese-Canadian professor Hassan Diab was sentenced to life in absentia on 21 ⁠April. He was the only defendant at a trial for the 1980 Paris synagogue bombing that left 4 dead—an attack attributed to the Palestinian PFLP-SO.

“Miscarriage of justice.” His support group notes that Canadian Justice Robert Maranger—who allowed Diab's extradition to France in 2014 in hope of an acquittal—had said France had “a weak case”. Diab was accused over photofits & a passport found in Rome. After 3 years in prison, he was freed in 2018 because his fingerprints don't match with the bomb planter, and witnesses and Lebanese University confirmed he was in Beirut that day to take exams...

French Jewish organizations obtained a new trial, and got this verdict merely one day after the 3-week trial ended. Per Diab's French lawyer, the judges “fear to be accused of laxity in finding the [bomber]”. It was the 1st fatal attack against Jews since WW2.

More reactions

⋯ Hassan Diab's Canadian lawyer, Don Bayne, said (00:20):

“This was a trial in which the French investigators themselves came to the court to plead that there was no valid basis for a conviction. That's how bizarre this outcome is.”

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said the country would “look carefully at next steps”. In 2018, after Diab was released by French authorities, Trudeau said at the time: “I think for Hassan Diab, we have to recognise first of all that what happened to him never should have happened”.

According to a Hezbullah official concerned with aid, Hezbullah supported families throughout the holy month of Ramadan with food supplies and ready meals worth 2.1 million USD.

This is regarding Jabal Amel area.

Earlier yesterday, an Israeli Hermes-450 UAV was spotted over the border area, armed with up to 8 precsion missiles.

For more about the Hermes, check out our detailed paper about it.

Around 1:00 a.m. today, the Israeli army destroyed an unmanned border intelligence post used by the Syrian army and Hezbullah.

Prior to the attack, the Israeli army deployed flyers to warn the army against cooperating with the resistance.