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The Nabi Chit Raid: Israel Stormed a Lebanese Town for a 40-Year-Old Body—and Left Empty-Handed

• On March 6, Israeli forces launched a combined air and ground assault on Nabi Chit, a Bekaa Valley town near the Syrian border, deploying roughly four helicopters—two of which landed troops—in a covert operation to recover the remains of flight navigator Ron Arad, shot down over Lebanon in 1986.
• The Lebanese Health Ministry says at least 41 people were killed and 40 wounded; Israeli authorities confirmed the raid and reported no IDF casualties, while Netanyahu publicly admitted the mission "did not yield the findings we were looking for."
• Witnesses describe Israeli soldiers disguising themselves as Lebanese army personnel and ambulance officers; local fighters engaged them at the cemetery, triggering airstrikes that destroyed the town square and left a crater where the central roundabout once stood.
• The war in Lebanon has now cost 1,001 lives and 2,584 wounded since March 2, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, with just 15 Israeli civilians and 2 IDF soldiers killed on the other side of the border.

Why it matters: A failed raid that killed dozens of Lebanese civilians and achieved nothing—not even its stated objective—is a stark illustration of how the current conflict's logic has escaped any framework of proportionality or strategic coherence.

US Treasury Freezes $100M+ Hezbollah Network Spanning Six Countries

• The U.S. Treasury's OFAC designated a network of 16 individuals and companies on Friday, led by Hezbollah financier Alaa Hassan Hamieh, accusing the group of laundering and raising funds for Hezbollah's finance team through shell companies and business fronts.
• The sanctioned network operates across Lebanon, Syria, Poland, Slovenia, Qatar, and Canada, and is estimated to have diverted over $100 million since 2020—money Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said "rightfully belongs to the Lebanese people."
• Lebanese-registered companies Seven Seas SAL Offshore, Seven Seas Group S.A.R.L., and Calllync S.A.L. Offshore are among the entities blacklisted, alongside European subsidiaries in Poland and Slovenia.

The bigger picture: With Iran under direct military pressure and Hezbollah's battlefield capacity degraded, Washington is methodically dismantling the financial architecture that keeps the group funded—signaling the economic war is accelerating in parallel with the military one.

Lebanon's Military Courts Face a Test: What to Do With Hezbollah Fighters Caught with Rockets

• Lebanon's Military Court has been handling files on four Hezbollah members arrested at Lebanese army checkpoints in the south over the past two weeks—a first-of-its-kind legal confrontation between state institutions and the armed group.
• Two members face misdemeanor charges for unlicensed weapons possession; two others face felony charges under Article 288 of the Penal Code for violating the state's neutrality measures and "endangering Lebanon"—the more serious track that could lead to referral to trial.
• One detainee caught with 5 automatic rifles and over 3,000 rounds of ammunition received an arrest warrant—the first time a Hezbollah member has been formally detained for weapons carrying under this legal framework.
• The two felony defendants—found in possession of 21 rockets of 122mm caliber—are expected to be referred to the Military Court in custody on Tuesday, per sources cited by Al-Modon.

The backstory: Since the new Lebanese government took office, Beirut has staked its international credibility on the principle that the state alone holds the right to bear arms. Arresting Hezbollah fighters and charging them through civilian-adjacent courts is a direct test of whether that pledge survives contact with reality.

What to watch: Tuesday's ruling by Judge Ghada Abou Alwan will set a precedent for whether Lebanon's judiciary treats armed Hezbollah activity as ordinary crime or as a direct challenge to state sovereignty—and the world is watching.

QUICK HITS

• Three fronts, zero off-ramps: Israel has instructed its security agencies to formally separate the Lebanese and Iranian fronts, treating Lebanon as an "open tactical front" while opening a third front with surprise strikes on Syrian government infrastructure—widening a war that already has no clear horizon.
• Eid prayers under bombardment: Lebanon's top Islamic scholars used Eid al-Fitr sermons to warn against sectarian strife, with Lebanon's Mufti of Fatwas declaring "we will not allow fitna to creep between Lebanese"—as PM Salam's representative attended the main Beirut prayer at Mohammad Al-Amin.
• Port blast owner walks free: Bulgarian courts upheld the refusal to extradite Igor Grechushkin—owner of the ship that carried the Beirut port ammonium nitrate—because Lebanon couldn't guarantee he wouldn't face the death penalty; he now sits in Cyprus, beyond any existing extradition treaty.
• Displaced and uninsured? Covered: Health Minister Rakan Nassereddin announced full hospitalization coverage for all uninsured displaced patients in public hospitals and select private ones, while calling urgently on the international community to sustain medical aid as chronic medication supplies begin running low.
• Leaflets from the sky: A detailed investigation found that Israel's psychological warfare campaign over Beirut—dropping evacuation orders with QR codes linking to WhatsApp recruitment forums—displaced roughly 1 in every 4 Lebanese, with over one million people uprooted in under two weeks.

INTERNATIONAL

Iran's Strikes on US Bases Cost $800M—And the War Bill Keeps Climbing

• Iranian retaliatory strikes on US military bases across the Middle East caused an estimated $800 million in damage in the first two weeks of the war, according to a new analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and BBC Verify, a figure described as higher than previously reported.
• A significant share of the damage came from strikes on a US Thaad radar system in Jordan—the AN/TPY-2 radar alone costs approximately $485 million—while Iran also struck at least 3 air bases more than once, including Ali Al-Salim in Kuwait, Al-Udeid in Qatar, and Prince Sultan in Saudi Arabia.
• The US has lost 13 military personnel since the war began on February 28; Defense Department officials briefed Congress that the first 6 days of the war cost $11.3 billion, and the first 12 days cost $16.5 billion, with the Pentagon now requesting an additional $200 billion in war funding.

What to watch: With Trump saying the US is considering "winding down" military efforts and the Pentagon requesting $200 billion more in funding, the gap between stated objectives and actual costs is becoming impossible to ignore.

Gulf States Edge Toward US War Effort as Saudi Arabia Opens Second Air Base

• Saudi Arabia agreed to open King Fahd Air Base in Taif—farther from Iranian Shahed drone range than the repeatedly attacked Prince Sultan Air Base—after a call between US official Elbridge Colby and Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman, according to multiple US and Western officials familiar with the matter.
• The UAE told Washington it is prepared for the war to last up to nine months, while the UAE alone has intercepted 338 ballistic missiles and 1,740 drones since the conflict began, shifting Gulf attitudes from studied neutrality toward tacit alignment with the US-Israeli campaign.
• Qatar, despite being a key mediator focused on de-escalation, suffered the most damaging single attack of any Gulf state when Iran struck the Ras Laffan refinery; Qatari energy minister Saad al-Kaabi said repairs will take 3 to 5 years and the strike affects 17 percent of Qatar's gas production.

Zooming out: The fractures within the Gulf—Saudi Arabia and the UAE quietly enabling the US war effort while Oman publicly calls it "not America's war"—reveal a region being reshaped by a conflict none of its members wanted and few can afford to ignore.

Washington Lifts Sanctions on Stranded Iranian Oil in Emergency Price Move

• US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a narrow, short-term authorization permitting the sale of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products currently loaded on vessels at sea, a move he said would bring approximately 140 million barrels to global markets, according to BBC reporting.
• The waiver, valid until April 19, marks a sharp reversal of longstanding US sanctions policy; experts warned it would have limited price impact while potentially channeling funds back to the Iranian government the US is actively bombing—"to put it mildly, this is bananas," one sanctions expert told the BBC.
• The closure of the Strait of Hormuz—through which roughly 20 percent of the world's daily oil supply of 100 million barrels normally flows—has already knocked an estimated 10 percent of global supply off the market, prompting the US to also release strategic reserves and suspend some Russian oil sanctions.

The bigger picture: A superpower simultaneously bombing a country and lifting sanctions to sell that country's oil captures the contradictions of a war whose economic fallout is now outpacing any strategic rationale Washington has publicly offered.

GHER HEK

• Byblos goes to Paris: Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salamé is heading to the Institut du Monde Arabe to open a Byblos exhibition—one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, getting its moment in the French capital while Lebanon fights to protect its archaeological heritage on the world stage.
• Eid sweets, ancient roots: Your Eid morning ka'ak habit is older than you think—Arab food historians trace the tradition back to ancient Egypt, where the same pastry was baked as an offering to the sun god Ra, with detailed recipes carved into the walls of Theban tombs thousands of years before sugar was even a thing.
• Ted Chaiban: Lebanon's voice at UNICEF: Lebanese-American diplomat Ted Chaiban, UNICEF's Deputy Executive Director, is leading the global response for children in crisis—drawing on his own childhood displacement during Lebanon's civil war to advocate for the 350,000 children currently uprooted, proving the diaspora shows up when it counts.
• Haaland bets on chess: Manchester City striker Erling Haaland has quietly invested a substantial sum in the new Total Chess World Championship Tour, a global circuit with a $2.7 million annual prize pool—spotted wearing a Norway Chess cap at West Ham before anyone noticed the deal was done.

That's your Saturday—go call someone you love and eat something good.