Source: Al-Manar TV, 25-01-2009

Saturday was another day of Lebanese solidarity with Gaza following the deadliest offensive launched against the strip by the Zionist entity, which has claimed the lives of more than 1,500 martyrs and injured thousands others.

Lebanon's public owned TV station "Tele-Liban," as well as other Lebanese TV stations including Al-Manar, organized on Saturday a day of solidarity with the Gaza strip. The event, from dawn until well after midnight, included a fundraising and the broadcast of footage of the "Israeli" aggression on Gaza. The TV broadcast also included interviews with prominent Lebanese and Palestinian figures from the artistic and cultural scene as well as in politics.

During the day, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora delivered a speech addressed to the Gaza victorious people in which he urged Lebanese citizens to support the people of Gaza in "any way possible."

"I call on the Lebanese to support the Palestinian brethren in Gaza in any way possible and according to the individual's capability," Saniora said, pledging at the same time to exert efforts to ensure the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland. "The "Israeli" enemy did not learn lessons from the past that violence brings violence," Saniora said, adding that the biggest favor that could be done to "Israel" is a Palestinian split.

Meanwhile, the head of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc MP Michel Aoun congratulated the Palestinian Resistance on the victory it has achieved, noting that it has prevented resettlement. Aoun told Al-Nour radio station that Arab countries risked losing their political identity had Gaza not found victory. Arab states would also have had to deal with the imposition of resettlement, he added. The General called for solidarity with the Palestinian cause and the people of Gaza, stressing that the interests of Lebanon and all Arabs fell in line with that of Palestine, "because everyone will pay the price of failure."

For his part, Change and Reform bloc MP Nabil Nicolas reiterated his condemnation of the "massacres and violence in the Gaza Strip," which he compared to the holocaust "with the difference that in the past the images were black and white and today there are color images." He called on oil-producing countries and Arab countries to donate aid to Gaza. He also requested the establishment of a commission to trace the funds and ensure they were paid directly to the citizens affected by the crisis.