Jihad “is the duty of each and every one of you no matter how much sacrifices are made,” he said on Monday while deploring Arab weakness and apathy in confronting the ongoing Israeli offensive on the besieged Gaza Strip.

The development comes as more than 1,050 Palestinians have been killed and over 6,000 others injured during a still ongoing Zionist aerial and ground bombardment of Palestinian residents in the Israeli-besieged territory. 

Speaking at the Mohammad al-Amin Mosque in Downtown Beirut, the mufti also urged Lebanese politicians to put their rivalries aside and focus on electing a president and holding parliamentary election for the sake of salvaging Lebanon.

“Electing a new president and holding general elections after agreeing on a new electoral law that represents not only the majority will enable the state to recover its role in the service of the people and the nation,” Qabbani said in his Eid al-Fitr sermon.

“Lebanese (politicians) should hurry in order to salvage their nation before the boat sinks with all of us."

The prominent cleric further lashed out at Lebanese politicians, whom he accused of indulging “in arrogance and individualism, while the people are reeling under poverty.”

Commenting on the persecution of Christians in Iraq, Qabbani said “it is not Islamic rule.”

He cautioned that attacks targeting Christians in Mosul would backfire on Arabs and Muslims and were “a prelude to the destruction, division and disintegration of the Arab nation.”

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