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Israeli strikes on homes, tents, school kill dozens in Gaza

The Cradle | October 1, 2024

At least 25 civilians were massacred, and others injured early on 1 October after Israeli forces bombed homes in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp, a school in the Tuffah neighborhood east of Gaza City, and a tent in Khan Yunis in the south.

WAFA news agency reported that according to local sources, Israeli bombs destroyed a three-story house in Nuseirat camp belonging to the Al-Durrah family, killing seven children and three women.

Two women were also killed in another Israeli airstrike on a home in Nuseirat belonging to the Abu Ataya family.

In Gaza City, an Israeli bombing killed seven civilians and injured others sheltering in the Shuja’iyya school.

Israeli forces also blew up residential buildings in the city of Rafah, while targeting the Zeitoun and Sabra neighborhoods in Gaza with artillery.

Reuters reports that in the city of Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, an Israeli air strike on a tent housing displaced people killed six people, local medics said.

At the same time, the armed wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian resistance factions reported their fighters attacked Israeli forces operating in several areas of Gaza with anti-tank rockets, mortar fire, and explosive devices.

The ongoing Israel campaign to destroy Gaza, ethnically cleanse it of Palestinians, and make way for renewed Jewish settlement, has now lasted almost 12 months and killed at least 41,638 people, most of them children and women.

Thousands of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, as Israeli forces regularly prevent ambulance and civil defense crews from reaching them.

Israel has continued to massacre Palestinians in Gaza even as it carries out a massive bombing campaign in Lebanon, including in the capital, Beirut.

“The eyes of the world now are on Lebanon while the occupation continues its killing in Gaza. We are afraid the war is going to go on for more months at least,” Samir Mohammed, 46, a father of five from Gaza City, told Reuters.

“It is all unclear now as Israel unleashes its force undeterred in Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and God knows where else in the future,” he stated.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

The weakness of Zionist air power

By Robert Daly | Al Mayadeen | October 1, 2024

What we have seen in the Zionist conduct of war since October 7, 2023, is a flashy, noisy exhibition but no seizure and holding of territory.

The murder of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and the destruction of six high-rise apartment buildings with multiple airstrikes make Zionist air power appear triumphant over Hezbollah. But nothing could be further from the truth. It is not air power that defeats enemies in war. Rather, it is infantry—conquering, seizing, and holding territory that defeats an enemy. The Soviet Union defeated Nazi Germany not through air power but through the ground battles of Stalingrad and Kursk and then by pushing the Nazi troops back into Germany as the Soviets liberated one occupied state after another from Ukraine and Belarus to Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The West at the time bombed Dresden and other cities, but that effort had little effect in defeating the Nazis. So, Zionist bombings of Lebanon’s cities kill citizens and wreck their homes but do not occupy territory or defeat Hezbollah.

It is beyond the capability of air power to seize enemy territory and hold it. Air power is only a form of contemporary artillery. In the past 100 years, humankind has ‘progressed’ from mere cannons and tanks delivering artillery shells onto an enemy’s positions to warplanes dropping them from above. What we have seen in the Zionist conduct of war since October 7, 2023, is a flashy, noisy exhibition but no seizure and holding of territory. Today, Hamas has retaken all of Gaza and continues to manage the territory as the Zionists have admitted in press briefings though they attacked Gaza by air. The Zionists responded to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack by bombing and destroying civilian residential buildings, but that did not destroy Hamas, which took advantage of the situation and the changed terrain to prepare positions from behind wrecked buildings to attack Zionist tanks and armored personnel carriers, which they have destroyed by the dozen. In this way, we have seen the contrast between ground fighters and air power in Gaza, where the Zionists are effective at killing women and children from the sky above with bombs, but cannot occupy and hold the territory that that population lived in.

If air power is an effective way to defeat one’s enemy and win a war, why is Hamas still ruling Gaza? Yedioth Ahronoth, a leading ‘Israeli’ newspaper, citing Israeli security sources wrote this past week that:

○ Hamas is working to consolidate its authority again in the areas of Gaza that the IOF left.

○ No one in Gaza stands against Hamas, and no one challenges its rule.

This is not new. In June, after eight months of Zionist bombing, the Guardian wrote “Hamas still strong in areas ‘cleared’ by Israel in northern Gaza.” How is that possible? Zionist warplanes far above do not provide much competition with Palestinian freedom fighters on the ground. Zionist armored vehicles full of scared reservists are easy targets for Gazan patriots who destroy those vehicles one after another. The Guardian concludes, “Hamas’s ability to return to areas from which it was earlier forced to retreat threatens ‘forever war’.” The paper explains, “There may be more Hamas militants in the north of Gaza, supposedly cleared by Israeli forces months ago, than in Rafah, the southern city in the territory described by Israeli officials as the extremist Islamist organization’s “last stronghold”. “We do have to remember there are more Hamas armed people in the north of Gaza in the places that the IDF has already moved out of than … in Rafah … Those are the IDF’s numbers. This is why the IDF had to go back into Jabaliya and … Zeitoun. Hamas is controlling all those areas,” Eyal Hulata, the head of “Israel’s” “national security council” from 2021 to last year, told reporters last May. Zionist air power and fragile armor have failed to conquer Gaza. They only wrecked it.

One can expect an even better outcome for the domestic national liberation army in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has the advantage of better and more artillery and soldiers experienced in fighting ISIS and Al-Qaeda on the ground in Syria.

One of the most disgusting Zionist air war practices is their cowardly war by assassination. Zionists will swoop down in aircraft of various sorts to kill someone on a motorcycle, a family in a car, or a leader of the national liberation movement in a building. To do that, they do not hesitate to murder hundreds of others in the area, as when the fascists murdered Sayyed Hassan. For if the Nazi abandoned his air vehicle and fought a fair fight on the ground, he would surely lose.

Moreover, it is an embarrassment to an American with a memory to hear Hezbollah or Hamas referred to as “terrorists” for defending their own land from Zionist invaders. Does not anyone remember Washington’s crossing of the Delaware on Christmas 1776, when they and their makeshift army slaughtered British-hired Hessian mercenaries drunk from celebrating the holiday? If Hamas is “terrorist”, then why isn’t George Washington?

So, we have it: “Israel” has not won in Lebanon. Rather, “the enemy must wait for us by air, land, and sea. We repeat: If war is imposed on Lebanon, the Resistance will fight without rules, controls, or ceilings,” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah once said. “Storming the Galilee is a possibility that remains present within the framework of any war that the occupation may launch against Lebanon,” he added, referencing his 12-year-old promise that Hezbollah will invade “Israel’s” north if Tel Aviv chooses to attack.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

UK ministers tried to sway police to stifle anti-‘Israel’ activists

Al Mayadeen | September 30, 2024

Home Office ministers and staff attempted to influence UK police and legal prosecutors to take action against activists targeting the facilities of Elbit Systems, a major Israeli arms manufacturer, campaigners revealed after obtaining internal documents as proof, The Guardian reported.

Briefing notes obtained by Palestine Action through freedom of information requests reveal discussions held prior to October 7 and the Israeli genocide in Gaza, which aimed to “reassure” Elbit Systems UK, the main target of an action campaign by the network.

The prosecution of Palestine Action activists, who have relentlessly protested the Israeli genocide and war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, has resulted in some convictions for charges like burglary and criminal damage.

Briefing notes, though heavily redacted, reveal that Home Office ministers attended meetings with representatives from Elbit Systems, and one meeting included a director from the Attorney General’s Office reportedly representing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). These notes also indicate that Home Office officials reached out to the police regarding Palestine Action.

Tim Crosland, coordinator of Defend Our Juries, which argues that judges are undermining jurors’ absolute right to acquit based on conscience by restricting defendants from discussing their motivations, stated, “These disclosures, despite the extensive redaction, are the smoking gun on what has been obvious for a while: the government has been trying to put a stop to juries acquitting those who expose and resist corporate complicity in violations of international law and mass loss of life.”

He further asserted that the political intervention constitutes a “national scandal that implicates those at the highest levels”, indicating that the matter is also tantamount to the corruption of democracy and a breach of law by the UK’s elite.

Details

A private secretary note from March 2, 2022, detailing a meeting between then Home Secretary Priti Patel and Martin Fausset, CEO of Elbit Systems UK, noted, “Palestine Action’s criminal activity is for the police to investigate and though they are operationally independent of government meaning we cannot direct their response, my officials have been in contact with the police about PA.”

Another briefing from April 19, 2023, framing a session between Chris Philp, then a Home Office minister, and Elbit, revealed that a director from the Attorney General’s Office will attend to represent the CPS, as the CPS opted not to participate in the meeting to maintain their operational independence.

Meanwhile, the content of a section titled “past lobbying” was redacted.

A spokesperson for Palestine Action stated that claims of independence were undermined within the same sentences where they were made.

“What is happening behind closed doors is clear evidence of collusion between the government, a foreign private arms manufacturer, the CPS, the Attorney General’s Office, and the police,” they said, asserting that it was a flagrant abuse of power that asserts how the state prioritizes the interests of Elbit Systems “over the rights and freedoms of its own citizens.”

On the other hand, a police spokesperson said, “We fully respect the operational independence of the police and the independent judiciary, which remains the bedrock of our policing model. These meetings took place under the previous government.”

Previous documents obtained through FoI requests indicated that Israeli embassy officials in London sought to have the Attorney General’s Office intervene in UK court cases involving the prosecution of protesters.

Labour continues arming ‘Israel’

Since its election, the new Labour government has been at the center of demands to halt all arms sales to “Israel”.

Although it announced that it would continue funding UNRWA following a baseless global defunding campaign and that it would not contest the International Criminal Court’s authority to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Security Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes, the government was yet to completely commit to the more significant shift that the public is calling for, which is the cessation of arms shipments to “Israel”.

Mark Smith, a counterterrorism official at the British Embassy in Dublin, relayed to his colleagues after submitting his resignation, “Each day we witness clear and unquestionable examples of War Crimes and breaches of International Humanitarian Law in Gaza perpetrated by the State of Israel.”

“There is no justification for the UK’s continued arms sales to Israel, yet somehow it continues. I have raised this at every level in the organization … As a fully cleared officer raising serious concerns of illegality in this Department, to be disregarded in this way is deeply troubling. It is my duty as a public servant to raise this,” he added.

Earlier this month, the British government announced the immediate suspension of 30 out of its 350 arms export licenses with the Israeli occupation, citing concerns that the equipment might be used in ways that violate international humanitarian law, Foreign Minister David Lammy announced after a review of arms sales to the occupying regime, particularly in the context of the ongoing war on Gaza.

Lammy emphasized that this suspension does not amount to a blanket ban or an arms embargo but is a targeted measure. “It is with regret that I inform the House of Commons today that the assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain UK arms exports to Israel, there exists a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law,” Lammy stated.

September 30, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Journalist Wafa al-Odaini and her family martyred in Israeli airstrike in Gaza

Palestinian Information Center – September 30, 2024

GAZA – Noted Palestinian journalist and activist Wafa al-Odaini was martyred along with her family following an Israeli airstrike on her home at dawn Monday in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, according to local media reports.

Her husband, Munir al-Odaini, and her two children, Balsam and Tamim, were also killed in the airstrike.

“The occupation forces assassinated journalist Wafa al-Odaini, a prominent activist in conveying the Palestinian narrative to the foreign media. She and her family (her husband and two children) were killed in a treacherous Israeli attack on their home in Deir al-Balah City in the central Gaza Strip,” the Forum of Palestinian Journalists (FPJ) said in a statement on Monday.

According to FPJ, journalist Odaini devoted her life and time to conveying the suffering of her oppressed people through international and Palestinian media, especially through her involvement in writing English articles, conducting interviews with foreign activists, and holding online conferences and different activities in English language.

“With her martyrdom, the Palestinian national media has lost a free voice full of love for Palestine and her people — who fight for freedom and self-determination,” the forum said.

Since the war on Gaza started, the Israeli occupation army has killed 174 journalists and media workers.

For its part, the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) mourned journalist Odaini, saying she wrote distinguished articles for its English website.

The following are links to articles she wrote recently for PIC :

There is no such thing as protective attire for journalists in Gaza

What does Back-To-School look like in battered Gaza?

A Lifeline in Starving Gaza: The role of Tekiyyah amidst the ongoing Israeli genocide

September 30, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli occupation authority razes seven commercial facilities in northern Jerusalem

Palestinian Information Center – September 30, 2024

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM – The Israeli occupation authority demolished on Monday seven commercial facilities belonging to Palestinian citizens in Shuafat refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, at the pretext of unlicensed construction.

Eyewitnesses said that bulldozers escorted by police forces stormed at dawn Shuafat camp and embarked on knocking down seven commercial structures with no prior notice.

They added that the Israeli police did not allow the storekeepers to remove the contents of their facilities, which were four construction supply stores, one café, one restaurant and one grocery store.

Meanwhile, the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Jerusalem said that the Israeli police closed the road barrier that connects Shuafat camp with the holy city and obstructed the movement of local residents as they tried to reach their workplaces and schools in the morning.

In a separate incident, employees from the Israeli municipality delivered demolition and stop-work orders against a number of Palestinian homes in the east Jerusalem district of Issawiya.

September 30, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , | Leave a comment

Iran won’t deploy forces to Lebanon to help Hezbollah – foreign ministry

RT | September 30, 2024

Iran will not send troops to Lebanon or Gaza to confront Israel, the Foreign Ministry in Tehran announced on Monday. The statement comes amid Israel’s intensified attacks against the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen.

Tehran does not seek war but is not afraid of it and stands for a safe and stable Middle East, the ministry stressed.

“There is no need to send extra or volunteer forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani told a weekly news conference. Lebanon and fighters in the Palestinian territories “have the capability and strength to defend themselves against the aggression,” he added.

In the past several weeks, Israel has been conducting heavy airstrikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon and other militant groups in the region, including in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq, raising fears the conflict could engulf the entire Middle East and draw in Iran and the US, Israel’s main ally.

“We have not received any request in this regard from any side, on the contrary, we are informed and are sure that they do not need the help of our forces,” Kanaani told reporters.

He nonetheless pledged that Israel “will not remain without reprimand and punishment for the crimes it has committed against the Iranian people, military personnel and the resistance forces.”

During the past week alone, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) significantly ramped up airstrikes on Lebanon, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding over 6,000 according to local health officials. The escalation also triggered a mass exodus from the areas most affected by the Israeli bombing.

The Israeli military also conducted a series of strikes against senior Hezbollah commanders, killing most of them, including the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited Hezbollah’s office in Tehran on Monday to pay tribute to Nasrallah, according to the government’s website.

September 30, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Joe Biden Is Responsible for Burning Lebanon

By Daniel Larison | The Libertarian Institute | September 30, 2024

The Joe Biden administration claims to be pushing for a “temporary ceasefire” between Israel and Hezbollah to avert a larger conflict, but this is very late in the day and it is not a serious effort to prevent a new war in Lebanon. It is at best a desperate, last-minute exercise in going through the motions of diplomacy. The administration would like to pretend that it is a passive bystander pleading from the sidelines instead of the chief patron and arms supplier of the main belligerent in the conflict, and it designs its entreaties to be toothless so that Israel can safely ignore them.

The United States has refused to exert any pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for the last eleven months, and it has continued supplying Israel with weapons no matter how those weapons have been used to commit war crimes against Palestinians. Now American officials say that they don’t want further escalation in Lebanon, but once again the administration won’t back up those words with action. The U.S. could use its leverage to rein Israel in and insist on the de-escalation that the administration says that it wants, but the president has shown that he has no interest in doing that.

The empty Gaza ceasefire negotiations prove as much. The ceasefire talks have become an interminable process designed to lead nowhere. The administration has catered to the Netanyahu government’s preferences at every turn. Each time that Netanyahu adds new deal-breakers or otherwise seeks to derail negotiations with new attacks, the administration has dutifully taken his side and pretended that Hamas is the sole obstacle to securing an agreement. The United States cannot be a credible diplomatic actor in the region when its primary role is acting as Netanyahu’s PR agent.

The Israeli government assumes that the U.S. won’t withhold weapons, diplomatic support, or military protection under any circumstances, and that has encouraged Netanyahu to pursue increasingly aggressive goals. Because the U.S. shields Israel from military reprisals, as it did earlier this year during Iran’s missile and drone strikes, it has given Netanyahu free rein to lash out whenever and wherever he wants. The administration has dressed all of this up as preventing a wider regional war, but the reality is that they have simply delayed the conflagration while making it more likely that it will be even more destructive when it occurs.

The total failure of the administration’s policy is there for all to see. The region is likely facing a new Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and that invasion will have serious destabilizing effects on the wider region. This is the disaster that the United States has claimed to oppose all along, but in practice it has done nothing to stop it. Had the U.S. truly wanted the war in Gaza not to spread, it would have demanded a lasting ceasefire months ago. Had the U.S. wanted to prevent escalation in Lebanon, it would be cutting off arms transfers and pulling back its forces from the region rather than rushing more troops to the Middle East. Instead the United States has done everything that one would expect it to do if it wished to set the region ablaze.

The U.S. is at great risk of being ensnared in this larger war. It is imperative that our country avoid direct involvement in Israel’s conflicts. The U.S. has no vital interests at stake in these fights. The president has no authority to involve American forces directly. It is not the responsibility of the United States to bail out a reckless client state when it gets in over its head. The quickest way to force the Israeli government to deescalate is to deprive it of the support and protection that it takes for granted.

Once the current crisis is over, U.S. foreign policy in the region has to be radically overhauled. To avoid future entanglements in the wars of client states, the U.S. should downgrade its relationships with the Middle Eastern governments that rely heavily on American weapons supplies and protection. The United States has no formal commitments to defend these states, and it should not extend security guarantees to any of them. The U.S. also needs to reduce its military presence in the region to the bare minimum required to secure our embassies. Decades of extensive American military involvement in this part of the world have been ruinous for the countries of the region and for American interests, and it is in the best interests of all concerned for the United States to get out.

September 30, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Progressive Hypocrite, War Crimes, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

Lebanon: Israeli forces’ airstrikes kill 14 medics in 2 days

People check the leveled area bombarded on September 27, 2024 by US-made bunker-buster bombs in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut’s southern suburbs. (Photo by AFP)
Press TV – September 29, 2024

More than a dozen paramedics have been killed in recent Israeli attacks, Lebanon’s health ministry announced.

The Lebanese health ministry announced on Sunday that 14 paramedics had been killed in two days of intense Israeli bombardment in Lebanon’s east and south and in Beirut where it had killed Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

The ministry said in its statement that it “condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli enemy’s repeated attacks on medical centers” and that “paramedics do not participate in hostilities.”

“The Israeli occupation forces have accumulated their attacks on paramedics and health centers in recent days. This series of attacks led to the martyrdom of fourteen paramedics in two days,” it said in the statement.

“The repeated attacks by the Israeli enemy on health centers flout international laws and norms, especially the Geneva Convention which highlights the neutrality of health centers and health workers in combat zones to allow them to carry out their humanitarian duty.”

“Does Israel want the blood to flow without stopping? Where is the international community and its responsibility to put an end to this escalating genocide?” it added.

The Lebanese Government Emergency Committee announced that the Israeli war machine launched 216 air attacks in the past 24 hours across Lebanon.

The Israeli airstrikes are due to the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance group showing solidarity with and giving support to Palestinians since the Tel Aviv leaders unleashed a genocidal war against the besieged Gaza Strip in October 2023.

Since then, Israeli attacks on Lebanese targets have left 1,640 people dead.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who led the resistance movement for over three decades, was himself martyred after Israeli regime forces bombarded a Beirut suburb using US-made jet fighters and bunker-buster bombs.

September 29, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Israeli occupation forces attack Palestinian family, arrest foreign activists in al-Khalil

Palestinian Information Center – September 29, 2024

WEST BANK – The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) assaulted a Palestinian family and arrested foreign peace activists in Masafer Yatta, south of al-Khalil, in the southern West Bank on Sunday.

Activist Osama Makhamreh reported that the IOF stormed Al-Tuwani village in Masafer Yatta, and assaulted the Al-Harini family.

He added that the IOF arrested foreign peace activists after preventing them from filming and documenting settlers’ violations and attacks against local citizens.

In August 2024, the Israeli army and settlers carried out 1,228 attacks against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank.

These attacks included field executions, armed attacks on Palestinian villages, vandalism, bulldozing of land, uprooting of trees, property confiscation, movement restrictions, and the erection of military checkpoints.

September 29, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Spain: General strike against genocidal war in Palestine

MEMO | September 28, 2024

Spain entered a 24-hour general strike on Friday titled “Against the genocide and occupation in Palestine,” called for by more than 200 unions and non-governmental organisations.

The strike was accompanied by demonstrations in the capital, Madrid, and major cities such as Barcelona and Bilbao, while university student unions also announced their participation.

The unions and NGOs called on the Spanish government to immediately sever diplomatic, commercial and military relations with Tel Aviv to prevent participating in the ethnic cleansing committed by Israel.

The unions confirmed that they will organise demonstrations in front of factories that produce military equipment as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Madrid.

“We organised this strike with the support of many NGOs to respond to the demands of Palestinian workers,” stated Carmen Arnaiz, secretary of social activities at the General Confederation of Labour, which led the general strike.

Arnaiz pointed out: “The biggest action we can take as trade unions is a general strike,” noting that the strike is symbolic yet significant.

“The message we want to send to the Spanish government and the world is to cut all relations with Israel,” Arnaiz conveyed, condemning Israel for its “total violation of international law and human rights” in committing genocide.

Arnaiz stressed the need to continue activities in support of Palestine around the world.

September 28, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , | Leave a comment

Israel’s new quagmire: a ground invasion of Lebanon

By Mohamad Hasan Sweidan | The Cradle | September 28, 2024

On 26 September, the Israeli army announced the conclusion of a brigade exercise simulating a ground operation in Lebanon, several kilometers from the shared border. In the past two days, several Israeli military officials, including Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy and Northern Commander Uri Gordin, have spoken about the occupation army’s readiness to execute ground operations in Lebanon. 

But how can Tel Aviv realistically conceive of launching ground troops into a country that has not once, but twice, managed to expel occupation forces, to engage in combat against an adversary – Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah – that is far better armed and organized than in years past? 

Features of the Israeli strategy so far

Since the start of its recent escalation with Lebanon, Israel appears to be executing its war on five simultaneous tracks. First, it seeks to strike Hezbollah’s command and control system, mainly through targeted assassinations against key resistance military leaders, the most recent target being drone unit commander Abu Saleh Sorour. 

Second is to directly strike Hezbollah’s military capabilities based on an existing bank of targets established by Tel Aviv: Last Monday, the Israelis announced that they had successfully struck 1,600 resistance military targets, including weapons depots, missile stores, and launching pads. Notably, they claimed the same kinds of successful strikes in the July 2006 war, which turned out to be grossly inaccurate. 

Third, Israel aims to apply internal Lebanese pressure on Hezbollah by harming its constituents, supporters, and even detractors. Tel Aviv has intensified its bloody targeting of civilian populations and areas in the past two weeks, killing over 728 civilians, injuring thousands, and displacing nearly 390,000 people, according to official Lebanese government data.

Fourth, is an attempt to influence the broad, general Lebanese environment to turn against the resistance through systematic media campaigns – in cooperation with Lebanese media outlets and personalities who parrot Israel’s intimidation narratives in order to tame and curb Hezbollah’s actions. The fifth and final track, so far, is the growing threat and preparation for an Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon – albeit a limited one – with a goal to confirm Israeli field superiority by controlling Lebanese areas, even for short periods.

Hezbollah’s reactions?

Naturally, the resistance intends to thwart Israel’s strategies through a set of interconnected steps. After each assassination, Hezbollah confirms that its command and control system remains unaffected, then launches a controlled escalation to confirm its readiness in the face of enemy shocks. This was evident on 24 September, when Hezbollah launched a 300+ missile strike the day after Israel’s air campaign, essentially to confirm that its missile capabilities were locked and loaded, ready to go.

As in past Israeli confrontations with Hezbollah, the latter’s support base remains largely consistent and supportive of the resistance’s escalatory plans. Separating Hezbollah from its incubating environment is an Israeli strategy that has repeatedly failed, mainly because the resistance’s rank and file originate from this very society. 

Finally, Israel’s goal of turning Lebanese public opinion against the resistance has not advanced, to date. Rather, Israeli aggressions have increased national cohesion, particularly after the occupation state’s pager terror attack, except in some limited cases.

The fifth track: ground invasion of Lebanon

In recent days, discussions about the possibility of an Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon have increased markedly. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has boasted that military operations against Lebanon will continue “at full strength to ensure Hezbollah is “significantly weakened,” and has rejected international calls for an immediate ceasefire. 

The army’s chief of staff also instructed Israeli forces to prepare for a possible ground attack for the purpose of establishing an Israeli buffer zone in southern Lebanon. Operationally, the occupation army is preparing for this possibility by running training drills and summoning two reserve brigades to the northern front.

According to Western and Israeli sources, there are several scenarios for a possible Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon, with each scenario offering different strategic objectives and risks:

First, is a limited ground action inside Lebanese territory with the aim of striking specific Hezbollah targets near the border, such as missile launch sites, or clearing an area to prevent the resistance from carrying out attacks on Israel. This would be a short-term action used to pressure the party in ceasefire negotiations. At this point, if Tel Aviv chooses the option of ground action, this will be the most likely scenario.

Second, is a limited ground incursion to push resistance forces to retreat from the border, specifically to reduce the range of anti-tank guided missiles that Hezbollah possesses. Israeli military commanders have indicated this option would serve to create a “security zone” extending 8 to 10 kilometers inside Lebanese territory. Notably, this scenario increases the likelihood of prolonged fighting and higher Israeli human and military losses.

Third, is a complete ground invasion of Lebanon – the most extreme scenario – with the goal of destroying Hezbollah’s capabilities. Currently, this scenario remains highly unlikely due to its extremely high-risk profile – and given that Tel Aviv’s near-term goal is not to destroy Hezbollah but rather to alter the security challenges on its border with Lebanon.

Attack where?

An Israeli ground attack – limited or expansive – is expected to focus on specific geographic areas in Lebanon, mainly the south, where Tel Aviv wants its Hezbollah-free buffer zone, or the Bekaa region that flanks the Syrian border. Israel envisages a scenario similar to the status quo in southern Lebanon in the 1990s, in which it maintained a security zone to limit Hezbollah’s access to the border – before being purged by resistance commandos in 2000.

Conversely, a limited Israeli ground action in the Bekaa would be to impact and tighten Hezbollah’s logistical and weapons supply routes from Syria, either by cutting off land routes between Lebanon and Syria or by cutting supply lines between the Bekaa and the south. The groundwork there will be a continuation of Israeli air strikes in the Bekaa, which targeted four main border crossings with Syria – Al-Arrayedh, Mutariba, Saleh, and Qabsh.

Most western analysts are not optimistic about the Israeli army succeeding in executing ground operations in Lebanon, given Hezbollah’s enhanced and sophisticated capabilities to confront such an action. In a Washington Post article, writer Max Boot says this wild option “would be another quagmire for Israel.” From Tel Aviv’s perspective, the best-case scenario would be that its air campaign succeeds in halting the Lebanese support front for Gaza and allows displaced Israeli settlers to return to their homes in northern Israel. 

But with no imminent resolution of its conflict with Lebanon likely – given Netanyahu’s refusal to entertain a northern ceasefire, let alone a Gaza one –  the possibility of an Israeli ground action in Lebanon increases, despite the extraordinary risks for the occupation army. From its recent battle history with Lebanon’s resistance, in which Israel has lost face, Tel Aviv knows well that its air superiority is matched only by Hezbollah’s ground advantage.

September 28, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

Collective West supporting Israel ‘to wipe out the Palestinian population’: Prof. Marandi

Press TV – September 28, 2024

Professor Mohammad Marandi says all the Western countries are supporting the Israeli regime “to wipe out the Palestinian population.”

Marandi, a professor at the University of Tehran and a political analyst, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday from Beirut, Lebanon, where he is based these days.

“All the Western countries are supporting the regime in every way possible, through aid, through political cover, through weapons, through ammunition, and… through intelligence gatherings,” Marandi said.

“So this is a collaboration of tens of Western regimes to wipe out the Palestinian population,” he stated.

The Iranian academic added that “when it comes to seeking a ceasefire they are doing everything possible to help the regime carrying out both a holocaust in the south of Palestine and ongoing genocidal attacks in the north of Palestine.”

Commenting on Israel’s recent aggressions against Lebanon, Marandi said, “Hezbollah and the people of Lebanon are paying the price for defending the people of Gaza, against the genocide.”

“For over 11 months now, the resistance in Lebanon with the support of the overwhelming majority of the Lebanese population, have been engaging in battles or in strikes across the border in the north of Palestine in order to draw troops away from Gaza, and to support the people of Gaza to lessen the intensity of the ongoing holocaust in Gaza,” he stated.

The Islamic resistance movement Hezbollah has been conducting numerous operations against Israeli targets since October last year when the Israeli regime waged a genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.

At least 41,534 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in the brutal Israeli military onslaught so far.

On Friday, Israeli warplanes launched massive airstrikes on the southern suburb of Dahiyeh in Beirut, killing at least eight people and wounding around 80 others.

Hours after a new wave of Israeli airstrikes hit the Dahiyeh area.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas called on “Arab and Islamic nations” to act and “reject this brutal aggression” by Israel against the brotherly people of Lebanon.

Hamas condemned the “Zionist escalation and aggression” against the people of Lebanon.

Speaking about the hypocrisy of the Western media, Marandi said, “Whenever they bomb towns and villages across the country, the Western media calls it Hezbollah strongholds.”

He added that many ordinary people get killed in Israeli attacks the Western media call targeted strikes against Hezbollah leaders.

“In general it is fair to say that Hezbollah and the people of Lebanon have played the most courageous role in this almost one-year-long genocide in Gaza because they voluntarily chose to draw Israeli forces away from the battlefield in the south of Palestine,” he noted.

Full video interview

September 28, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Video | , , , , | Leave a comment

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