Posted by Internationalist 360° on September 24, 2024
Al-Ahed News
Hezbollah Paralyzes the North – Two Million “Israeli” Settlers in Firing ZoneThe “Israeli” enemy media confirmed, commenting on the missile fire executed by the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon on Sunday, September 22, 2024, that Hezbollah has effectively “paralyzed the north”.
The enemy’s media acknowledged the death of a settler in a “traffic accident” while fleeing from a missile fired by Hezbollah in one of the northern settlements. Four other settlers were reported injured due to Hezbollah’s fire, and “Rambam” Hospital in occupied Haifa announced the arrival of five casualties.
Additionally, two buildings in “Kiryat Bialik” were damaged, and an “Israeli” media platform reported that entire homes in the settlement and surrounding areas were ablaze. The enemy also admitted that a missile fell in the “Krayot” region, north of Haifa, resulting in fires breaking out in the city and its surroundings due to the missile barrages launched by Hezbollah.
“Israeli” media reported that Hezbollah launched over 120 missiles toward the north in recent hours, with approximately 30 of those aimed at the “Krayot” region since morning. Sirens were continuously sounding across the north, particularly in several industrial areas.
“Israeli” Army Radio emphasized that Hezbollah “carefully chose the targets it aimed at and the counter-message it intended to convey.”
Hezbollah Expands Missile Launch Range
In light of recent developments, “Israeli” media confirmed that Hezbollah has “expanded the range of missile launches to 60 km,” putting two million settlers within the range of Resistance fire. “Israeli” Channel 13 noted that areas targeted by Hezbollah missiles, such as Nasiriyah, Afula and “Migdal HaEmek”, were not included in the guidelines provided to settlers as a precaution against Hezbollah strikes. This indicates that “Israel’s” estimates had ruled out those areas as potential targets.
“Israeli” media also reported that the occupation military may impose tighter restrictions on Haifa and its surroundings due to the expanded range of missile barrages from Lebanon. It was announced that school sessions would be suspended in Akka [“Akko”], Tabariyya [“Tiberias”], “Nahariya”, and Safad [“Safed”] following the missile strikes on the north.
These reports followed the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon’s operation, which targeted the “Ramat David” base and airport twice early on Sunday, firing dozens of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles in support of Gaza and in response to the “Israeli” recurring attacks on various Lebanese regions, which resulted in civilian casualties.
The Resistance also targeted the “Israeli” Rafael military-industrial complex, known for its electronic means and equipment, located in the “Zvolen” region north of the occupied city of Haifa, using dozens of Fadi 1, Fadi 2 and Katyusha rockets.
The Resistance emphasized that this operation was conducted in support of Gaza and as an initial response to the brutal massacre committed by the occupation in various Lebanese regions on Tuesday and Wednesday, targeting pagers and wireless devices.
Field sources confirmed that the “Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles are being used for the first time” since the onset of confrontations on October 8, 2023. Notably, the support front that “Israeli” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to halt “is expanding in terms of range and targets”.
Yemen Warns of “Surprises” Deep Inside Zionist “Settlers’ Den”
Yemen Warns of “Surprises” Deep Inside Zionist Entity, Says Will Pound “Settlers’ Den”Yemen’s Defense Minister, Mohammed Nasser Al-Atafi, announced that the country’s armed forces have prepared surprises for enemy forces, affirming that they will persist in striking targets within “Israeli”-occupied territories using various types of weaponry.
“Military institutions responsible for the preparation, training and renovation of our military-industrial systems in order to create new readiness for changing developments are speedily underway,” he said, speaking on Sunday at the graduation ceremony at officers’ college.
“We are aiming to train a military-defense force capable of imposing its political and military equations [on the enemy] and defend the sovereignty of the Republic of Yemen all across its realm,” He added.
“We are aiming to continuously strike painful blows deep inside the Zionist enemy’s [military formations].”
“This way, before the enemy conducts more strikes, it will think about the many repercussions of its stupidity,” Al-Atafi noted.
He went on to say that Yemenis were monitoring the details of the political, military and geopolitical variables in the region, adding that the armed forces of the country were now ready to face all challenges.
The Yemeni defense minister said the country’s armed forces had already “knocked on the doors of occupied ‘Jaffa’ [Yafa] and Umm al-Rashrash [port of ‘Eilat’]” and were now ready to destroy the Zionists’ “den.”
He also said, “We will not hesitate to attack the enemy with ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles, in addition to drones. We are prepared for any sort of confrontation.”
Al-Atafi said, “We vow that more surprises are in store for the criminal Zionist enemy that will cool the hearts of the true believers.”
The minister concluded by warning that “those who have kept the [Yemeni] nation under siege for the 10th year, and are hostile towards them” that they “must understand that our strategic patience has decreased and this is dangerous for them.”
He called on the enemy aggressors and attackers in Yemen to make plans to exit Yemen without more ado. “We warn them that they will taste the bitterness of our military forces preparations.”
In similar remarks, the head of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, Field Marshal Mahdi Mohammad Al-Mashat said on Friday that Yemen’s enemies are to be shocked in coming days.
Al-Mashat praised the Yemeni armed forces’ success in striking “Israeli” military targets inside “Tel Aviv”.
He noted the recently launched Palestine 2 hypersonic missile had bypassed and penetrated all layers of American, British and “Israeli” aerial systems.
“Our operations will continue as long as the aggression and siege on Gaza persist,” he said.
Al-Mashat also reiterated Yemen’s unwavering and principled stance in support of the oppressed Palestinian people until the occupied land is liberated from “Israeli” occupation.
“No power in the world will deter us from this decision, regardless of the cost or the challenges,” he added.
Al-Mashat also emphasized Yemen’s full commitment to achieving a just and honorable peace.
“The only solution is to approach peace with sincere intentions,” he concluded.
Yemeni Ansarullah resistance movement’s leader, Sayyed Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, blamed the United States on Saturday for “Israeli” crimes in Palestine.
He said Washington offers its full support to the “Israeli” entity and is willing to act against any Arab country.
The Yemeni nation has voiced its full support for Palestine’s struggle against the “Israeli” occupation.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/09/ ... ring-zone/
Human Rights Lawyers Renew Calls for the Release of 10,000 Palestinian Prisoners of War
Posted by Internationalist 360° on September 23, 2024
Ana Vračar
Khalida Jarrar is one of 10,000 Palestinians that has been arrested by Israel in the last year as part of a massive crackdown.
Legal experts and human rights advocates renew their call for solidarity with Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel since October 2023.
Since October 7, 2023, approximately 10,000 Palestinians from across the West Bank and other occupied territories have been imprisoned by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in what human rights lawyers describe as an unprecedented assault on all branches of the resistance movement. Thousands more have been forcibly disappeared from the Gaza Strip, with little information available about their whereabouts.
Amid the increased use of torture and detention of the Palestinian people by Israel, international solidarity movements have intensified campaigns calling for their release.
Among those recently detained from the occupied West Bank is Khalida Jarrar, a prominent human and women’s rights activist, who has faced persecution by Israel on multiple occasions, and is now being held in Neve Tirza prison.
At a briefing on Palestinian political prisoners, organized by the International Peoples’ Assembly (IPA), Tala Nasir from Addameer Association for Prisoner Support and Human Rights, along with human rights lawyer Bilal Naammeh, highlighted the IOF’s violations of basic human rights among prisoners. Nasir pointed out that many arrests in the past year have targeted specific groups of professionals who play an important role in building the material basis of the community, including engineers and health workers. However, anyone can face arrest for something as minor as posting on social media, which occupation forces often manipulate into allegations of supporting resistance groups, including Hamas.
Israel is attempting to practically ban all political participation by Palestinians, Naammeh noted, a threat reinforced through military courts and remote trials designed to instill fear in the population. Since October 2023, these practices have become even more severe than before. Naammeh described how, in court, Israeli lawyers often accuse defendants of being involved in the resistance. When defense lawyers challenge these accusations due to insufficient evidence, they can be sanctioned or temporarily barred from representing clients.
As lawyers are currently the only point of contact between prisoners and the outside world, restricting their access—whether through sanctions or lengthy delays—has profound consequences.
Conditions inside Israeli prisons have also worsened significantly. Access to prisoners is limited, even for representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Prisoners face severe shortages of food and water, which has led to weight loss of up to 30 kilograms per person, and are allowed only one hour outside their cells each day, leaving them isolated for the rest of the time, according to Nasir.
The lack of water and hygiene has led to mass outbreaks of disease and infection, including scabies. According to Naammeh, some prisoners with scabies have been tied to their beds to prevent them from scratching. Other reports indicate that the IOF moves prisoners with scabies between sections in order to purposely exacerbate the contagion. Despite the widespread health crisis, medical care remains out of reach for most. Naammeh highlighted that even the most pressing health issues can take up to two months to receive basic medical attention, leaving prisoners in prolonged suffering.
Conditions in the camps where Palestinians from Gaza are held are even worse, the two advocates suggested, but up-to-date information is nearly impossible to obtain. The only reports come from Israeli media or the testimonies of those who have been released. Nasir recounted stories of prisoners enduring extreme torture, including rape. Witnesses described prisoners being forced to bark for food and given only thin mattresses for six hours a day, making proper rest impossible. This treatment extends even to those who are supposed to enjoy specific protection under international law, such as health workers. Nasir explained that dozens of health workers abducted from Gaza are being held under the Unlawful Combatants Law, meaning they could remain imprisoned until the end of the conflict under such conditions.
In response to Israel’s blatant disregard for human rights and international law, Addameer and the IPA renewed their call for the immediate release of all political prisoners and urged international activists to escalate solidarity efforts, including by insisting on adherence to recent International Court of Justice rulings. The organizers reminded participants that even the simplest acts of solidarity can contribute meaningfully to the broader struggle for liberation.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/F04XUG2KJlQ?list=PLjdRD ... APO9FFeyyX[/youtube]
Episode 1, with Baraa Odeh, of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. Ms Odeh worked as a human rights defender for the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) when she was abducted by the Zionist military on March 3rd, 2024, while crossing back into Palestine from Jordan’s King Hussein bridge, and held in captivity without trial or charges until her release on June 4th, 2024.
Episode 2, with Sumoud Mtair of Dura, al-Khalil (watch on Rumble) , speaks about the martyrdom of her sister Ahed in January 2024, her detention in March, the conditions in the infamous Damon prison where she was detained, the situation of Gaza’s female prisoners she met, and more.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/v0TqWXLPA_c?list=PLjdRD ... APO9FFeyyX[/youtube]
Episode 3, with Abdul-Majeed Hassan, former President of the Bir Zeit University Student Council, who was detained four times by the Zionist regime as well as once by the Palestinian Authority under its “security coordination,” on his experience and the targeting of the student movement.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/09/ ... rs-of-war/
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Israeli settlers publish map of south Lebanon with Hebrew names
Jewish settlers in Israel advocate conquering, stealing, and settling territory in southern Lebanon as Israel now does in the West Bank and Gaza
News Desk
SEP 25, 2024
An Israeli Jewish settler in the occupied West Bank (Photo credit: WAFA)
The Movement for Settlement in Southern Lebanon has published a map with “the new Hebrew names for the settlements of Southern Lebanon,” based on the current names of the Lebanese towns and villages.
The Israeli movement seeks to promote the conquest, ethnic cleansing, and settlement of southern Lebanon by Israeli Jews, just as Israel has been doing in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The map was published amid the Israeli army's massive bombing campaign in southern Lebanon that has killed over 500 people in just three days and displaced tens of thousands more who have fled north toward Beirut.
The Movement for Settlement in Southern Lebanon published this map, featuring "The new Hebrew names for the settlements of Southern Lebanon" based on the current names of the Lebanese towns and villages.
Jewish Currents reports that in the movement's worldview, “the Israeli settlement of southern Lebanon will begin with a war with Hezbollah – which they view not as a last resort barring a diplomatic solution, but as the only reasonable path forward.”
Political analyst James Dorsey notes that the movement claims a Biblical justification for the conquest of Lebanon in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 3, verse 25. As Moses appeals to God to allow him to enter the Promised Land, he asks, “Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan – that fine hill country and Lebanon.”
Uri Tzafon (“Awaken North”), an Israeli group demanding the conquest and Jewish settlement of Lebanon, sent drones and balloons into southern Lebanon in June carrying eviction notices to the region's residents.
“The announcements make clear to the residents that they are in the Land of Israel, which belongs to the Jewish people, and that they are required to evacuate immediately,” the group said in a statement.
Dorsey notes further that “Uri Tzafon echoes a principle that is becoming more prominent among Israelis, including soldiers serving in Gaza.”
In November 2023, as the bombing and invasion of Gaza was well underway, Captain Amichai Friedman, the rabbi of the Nahal brigade's military base, stated Israel's intention to not only take Gaza but Lebanon as well. “This land is ours. All of it. Including Gaza. Including Lebanon. The entire Promised Land,” he told a group of soldiers.
https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-s ... brew-names
Settlers injured by Hezbollah rockets as Israeli army readies Lebanon ground invasion
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said last week that a ground invasion would heavily backfire and turn into ‘hell’ for Israel
News Desk
SEP 25, 2024
Damage resulting from Hezbollah rockets fired at Safad. 25 September, 2024. (Photo credit: X)
At least two Israeli settlers were wounded on 25 September, with one in serious condition, during a Hezbollah rocket attack on the Saar settlement in western Galilee.
Hebrew news outlet Channel 12 reported that two Israeli settlers were doing renovation work when sirens began sounding.
The Israeli army said 30 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward the western Galilee.
“In support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, in support of their valiant and honorable resistance, and in defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters bombed the Sa'ar settlement with a barrage of rockets on Wednesday 09/25/2024,” Hezbollah said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon, marking its fifth operation of the day.
Hezbollah announced minutes later a rocket attack on the Kiryat Motzkin settlement in the Haifa area.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Lebanese resistance group fired heavy barrages of rockets at the Galilee and Haifa areas.
The operation came as Israeli jets continued indiscriminate attacks across Lebanon on 25 September and as Tel Aviv warned that a ground operation in southern Lebanon was imminent.
“We have entered another phase of the campaign, we need to be very strongly prepared for an entry ground maneuver and action,” said the Israeli army’s Northern Command, headed by Ori Gordin, on Wednesday.
Gordin has previously called for a ground incursion into Lebanon aimed at establishing a buffer zone in the country, pushing Hezbollah to behind the Litani river, and securing the return of tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated from Israel’s northern settlements since the start of the war.
The Economist reported on 22 September, citing military sources, that Israel is planning a ground invasion of Lebanon but is still not ready, as Tel Aviv currently does not have the forces for such an operation despite recent redeployments.
“I say to Netanyahu and Gallant, you will not be able to return the [settlers] to the north,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech last week. Trying to enter Lebanon with ground troops and attempting to create a buffer zone will be “hell” for Tel Aviv’s forces, Nasrallah added.
Referring to Israel’s Northern Command, Nasrallah said, “This idiot, the commander of the northern region in the enemy’s army, suggested establishing a security belt … We hope that they will enter our lands, we welcome this … because … we will have a historic opportunity that … will have major effects on this battle.”
“What you will be doing will increase the displacement of these people,” he said.
https://thecradle.co/articles/settlers- ... d-invasion
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Fog of (Dis)Information in Escalating Israel-Lebanon Conflict
Posted on September 24, 2024 by Yves Smith
As many commentators have noted, Israel’s exploding pager/walkie-talkie attacks, followed by air strikes on a Hezbollah command post and then broadly across Lebanon are a gambit to try to get Lebanon to respond in a manner that would get the US to come in more formally on Israel’s side as the Axis of Resistance is inflicting costs on Israel over its Gaza genocide.
However, the reporting on the large scale terrorist act of the communication-devices-turned-bombs illustrates how corrupted this information environment is. Israel and its cheerleaders have attempted to justify this act as part of an intended military operation, to disrupt Hezbollah’s operations. The only “bad” thing was they executed prematurely.
In fact, as we’ll unpack further below, this tech-bombing was even worse than you imagined. The military wing of Hezbollah does not use pager or walkie talkies. They’ve used their own fiber optic network since 2006, and otherwise rely on couriers. These devices were in the hands of civilian Hezbollah workers, such as members of its large social services effort. Yes, military members may have been hurt too, but that was dumb luck, like being in proximity to blown-up pager-user or picking up a ringing device on behalf of someone else.
Needless to say, this also means that the device attacks were pure terrorism, with no remotely colorable military purpose whatsoever. Remember, the press has brayed that Israel has been working on this caper for 15 years. But Hezbollah moved its military comms to fiber optic before that. And Israel surely knew that. So that means this entire enterprise was from its outset a terrorist scheme and never a military operation.
But why should that be a surprise? This is how Israel has rolled since its Stern Gang days.
Because we are in what Lambert would call an overly-dynamic situation, rather than attempt a state-of-play account, it seemed more productive to alert readers to how the deeply polluted state of Anglosphere reporting. It should be no surprise that it is coming to resemble Western reporting on the Ukraine conflict, as overstating Israeli successes and underplaying or ignoring Hezbollah/Axis of Resistance wins.
This matters because if Israel’s efforts to subdue the Axis of Resistance fall short, which seems likely, the campaign to get the US committed to the conflict will only intensify. Mind you, in reality, it’s not as if we could do all that much even if we wanted to, ex possibly commit more air power. As Associated Press pointed out yesterday, the US has only 40,000 men in the entire theater. They presumably already have things to do. It takes 6+ months to move more men and the needed logistical support in were we to deploy more than say some Special Forces types. And the US is low on materiel world-wide, thanks to having drained our stockpiles to back Ukraine. For instance, one thing the US is short on globally is Patriot air defense missiles, and at least as of now, we are prioritizing Ukraine.
The general tendency for Western reporting to favor our allies dovetails with Israeli press censorship. The Israeli government finds it important to restore if at all possible the image of the IDF as formidable, both to restore its citizens’ once central belief that Israel was safe place for Jews, and to project power in the region.
Yours truly in now finding it necessary to listen to Alastair Crooke’s Monday morning talks on Judge Napolitano to sanity check Israeli claims. Readers may recall that a few weeks ago, we showcased one of these interviews immediately after some much-ballyhooed Israel air strikes into Lebanon. The claim was that Israel had sent in 100 planes and destroyed Hezbollah rocket launchers right before a planned Hezbollah attack, defanging it.
This is what Crooke reported:
Whatever you’ve read is almost certainly wrong. It’s a narrative…..First of all, it all happened at around 4 o’clock in the morning on Sunday. The Israelis started to see people moving in Lebanon and moving towards platforms. Hezbollah was planning the operation to fire drones and rockets at 5:15 on Sunday morning. And Israel started to, an attack, a direct attack. It involved I think about a hundred aircraft.
But contrary to what the Israeli propagandists at the IDF are saying, and I know this not from Hezbollah but I know this from inside Lebanon, people who are on the ground there, it was chaotic twenty minutes. Israel just bombed various valleys where they imagined the ballistic missiles were. But they’d been cleared out of there some time ago. There were no ballistic missiles. You can check that, there are people on the ground who know what’s happened. There are no missiles. So when they said they destroyed thousands of missile launchers, this is a complete lie. Because first of all, there are no missiles, no ballistic missiles, no large missiles south of the Litani River. What you have is drones and small rockets. And none of these have launchers. And they destroyed none of them. It was just a show, a show of force and it only lasted about twenty minutes…..
On top of that, the Hezbollah attack that Sunday morning, in retaliation for the assassination of senior Hezbollah military official Fuad Shukr in Beirut, did take place. Israel immediately clamped down on all reports. At first, Israel claimed the Hezbollah strikes were ineffective (there was Twitter fun about Hezbollah striking a chicken coop, which does seem to have occurred). However, it finally came out that Hezbollah was successful in striking a building in the military airport near Tel Avis that housed Unit 8200, which is akin to our NSA. Hezbollah believed Unit 8200 planned the killing of Fuad Shukr. “Successful” as in some Unit 8200 members died (there is speculation that Hezbollah got a very top level official; I’ve not seen anything convincing either way).
Now let us turn to the series of exchanges that started with barbarism-by-pager. Per Moon of Alabama:
Last week Israel launched a terror attack on Hizbullah operatives who were using pagers to receive alarms and orders. These people were part of the civil administration side of Hizbullah and not its armed fighters.
But since a new trope coming out of the bogus claim that the Hezbollah militia used pagers and didn’t even inspect them is (just like Russians!) that this proves that they are incompetent. So let’s again turn to Alastair Crooke:
The notion that Hizbullah’s communications are crippled is wishful thinking that fails to distinguish between what may be called civil-society Hizbullah, and its military arm.
Hizbullah is a civil movement, as well as a military power. It is the Authority over a significant slice of Beirut and a country – a responsibility that requires the Movement to provide civil order and security. The pagers and radios were used primarily by its civil security forces (effectively a civil police managing security and order in Hizbullah-controlled parts of Lebanon), as well as used by its logistics and support branches. Since these personnel are not combat forces, they were not seen to require truly secure communications.
Even before the 2006 war, Hizbullah ended all cellphone and landline communications in favour of their own dedicated optic cable system and hand-courier messaging for the military cadres. In short, Hizbullah’s communications at the civil level took a major hit, but this will not unduly impact upon its military forces. For years, the Movement has operated on the basis that units could continue with combat, even in the event of a complete rupture of optic communications, or the loss of a HQ.
So again in a close parallel to Ukraine, the real reason for this attack appears to be to try to break the will of the long-suffering Lebanese people and turn them against Hezbollah, just as some collective Ukraine officials fantasize that if they cause enough pain to Russian civilians, they will turn on Putin. At least so far, Lebanese citizens instead appear to be pulling together. Journalist Laith Marouf, now in Beirut, told Rachel Blevins that thousands of citizens came to hospitals offering to donate one of their eyes to a victim of the cyber attack (starting at 9:20). Even though that’s beyond current medical technology, it’s an indication of the depth of public support. Marouf also contends that the Lebanese know what they are up against, that wars of decolonization take years.
A second leg of the attack, coming shortly after the device carnage, was an assassination attempt via precision air strike in Beirut against Hezbollah paramilitary leader Ali Karaki, reportedly one of the top three on Israel’s kill list. The press cheered his death. That turns out to have been premature. From Military Watch:
A senior commander for the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah, Ali Karaki, has survived an Israeli assassination attempt, after a precision strike on a military headquarters in the capital Beirut was launched to eliminate him… Confirmation of his survival follows multiple reports from Western media outlets, citing Lebanese military sources, that the commander was eliminated during an Israeli attack on Beirut’s Madi neighbourhood.
It was a nice touch for Military Watch to point out that the initial Anglosphere accounts cited (or made up) “Lebanese military sources”. Admittedly, it is possible this was disinfo while Karaki was being moved to safety.
Now to the next Israel move, widespread air strikes that extended into Syria. The claim was that they were targeting rocket launchers, So far, they have killed nearly 500. But as for the rockets, we again turn to Alastair Crooke, here on Judge Napolitano. Starting at 9:00:
But for the moment, they have bet on escalation dominance, “escalating to de-escalate,” first the pagers, then the assassination on its heels, and then they’re banking on intelligence and firepower to push Hezbollah into an agreement. But first of all, there was no agreement. Amos Hochstein was in Lebanon but he was acting more for the Israelis and for the Americans, but it was a complete failure, the attempt for some sort of diplomatic route. I mean there isn’t one. It’s been talked about, but there was no agreement, Americans know that, Israelis know that too. So this is really what they are betting on is they can either push Hezbollah in. And to this extent, we’re seeing this massive air attacks taking place in the south and in the Bekka, that you just spoke about. But really what we’re talking about is ineffectiveness of air firepower in these circumstances, when put against deep, deep buried rockets and missiles. In the beginning, in ’23, Hezbollah was looking at losing about 10 men a day. Now they’re not really losing any. There were about 2 Hezbollah who were supposed to be killed but they were religious figures, they din’t have to do with Hezbollah per se, they sadly will be civilian losses.
They are heavily bombing the area, and although it’s being presented as being by intelligence as if they’re knocking out rocket launchers, that too is pretty much bunk. Because they too basically try and find launchers by combing the forest, because this is mountain area, forest area. Very difficult terrain. Deep valleys, little nooks and crannies. So they film all of this, looking for movements, and then they use artificial intelligence detection methodology to try to find where someone has moved. It’s not done by spies or intelligence per se. It is done by using AI, again, to spot some sort of movement. And Hezbollah for years, since 2006, have been adept at putting up ghosts and fake missile launchers, fake men, moving them around, fooling the Israelis who are basically bombing every spot in the forest, hills and valleys where it thinks possibly going to be a rocket launcher….
Crooke also stressed that even the death of a senior commander would only be a tactical loss. As 7:40, he explains that every top Hezbollah officer trains his successor.
Crooke turned to the Hezbollah response, which is to increase the range of territory in Israel that they consider to be fair game for attack. At 14:20:
Hezbollah has escalated too, just to be clear. Because one of the things they are facing again is Israel has put another big blackout notice on everything, no filming, no photos, no reporting at all from anywhere north of Haifa, which is in the center, right on the coast of Israel. No news is allowed to be presented. But you do get some because there are Israelis in the settlements that are sending videos. The point here is there is major destruction in Haifa, a major port. Hezbollah’s reported an attack on an airbase, there are attacks going on, there are rocket continuing. So with all this bombing, all this so-called carpet bombing, it’s actually quite ineffective. It’s not stopping Hezbollah. I emphasize here htat we are seeing rockets, [not sure of name] 1 and 2, which are probably similar to a HIMARS. They’re not guided, they’re not smart. Hezbollah hasn’t even begun to use its smart missiles. They’re using the rockets to create destruction of houses. Nearly a million Israelis were in the shelters last night [Sunday].
Dmitry Liscaris claims in this interview (at 15:13) that Hezbollah attacks took out one of Israel’s three airbases, the Ramat David airbase in the Golan Heights, and a major arms making plant, Rafael Military Industries complex, which makes air defense equipment, as well as hitting targets near Tel Aviv. He also said waves of drones were coming from Iraq.
It has not gotten as much mention in the (far from comprehensive) press I follow, but Twitter does confirm the drone attack:
Without trying to give a comprehensive account of the latest strikes and counter-strikes, Arab News reports a new attack on Beirut killed a different top Hezbollah commander, Ibrahim Qubaisi. With the news blackout in Israel, we don’t (and won’t for a while) have much news on damage and deaths there. Even though Crooke depicted Hezbollah as making a discrete, as opposed to open-ended escalation, such niceties may not count for much. A new update from Laith Malouf at Garland Nixon troubling points out that in 36 hours, Israel has killed more Lebanese than it did in the 33 days of its 2006 war with Lebanon. And it seems to be targeting hospitals as well as other civilian infrastructure. Are they attempting Gaza on a bigger scale?
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/09 ... flict.html
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Media Complicit in the Crimes of Israel
September 25, 2024
The pro-Israel bias in Western reporting makes the media utterly complicit in Israel’s war crimes, writes Jonathan Cook, including when Israeli soldiers throw Palestinians off a roof.
By Jonathan Cook
Jonathan-Cook.net
The coverage of Israeli soldiers pushing three Palestinians off a roof in the West Bank town of Qabatiya — it’s unclear whether the men are dead or near-dead — is being barely reported by the Western media, even though it was videoed from at least three different angles and a reporter from the main U.S. news agency Associated Press witnessed it.
AP’s news feed is accessed by all Western establishment media, so they all know.
The Israeli soldiers killed, mutilated and humiliated the bodies of three Palestinians in Qabatia ( Jenin area) today and threw their bodies from a high building to the ground in a savage and inhuman manner. pic.twitter.com/0umG45ZhPH
— Mustafa Barghouti @Mustafa_Barghouti (@MustafaBarghou1) September 19, 2024
[AP’s report includes a video of a fourth body thrown by three Israeli soldiers from an adjacent rooftop.]
Yet again, the media has chosen to ignore Israeli war crimes, [or refrain from describing them as “war crimes” even when there is definitive proof that they occurred. (Or perhaps more accurately — even more so when there is definitive proof they occurred.)
Remember, that same media never fails to highlight — or simply makes up — any crime Palestinians are accused of, such as those non-existent “beheaded babies.”
AP itself treats this latest atrocity in the West Bank as no big deal. It reports simply that it may be part of a “pattern of excessive force” by Israeli soldiers towards Palestinians.
That comment, without quote marks and ascribed to a human rights group, is almost certainly AP’s preferred characterisation of the group’s reference to a pattern not of “excessive force” but of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
AP makes sure to give Israel’s pretext for why it is committing war crimes: “Israel says the raids are necessary to stamp out militancy.”
But it forgets yet again to mention why that “militancy” exists: because Israel has been violently enforcing an illegal military occupation of the Palestinian territories for many decades, in which it — once again illegally — has drafted in an army of settler militias to drive out the native Palestinian population.
AP also forgets to mention that, under international law, the Palestinians have every right to resist Israel’s occupying soldiers, including “militantly.”
Western governments might characterise Palestinians shooting at Israeli soldiers as “terrorism,” but that’s not how it is seen in the international law codes that Western states drafted decades ago and that they claim to uphold.
It’s also worth noting that the local Palestinian reporter who witnessed this crime had his report rewritten by “Julia Frankel, an Associated Press reporter in Jerusalem.”
As is true with many other Western outlets, AP copy is editorially overseen from Jerusalem, where its office is staffed mostly with Israeli Jews.
AP headquarters in One World Financial Center in lower Manhattan. (Ken Lund, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 )
With little doubt, Western news outlets privately rationalise this to themselves as a wise precaution, making sure copy is “sensitive” to Israel’s perspective and less likely to incur the wrath of the Israeli government and Israel lobby.
Which is precisely the problem. The bias in Western reporting is baked in. It is designed not to upset Israel — in the midst of a “plausible genocide,” according to the World Court — which means it’s entirely skewed and completely untrustworthy.
It makes our media utterly complicit in Israel’s war crimes, including when Israeli soldiers throw Palestinians off a roof.
UPDATE:
Very belatedly, the BBC has reported this on one of its news channels. Note, it adds an entirely unnecessary disclaimer that the footage hasn’t been “independently verified” – whatever that means.
There are now at least three separate videos, all taken from different angles, showing the same war crime. Even the Israeli military has confirmed the incident happened.
The BBC runs a report on Israeli soldiers pushing Palestinian bodies off the roof of a building & the presenter then remarks that the footage is an example of the many fronts Israel is fighting on
No, its an example of the IDF committing war crimes. pic.twitter.com/9GHtbNNXXh
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) September 20, 2024
The BBC also assumes the three Palestinians are dead. There is absolutely no reason to make that assumption: it violates the most basic rules of reporting.
And the anchor, clearly nervous about how she should refer to the men being pushed off a roof, ends by observing that the footage is “another example of the tensions and the many fronts on which we see Israel fighting.”
No, it’s another example of Israeli soldiers committing war crimes, and the media trying to deflect attention from that fact.
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/09/25/m ... of-israel/
Hezbollah Warns Israel Dropping Leaflets With ‘Very Dangerous’ Barcodes in Bekaa
September 24, 2024
The Lebanese resistance group urged anyone in Lebanon who comes across a leaflet to “destroy it immediately.”
The Israeli IDF headquarters in the Kirya compound in Tel Aviv. (DoD)
By Jessica Corbett
Common Dreams
As the death toll from the Israeli bombing of Lebanon topped 550 on Tuesday, Hezbollah warned that Israel is dropping leaflets with barcodes allegedly designed to extract information from electronic devices in the Bekaa Valley.
“The Zionist enemy is dropping leaflets with a barcode on them in the Bekaa region, and may drop them in other places,” Hezbollah’s media office said in a statement. “Please do not open or circulate the barcode.”
The Lebanese political party and paramilitary group urged anyone in Lebanon who comes across a leaflet to “destroy it immediately because it is very dangerous and withdraws all the information you have.”
Hezbollah warns Lebanese public not to scan "very dangerous" QR codes on leaflets dropped by Israeli warplanes in various areas across Lebanon. "This code can extract all the information on your devices and poses a threat to your safety"
Just before launching this bombing campaign, Israel detonated thousands of pagers and other electronic devices across Lebanon, an operation that rights experts characterized as terrorism.
Reuters noted Tuesday that “Hezbollah’s media office did not say if anything else was written on the flyers” and “there was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.”
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Tuesday social media post directed at Lebanese citizens that “our war is not with you, our war is with Hezbollah,” according to a translation from The Independent.
Hezbollah is “leading you to the brink of the abyss… Rid yourself from Nasrallah’s grip, for your own good,” he added, referring to Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader. “Anyone who has a missile in their living room and a rocket in their garage will not have a home.”
In a similar message posted later in English, Netanyahu said, “Get out of harm’s way, now.”
Drop Site News reported Monday that residents of southern Lebanon “began receiving text messages and calls with audio recordings warning them to leave their homes and villages,” and the Israel Defense Forces “Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee also posted several ominous messages” on social media.
Avichay Adraee, head of of the Israeli military’s Arab media division. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said Tuesday that at least 50 children and 95 women are among the 558 people who have been killed in Israeli attacks since Monday morning, according to Middle East Monitor. Another 1,835 have been injured.
“The majority of the victims in the Israeli attacks since Monday morning are defenseless civilians in their homes,” the minister said, refuting Israel’s claims that it is targeting Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on social media Monday that
“the escalating crisis in Lebanon is frightening… The toll on civilians is unacceptable. Political leaders must bring solutions. An end to the hostilities is urgently needed.”
Grandi added Tuesday that “Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon are now relentlessly claiming hundreds of civilian lives,” including at least two of his colleagues.
Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said that “full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest” and despite the recent escalation in Lebanon, “a diplomatic solution is still possible — in fact, it remains the only path to lasting security.”
The United States is Israel’s most significant ally, and Biden has faced global criticism — including charges of complicity in genocide in the Gaza Strip — for continuing to send weapons to the Israeli forces over the past year.
As Common Dreams reported Monday, the bombing campaign in Lebanon has elevated calls for the U.S. to impose an arms embargo.
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/09/24/h ... -in-bekaa/
*****
How Political Corruption Allows Antony Blinken To Break The Law
ProPublica headlines:
Israel Deliberately Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Two Government Bodies Concluded. Antony Blinken Rejected Them.
The selected formulation is unfortunately not covering the real issue at hand.
U.S. law prohibits military aid to countries which are hindering U.S. humanitarian aid.
Two government entities subordinated to the State Department concluded, in writing, that Israel was blocking their humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.
The Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, reported to Congress the opposite conclusion because he intended to deliver more military aid to Gaza.
By misleading Congress on humanitarian aid to Gaza Blinken deliberated broke the law.
That should have been the headline:
The U.S. government’s two foremost authorities on humanitarian assistance concluded this spring that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza.
The U.S. Agency for International Development delivered its assessment to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the State Department’s refugees bureau made its stance known to top diplomats in late April. Their conclusion was explosive because U.S. law requires the government to cut off weapons shipments to countries that prevent the delivery of U.S.-backed humanitarian aid. Israel has been largely dependent on American bombs and other weapons in Gaza since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.
But Blinken and the administration of President Joe Biden did not accept either finding. Days later, on May 10, Blinken delivered a carefully worded statement to Congress that said, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”
This case should be sufficient for Congress to open an inquiry and to demand under oath witness statements from Blinken and others involved in the affair. It could be a great instrument during the current election campaign to damage the position of Democratic candidates.
However that is unlikely to happen.
Unfortunately Blinken lied to Congress about Israeli war crimes because he knew that he would get away with it.
The uni-state, the foreign policy conglomerate which resides in both parties and the bureaucracy, will not allow that U.S. war-crimes or those of its associated forces will ever be prosecuted. The Bush administration did get away with lying about weapons of mass destruction. The CIA and the Pentagon got away with torturing hundreds of innocent people.
Would the Republicans prosecuted Blinken as they should they would have to break with their own support and commitment to Zionist supremacy. With their own candidate's campaign depending on donations from Zionist billionaires there is no chance that the Republicans will break away from their previous policies.
The will of the people, as enacted in laws, gets ignored in favor of monies that allow established politicians to continue their games.
Posted by b on September 25, 2024 at 9:58 UTC | Permalink
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/09/h ... l#comments
Israel strikes a Russian weapons depot in Syria.
@ejmalrai - 16:07 UTC · Oct 8, 2024
Hezbollah has intensified rocket and missile strikes on northern Israel over the past week.