Tag: israel

Israel commits new massacre in south Lebanon as regional tensions spiral

The Israeli army committed a massacre in the southern Lebanese village of Maifadoun on 6 August.

Five people were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the town of Maifadoun, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. 

“An enemy drone raided, at around 10:05 am, a two-story house in the Al-Nadi neighborhood in the town of Maifadoun. Smoke rose, and ambulances headed to the scene,” Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported on Tuesday. 

Israeli warplanes also struck the town of Khiam on 6 August.

Hezbollah announced the deaths of four of its fighters after the Israeli attack on Maifadoun.

The Lebanese resistance movement had targeted Israeli forces in the Avivim settlement hours earlier in response to continued Israeli attacks on civilians in south Lebanon. 

“In response to the Israeli enemy’s attacks on the steadfast southern villages and homes, the Islamic Resistance’s Mujahideen targeted a building used by enemy soldiers in the Avivim settlement on Tuesday 06-08-2024 with appropriate weapons and hit it directly,” the Lebanese resistance movement said in a statement. 

Hezbollah carried out several operations the day before, including suicide drone attacks on two Israeli army headquarters – launched in response to Israeli attacks and assassinations in the town of Bazouriye and Mays al-Jabal earlier this week. 

The resistance group said both attacks resulted in “confirmed casualties,” including deaths and injuries among the Israeli army’s ranks. 

Hezbollah has announced the deaths of several of its fighters in Israeli attacks since 4 August, as well as the killing of a civil defense paramedic affiliated with the resistance group’s Islamic Message Scouts Association. 

Tuesday’s massacre comes as regional tensions are at an all-time high following Israel’s assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on 31 July and top Hezbollah war commander Fuad Shukr in a Beirut residential building the day before. 

The attack on Beirut killed several civilians, including young children. 

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‘Display of Cowardice’- Meta Reinstates Malaysian PM’s Posts on Haniyeh’s Assassination

Meta has apologized for removing posts by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim regarding the assassination of Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The social media posts have been reinstated with the note: “This post goes against our Community Guidelines but has been left on Instagram for public awareness.”

Ibrahim’s posts included a video of him on a phone call with Hamas official, Dr Bassim Naim, expressing his condolences on Haniyeh’s killing in the Iranian capital last week.

In the caption, the premier called his death “a murder of the most heinous kind, plainly designed to derail ongoing talks aimed at ending the carnage in Gaza that has claimed over 40,000 lives.”

Malaysian government officials had reportedly met with Meta representatives on Monday to seek an explanation.

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EU’s top diplomat condemns Gaza starvation that Israeli minister called ‘moral’

European Union High Representative Josep Borrell on Monday condemned the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, urging Israel to halt actions that could further imperil the besieged region’s starving civilian population.

“The ever-worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is creating life-threatening conditions for an already severely weakened civilian population that continues to be subject to starvation and repeated displacement,” the European External Action Service (EEAS) chief wrote in a statement.

Borrell also raised concerns about the destruction of key civilian infrastructure, such as the sanitation and health systems, which are causing the spread of infections and diseases among the population.

“We recall that targeting critical life-saving infrastructure constitutes a war crime and urge all parties to take all feasible precautions to avoid harm to civilians, humanitarian workers, and critical civilian infrastructure,” his statement continued.

Borrell’s statement came hours after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich suggested letting Gazan civilians die of starvation was “justified and moral” in response to Hamas keeping Israeli hostages.

“We are bringing in aid because there is no choice,” he said Monday at a conference in the town of Yad Binyamin, according to Israeli media. “Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned.”

Over 100 Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 are still unaccounted for.

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Israel Is Never “Defending Itself”, and the US Is Never “Defending Israel”

In the last few days Israel has assassinated leaders in multiple neighboring nations, assassinated multiple journalists, deliberately destroyed a water facility in Gaza during a polio outbreak, and had riots defending the right of IDF soldiers to rape Palestinian prisoners. Clearly the sort of country we should all want to send our sons and daughters to go fight and die for.

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Western officials are always babbling about Israel’s “right to defend itself”, which sparks all kinds of debates about whether an occupying force does in fact have a right to defend itself under international law. What these debates overlook is the fact that Israel ISN’T “defending itself”. It’s pure offense. Pure attack. Israel is always the aggressor.

Israel is never “defending itself”, and the US is never “defending Israel”. Both of these nations exist in a constant state of attack and aggression, which is then framed as “defending” by propaganda spin.

The US sows violence and division in the middle east as a matter of policy. Israel’s very creation was an act of aggression upon the people this apartheid ethnostate was dropped on top of, and it has been the aggressor ever since. Other nations and groups in the middle east have been defending themselves against those aggressions. They are the only parties in all this who can claim to be “defending” anything.

Even measures which appear inherently defensive in nature like the “Iron Dome” and the missile and drone interceptions we saw this past April during Iran’s retaliatory strikes are not defensive the way Israel and the US use them, because they are used to protect Israel from the defensive measures of the people Israel is attacking. A Kevlar vest ceases to be a defensive measure when you use it to keep from being stopped by police while conducting a mass shooting. A shield stops being a tool of defense when you’re using it to make sure you can stab someone with your sword. They’re just measures taken to facilitate more Israeli aggression by removing the deterrence and defense capabilities of the people it’s attacking.

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CENTCOM Chief Meets With IDF Chief To Coordinate on Iranian Response

On Monday, the head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, met with Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi in Tel Aviv as the two militaries are preparing to defend Israel from an expected Iranian reprisal attack.

Kurilla also met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said the visit from the CENTCOM chief demonstrates strong US support for Israel. “Your arrival in Israel at this time is a direct translation of US support for Israel into action,” Gallant said. “The relationship between Israel and the United States is unshakable.”

Kurilla’s visit came after the US announced the deployment of new warships and warplanes to the Middle East for the purpose of helping defend Israel. It’s unclear when Iran is planning to launch an attack, but it could happen any day. Israel is also considering launching a “preemptive strike,” which would escalate the situation even more.

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Promoting Peace and Stability in the Middle East by Unconditionally Backing Its Worst Aggressor

President Biden — if you feel like pretending Biden is still serving as president and still making the decisions in the White House — has pledged to support Israel against any retaliations for its recent assassination spree in Iran and Lebanon which killed high-profile officials from Hamas and Hezbollah.

A White House statement asserts that Biden spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and “reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis,” and “discussed efforts to support Israel’s defense against threats, including against ballistic missiles and drones, to include new defensive U.S. military deployments.”

Hilariously, the statement also claims that “the President stressed the importance of ongoing efforts to de-escalate broader tensions in the region.”

Yep, nothing emphasizes the importance of de-escalating broader tensions in the region like pledging unconditional military support for the region’s single most belligerent actor no matter how reckless and insane its aggressions become.

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Israel’s Alleged Assassination in Tehran Serves 2 Purposes: Sabotage New President, Get U.S. Into War

Israel’s alleged decision to blow up Hamas’s top political leader in Tehran who was in the country for the presidential inauguration of a potential moderate who could improve relations with the West, is its latest attempt to sabotage the new administration in Tehran so it will have to respond and then get labeled a terrorist regime in the pro-Israel media in the U.S.

Amir Saied Iravani, Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative to the UN, said Thursday that the assassination was par for the course for Israel, which has been destabilizing the region for decades. But he said, “Israel was also pursuing a political goal with this act, aiming to disrupt the first day of the new government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has prioritized strengthening peace, and stability in the region, and enhancing cooperation and constructive engagement with international community.”

Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s new president is a heart doctor and seen as a centrist and a reform candidate. Anadolu Ajansi reported: “Pezeshkian gave indications he would be more open to diplomatic engagement with the world, including the West, and intends to initiate reforms in economic and cultural domains.”

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Israel Might Well Fall Apart

A somewhat premature comment on the conflict between the Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant and Minister of National Security (and convicted radical) Itamar Ben-Gvir:

10:36 AM · Jul 30, 2024 Hussein @EyesOnSouth1 – 10:36 AM · Jul 30, 2024

The disintegration of the Zionist society is happening earlier than expected. This will exacerbate the more Israelis become aware that war failure is inevitable. Civil war is very likely, but almost a third of the population (liberals & affiliates) would leave rather than fight.

This is not a clash between two officials, this is an ideological clash between two schools of thought who are at the complete opposite spectrum.

This will not stay between Ben-Gvir & Gallant/Halevi, it will become a conflict between the army and the police/militias.

The current conflict between Gallant and Ben-Gvir comes after the Military Police arrested nine soldiers accused of raping a Palestinian prisoner.

The Israeli investigation of the rape became necessary after reports by CNN, the New York Times (archived) and the Washington Post (archived) about prisoner abuse and murder in Israeli jails. The reports threatened to trigger international investigations:

Judicial officials told Ynet that the serious suspicions must be investigated. “An internal Israeli investigation is better than an international probe,” the said.

“Abuse of prisoners could cause unprecedented damage internationally. Internal investigations protect Israel from the International tribunals in the Hague. If we do not investigate, we are ensuring the political and military leaders end up before those courts and Israel subjected to grave steps. The suspects were detained for questioning and not arrested. They will receive a fair and just due process.”

Lawyers for the suspected reservists denied the accusations of rape and said the prisoner refused a search when he was moved to the Sde Teiman facility and was restrained by force.

To describe a brutal anal gang rape as “restrain by force” requires some chutzpah.

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World War 3 Alert! Iran Says That It Will Conduct “Special Operations” To Take Revenge On Israel

It is difficult to see how a cataclysmic war in the Middle East can be avoided at this point.  The region was already teetering on the brink of disaster, and now the head of Hamas has been assassinated.  It would be difficult to overstate the anger that the Islamic world is experiencing right now, and the Iranians are particularly mad because it happened on their territory.  As you will see below, the Iranians are vowing that they will take revenge on Israel.  If the Iranian response is too large, there is a risk that it could set off a series of events in the Middle East that nobody is going to be able to control.

What we just witnessed within a 24-hour period is truly unprecedented.

First, a key Hezbollah commander named Fuad Shukr that had been orchestrating terror attacks since the 1980s was taken out…

Israel says it has killed a top Hezbollah commander after carrying out an air strike on a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

The Israeli military says Fuad Shukr was the target of an “intelligence-based elimination”.

Then the entire world was absolutely shocked when the political leader of Hamas was assassinated in Tehran…

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran’s capital after attending the inauguration of the country’s new president, Iranian officials and the militant group said early Wednesday. Both blamed Israel for the strike that killed Haniyeh, and Iran’s foreign ministry said the U.S. bore responsibility for the killing as Israel’s biggest ally.

And now there are unconfirmed reports that a top figure in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been assassinated in Damascus…

In a dramatic turn of events, unconfirmed reports from Syria suggest that Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Forces, has been assassinated in an attack near the Syrian capital of Damascus. Hajizadeh, a key figure in the Iranian military hierarchy, was reportedly the senior commander behind the Iranian ballistic and cruise missile attacks against Israel in April.

According to journalist Levent Kamal, “There are unconfirmed reports from Syria that Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, Commander of the Aerospace Forces of the IRGC, was killed in an attack near the Syrian capital Damascus.”

This is essentially the equivalent of slamming a hornet’s nest with a baseball bat over and over again.

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The Murder of Ismail Haniyeh

Some reflections, written urgently in response to the urgency of the moment, on the assassination early Tuesday of Ismail Haniyeh. The 62–year-old chairman of Hamas’ Politburo, murdered during an official visit to Iran, was the organization’s chief negotiator in talks intended to produce a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners held in Israel’s jails. 

These talks may now be definitively dead. This is news but not news: It has been apparent for some time that the Netanyahu regime — and the U.S., by obvious extension — has never been serious about an accord to bring the Israel Occupation Force’s genocide in Gaza to an end. This is now beyond all question, the Biden regime’s mealy-mouthed drivel to the contrary notwithstanding. 

Important as this conclusion is, one must view Haniyeh’s murder in its larger context. From this perspective we can come to some useful understandings. A few scales may now fall from the eyes of the determinedly illusioned.    

Terrorist Israel has not acknowledged responsibility for this vastly consequential act, but it has often remained silent in its long history of assassinations of this kind, notably when these operations breach another nation’s sovereignty. This is not important. Anyone who thinks the Israelis did not kill Haniyeh at this, a moment of heightened political and diplomatic significance, is either compulsively naïve or compulsively blind to the bottomlessly pernicious character of the Zionist regime. 

Haniyeh had traveled to Tehran to attend the inauguration of Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist recently elected Iran’s president, and was bivouacked at a residence for army veterans in North Tehran, the fashionable quarter of the capital. IRNA, the Islamic Republic’s state-run news agency, reported that a precision-guided missile killed Haniyeh and his bodyguard at the residence at 2 a.m. Tuesday. 

In a story published later in the day, Military Watch, the independent online magazine, said if the attack was confirmed to be an air strike, it was likely an F–35 fighter jet, an aircraft capable of evading Iran’s air-defense systems, that carried it out. The F–35 is a stealth fighter the U.S. has so far sold to 16 countries, including Israel, which, in 2018, became the first country to deploy the jet in combat. 

The Israelis may have relied on U.S. intelligence and targeting assistance to execute an operation of this extraordinary exactitude, although this is not now confirmed. It nonetheless requires equal naïvete to assume the Biden regime, from the White House to the intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, had no foreknowledge of the Israelis’ assassination plot. 

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