Tag: israel

Satellite images show Israel razed over 1,000 buildings in south Lebanon

Satellite images obtained by the New York Times (NYT) reveal the widespread devastation inflicted on the south of Lebanon by the invading Israeli army, including the destruction of at least 1,085 buildings since 1 October.

“One village, Mhaibib, appears to have been virtually flattened, with only a handful of buildings still standing. In five other villages and towns, entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble,” according to the US daily’s analysis.

At least 200 of the buildings destroyed by Israel were blown up in “controlled demolitions,” a practice the Israeli army has repeatedly used across the Gaza Strip.

“Controlled demolitions were seen in five of the six towns: Blida, Kafr Kila, Mhaibib, Ramyah, and Aita al-Shaab. It couldn’t be determined how other buildings were damaged,” the report states.

Besides satellite images, the NYT also verified the destruction from videos posted to social media by individual Israeli soldiers.

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Iran Will Carry Out ‘Definitive, Painful’ Retaliatory Strike, Likely Before Election: CNN

CNN, citing a high-ranking source familiar with Iran’s deliberations, reported Wednesday that Iran plans to respond to the Israeli strike from last weekend, likely before the U.S. presidential election on 5 November.

“The response of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the aggression of the Zionist regime will be definitive and painful,” the source said.

Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posted on X in Hebrew on Sunday—a day after Israel carried out waves of attacks on targets in his country—that the “Zionist regime made a mistake.”

“It erred in its calculations on Iran,” he posted. “We will cause it to understand what kind of strength, ability, initiative, and will the Iranian nation has.”

Reports out of Iran indicated that the IDF targeted facilities at the Parchin military base located southeast of Tehran. The Guardian reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency believes that Iran has conducted tests of “high explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon” at the facility. 

The paper said another strike hit the Khojir military base, a major missile production site.

Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, told reporters on Sunday that Iran does not seek a total war but will give an “appropriate response” to the strikes believed to have been fired from U.S.-controlled airspace in Iraq by Israeli fighter jets. The U.S. said it was not involved in the operation.

Khamenei accused Israel of exaggerating its success in the Saturday strike, but said it is also wrong to downplay the assault. He also blamed the UN and West for its failures in stopping the genocide in Gaza and Israeli aggression in Lebanon.

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The US Is Funding 70% of Israel’s Wars

A new report by the Israeli outlet Calcalist reviewed Israeli military spending on wars since October 7, finding that Washington is funding 70% of Tel Aviv’s military costs. In a little over a year, the US has provided Israel with more than $20 billion in military aid. 

“The scope of American aid since the beginning of the war is about 85 billion shekels… According to official estimates by the Bank of Israel, the total cost of the war is…approximately NIS 118 billion.” It continues, “Therefore, according to a simple calculation, The Americans financed about 70% of the war effort.”

According to the Cost of War Project, the US has given Israel $22.57 billion in military aid since the Hamas attack. Calcalist concludes without US support, Tel Aviv’s war would simply be unaffordable. 

“There is no doubt that without the American aid the government deficit for the years 2024-2025 (which is one of the highest in the country’s history), would have increased by about 4.3 % GDP, which would have made it unfinanceable,” it says. “Therefore, it is doubtful whether this war would have been conducted as it is – neither in intensity nor in scope – without the American assistance.”

The US has sent Israel tens of thousands of bombs, artillery rounds, and tank shells. Those weapons have been used to commit countless war crimes against the Palestinian people of Gaza. 

The official death toll in the besieged enclave now exceeds 43,000. However, a group of American healthcare workers who have spent time volunteering in Gaza estimate the actual death count to be over 118,000. 

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Israeli army ethnically cleanses half of Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza: Schools burned, men kidnapped

Israel is in its third week of ethnically cleansing northern Gaza, particularly around the Jabalia refugee camp. And according to reports, about half of all the Palestinians there have been removed as Israeli soldiers burn down schools and kidnap people.

At the same time that Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are launching airstrikes on the region, ground forces are going door to door looking for starving, unarmed Palestinians to forcibly remove from their homes and send elsewhere.

Heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling are destroying entire homes and buildings where the Palestinians are sheltering. Increasingly more displaced families have nowhere to go while IDF soldiers knock down schools, homes and other facilities to prevent the Palestinians from returning.

After burning down or leveling the structures, the IDF is forcing whoever is still alive to head south. Many of the refugees who obey end up dead anyway as Israel then proceeds to shoot and kill them for no apparent reason while they are fleeing.

Some of the refugees are disobeying the orders and heading west of Jabalia instead of south to a place called Beit Lahia. Others are trying to flee to Gaza City. No matter where they try to go, the Palestinians are being killed left and right.

“This is a genocide,” said a resident of north Gaza named Hasan. “They’re starving people, blockading people. There are still tens of thousands of people here in Jabalia.”

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Israeli evacuation orders hit entirety of Lebanon’s ancient city of Baalbek

The Israeli military issued on 30 October, for the first time, evacuation orders for the entirety of the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek, an ancient city with UNESCO World Heritage status.

The orders coincide with a surge in Israeli attacks on eastern Lebanon. 

“The IDF will act forcefully against Hezbollah assets inside your city and villages, and does not intend to harm you,” said the Israeli army’s Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee said via X. “For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move outside the city and villages.” 

Residents of the eastern city began pouring out of their homes in a panic on Wednesday morning, rushing to evacuate. Hundreds of thousands resided in Baalbek prior to the war, with around 40 percent of its inhabitants (over 100,000) currently remaining in the city. Baalbek has a history dating back at least 11,000 years, and is most famous for its Roman ruins.

Israel has escalated its attacks across eastern Lebanon indiscriminately. The Lebanese Health Ministry said on 29 October that at least 60 people were killed in the eastern Bekaa region since the previous day. 

Several massacres have been committed in the Bekaa, including an attack on civilians in the town of Al-Ram on Tuesday, which killed at least 11. 

Israeli attacks on the UNESCO World Heritage city of Tyre (Sour) have also increased recently. Israel carried out several violent attacks on Tyre on 28 October, days after intense bombardment on the city, which leveled several buildings. 

The Israeli army issues evacuation orders for the south and Bekaa daily, often with insufficient time for people to flee before starting the attacks. 

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Spain cancels arms deal with Israeli company worth billions

The Spanish government has canceled a contract to buy ammunition for its Civil Guard police force from an Israeli defense company, Madrid announced in a statement on 29 October.

“The Spanish government maintains the commitment not to sell weapons to the Israeli state since the armed conflict broke out in the territory of Gaza,” Spain’s Interior Ministry announced. 

“Although in this case it is an acquisition of ammunition, the Interior Ministry has initiated the administrative procedure to cancel the purchase,” it added. 

It also said Israeli firms will be excluded from any outstanding tenders. 

The Cadena SER radio station reported earlier that Spain’s Civil Guard police force had agreed to a sale of over 15 million nine-millimeter rounds for $6.48 million from Guardian LTD Israel. 

The announcement comes the week after the Spanish Defense Ministry told local media that it had halted the purchase of weapons from Israel. The European country had said it would stop arms sales to Israel after the start of the war on 7 October 2023.

This decision marks the first signal that the Spanish pledge will include purchases from Israel and not just sales.

Spain has been vocal about Israel’s genocide and continuous war crimes in the Gaza Strip, as well as in Lebanon. 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged other members of the EU on 14 October to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel. 

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Why the Democrats were Israel’s perfect partners in genocide

Over the last year, we have witnessed President Joe Biden elevate the U.S.-Israel “special relationship” to new heights. From replenishing Israel’s weapons stocks and shielding it from accountability on the international stage, to deploying U.S. assets and personnel in Israel’s defense, the Biden administration has gone above and beyond to ensure that Israel not only could sustain its unprecedented assault on Gaza, but that it wouldn’t have to bear the full cost of war.

Biden went into his reelection campaign wrestling with Donald Trump for the title of “Israel’s best friend” — a grotesque race to the bottom that has become a tradition during U.S. election seasons. So when the president ultimately decided to drop out, some were hopeful that Vice President Kamala Harris would release us from this downward spiral. They were soon disappointed.

Media outlets eagerly insisted that Harris seemed to show “greater understanding and empathy for Palestinians,” and surmised that such a difference in perspective might lead to a change in policy. But in the months since assuming the head of the Democratic ticket, Harris has made it clear that she is ready and eager to carry on Biden’s catastrophic legacy for the next four years.

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Israel’s parliament votes to ban UNRWA, the UN’s Palestine aid agency

The Israeli parliament has approved two controversial bills to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from operating on Israeli territory and areas under Israel’s control.

The legislation, passed on Monday, risks collapsing the already fragile aid distribution process at a moment when the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worsening and Israel is under increased pressure to allow in aid supplies.

The ban is set to take effect in 90 days and lead to the closure of UNRWA’s premises in the occupied Palestinian territory – the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem – and Gaza, effectively paralysing the agency’s ability to fulfil its mandate as set out by the UN General Assembly in 1949.

UNRWA is the leading agency running humanitarian aid in Gaza, which has been devastated by more than a year of Israel’s war. Hundreds of UNRWA workers have been killed in Israeli strikes, making it the deadliest conflict for UN workers.

The first law, which bans UNRWA from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel, passed 92-10 following a fiery debate between supporters of the bill and its opponents, primarily members of Arab parliamentary parties.

The second legislation, which declares UNRWA a “terror” group and bans Israeli officials from any contact with the agency, passed 87-9.

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INTEL DROPS: Huge Iranian Geopolitical Error on Alliance with HAMAS’ Terrorists stealthily led by CIA-Mossad

An Iranian reader wrote that Tehran does not have nuclear warheads but is satisfied with the powerful Intercontinental hypersonic ballistic missiles, as Fattah.

Those that have already heavily hit American bases in Iraq on 2020 as revenge for the shameful assassination of General Qasem Soleimani (the commander of Quds Force, Iranian special unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – IRGC or Pasdaran), ordered by the then US President Donald Trump (in memory of those who think he is the candidate for the next November elections for Peace…), despite the Iranian late general defeated the Isis in Syria and Iraq.

All the sources I have, as well as many official signals that have been leaked, lead one to believe that Tehran already has at least some nukes.

It would be an act of ignorant presumption to be able to build them thanks to the uranium enrichment program that has been increasingly strengthened in recent years and decide not to do them at a time when the ONLY REAL DETERRENCE in the world military field is precisely the NUCLEAR POWERS.

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Israel fails with ultra-Orthodox draft as only four percent show up for service

Less than four percent of the 3,000 Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Israelis who received recruitment orders since July to join the military have done so, Israeli army radio reported on 28 October.

The head of the Israel Beiteinu party, Avigdor Lieberman, criticized the Haredi community for its failure to participate in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and invasion of Lebanon.

Lieberman criticized the government for failing to enforce conscription orders, stressing that “the army is violating the law” and that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “must ensure that the law is applied to everyone.”

“The government has extended regular service by four months and reserve service by a year,” Lieberman told Yedioth Ahronoth, adding: “No more quotas, targets and exemptions – one people, one conscription,” stressing that “the whole story of quotas must end.”

Members of the Haredi community who are studying at Jewish religious schools are currently exempt under the law from army service. In practice, the exemption has extended even to Haredi men not actively engaged in religious study.

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox argue that by studying the Torah, its young men are doing a greater service to the state of Israel than by fighting.

The Haredi parties in Israel’s Knesset threaten to block the passage of regular laws, including the general budget, until the law exempting Haredim from military service is enacted.

The Haredi parties said that no law not related to war would be promoted until the conscription law was enacted and the budget for housing religious students was settled.

The Israeli media reported that Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir was siding with the Haredi Jews, saying: “Against coercion, for military service.”

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