Tag: lebanon

Israel Bombs Lebanon’s Churches

Months after an ostensible “ceasefire” agreement was signed by Marco Rubio’s State Department, the U.S. Army Infantry School-trained President of Lebanon Joseph Aoun, and the government of Israel, Israeli occupation forces continue to occupy much of southern Lebanon, demolish entire villages with C4 explosives, and perpetrate massacres of civilians.

Under the terms of the Rubio ceasefire, Israel has permission to continue occupying what is called a “security zone,” while Lebanese forces are deputized to accomplish the objective of “disarming” Hezbollah. Only once Hezbollah is disarmed must Israel redeploy from Lebanon. The agreement was designed to supplant the terms of the Iran-U.S. MOU negotiated in Switzerland by J.D. Vance and signed on June 17, 2026, which tied the end of the Iran War to the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon” and on “ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon.”

As Lebanese journalist Mohamad Kleit explained to Dragnet, Lebanese forces have only replaced Israeli occupation forces in three southern villages while Israel’s wholesale destruction of villages continues unabated. A recent New York Times investigation reported that “48 of the roughly 60 villages and towns within Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon are mostly leveled,” noting that “of the 48 villages that have been mostly destroyed, almost all are majority Shiite.”

While corporate media frames the Israeli destruction of those villages and the thousands of civilian casualties Israel has produced as incidental to Israel’s fight with Hezbollah, public statements by Israeli officials reveal what Lebanese human rights activists call “inherent systematic targeting” which “there can be no doubt is deliberate.” Boasting of the destruction of more than 23,000 homes on Israeli television, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterated his longstanding position that Israel seeks to impose what he calls “the Gaza model” in southern Lebanon.

As Israel continues to advance through southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire, Israeli commentators and Lebanese lawmakers alike have said the agreement is designed not to end the conflict but to fuel it, potentially leading to sectarian conflict and civil war.

When the deal was signed, an Israeli analyst remarked on Israel’s Channel 13 that “it seems we’re leading the state of Lebanon into civil war,” adding “maybe it’s not so bad for us, let the Lebanese government fight Hezbollah,” to which his co-host replied that this was “the goal from the start.”

Most recently, Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt admitted that “we made a mistake by choosing Marco Rubio’s track,” because “believing that the Americans can pressure Israel to withdraw is a complete illusion.” Jumblatt, a former self-admitted warlord responsible for what Jumblatt himself calls “religious cleansing and mass destruction” is no fan of Hezbollah. Yet he now believes he “cannot accept a hardline approach toward Hezbollah if it leads to civil war.”

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Israel demolishes home of Lebanese journalist whose viral film exposed pager attack

The occupying Israeli army targeted a prominent Lebanese journalist when they pillaged and demolished his painstakingly-constructed family home located outside Israel’s so-called “buffer zone” in southern Lebanon. Was it retaliation for his widely-viewed documentary on Israel’s notorious pager attacks?

Israeli soldiers have looted and demolished the family home of Radwan Mortada, a prominent Lebanese investigative journalist who directed the recent viral Al Jazeera 360 documentary “The Trap.” The film exposes the surreptitious network and planning behind Israel’s notorious pager attack, which left hundreds of Lebanese citizens wounded and maimed, and has become one of the channel’s most-watched in recent history.

Israel’s destruction of Mortada family home on October 17 has drawn condemnation from at least one international press freedom group, the Committee to Protect Journalists. On October 21, the organization issued a statement declaring that it “strongly condemns the Israeli military’s demolition of journalist Radwan Mortada’s family home in southern Lebanon. Just three weeks earlier, Mortada released an Al Jazeera documentary on the Israeli 2024 pager attack. In the days leading up to the demolition, Israeli soldiers launched a sound bomb, a tank tore down the entrance, and soldiers looted personal belongings. CPJ fears this destruction is in retaliation for Mortada’s work, marking another dangerous violation of international law and disregard for the press.”

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Smotrich: IDF ‘Thorough Cleansing’ of Lebanon Will Benefit Israel’s North for Decades

In the course of his recent speeches, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has laid out the position calling once again for the outright annexation of much of southern Lebanon, saying that territory losses should serve as a “penalty” for Israel’s enemies for opposing them.

In one speech he declared that both Gaza and Lebanon “will be ours.” During that speech, he similarly bragged that the “thorough cleansing” ongoing deep into Lebanese territory would leave the southern Lebanese with “nowhere to return to” and closed with “by the way, the world isn’t stopping us.”

Israel’s most recent invasion of southern Lebanon began in early March. Seven months later, the IDF has continued to push deeper and deeper into Lebanon, and is demolishing villages, mostly Shi’ite ones, in the course of those operations.

The mass destruction of towns and villages within Lebanon has included leveling homes, badly damaging surrounding farmland, setting fires, and destroying subterranean tunnels. Smotrich bragged in his comments that Israel’s “cleansing” was thorough both above and below ground.

Smotrich is one of several far-right Israeli figures who has been advocating for annexation of the seized territories, and said he believes Israel ought to “apply permanent sovereignty” over the seized territory within Lebanon. How deep he intends that to go is not directly stated.

Lebanese officials are reportedly preparing to propose an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory in stages, though so far Israeli negotiators have opposed any deals which include a concrete commitment to actually withdraw ground troops entirely from Lebanon, and have similarly opposed any ceasefire which would oblige them to stop attacking Lebanese territory.

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Netanyahu brings ‘killer pager’ to UN

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held up a pager at the UN General Assembly, invoking the deadly 2024 covert sabotage operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which killed dozens and severely wounded thousands, including women and children.

Thousands of pagers carried by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon on September 17, 2024, followed by hundreds of weaponized walkie-talkies the next day. The attacks killed dozens and injured up to 4,000 people, including numerous civilian bystanders, healthcare workers, and their families. Israel later acknowledged responsibility for the operation.

Speaking at the General Assembly on Thursday, Netanyahu held up a pager, saying: “You remember the beepers? Remember these? Hezbollah certainly remembers them.”

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Yet Another Way Canada Supports ‘Greater Israel’

In a bid to further subordinate Lebanon to US and Israeli dictates, Canada is devoting significant resources to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). If the country descends into civil war Canada will bear some responsibility.

On Tuesday Canada’s ambassador to Lebanon Gregory Galligan had “a productive discussion with Lebanese Armed Forces Commander Gen. Haykal on the evolving security situation and implementation of the pilot zones. Canada is proud to support the LAF and its role in preserving Lebanon’s security and stability.” A week earlier ambassador Galligan posted about providing “600+ hygiene kits to women and girls from families of LAF soldiers affected by conflict.” Two months ago the ambassador announced a “useful discussion today with General Haykal and the Lebanese Armed Forces on the ongoing crisis. Reaffirmed Canada’s strong support for the LAF and its essential role in maintaining stability and security in Lebanon.” In February Canadian officials announced the “handing over of three rehabilitated warehouses to LAF.”

The Lebanese military is a western proxy, receiving most of its funds from foreign countries. Since Hezbollah delivered a strategic blow to Israel in the 2006 war the US has given more than $3 billion to the LAF. Washington provides half its budget while the European Union, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have also provided hundreds of millions of dollars.

Through the Canadian Training and Assistance Team-Lebanon, Ottawa has donated tens of millions of dollars in equipment and other support to the LAF as part of an effort to turn it into a counterweight to Hezbollah. They’ve also trained over 2,000 LAF personnel and since 2019 Lebanon has participated in Canada’s Military Training and Cooperation Program.

The past four Canadian ambassadors have met the LAF head and often on multiple occasions. The Commander of Canadian Joint Operations, Major General JR Auchterlonie, and Canadian Brigadier General, Louis Lapointe, participated in at least two of those meetings. Two years ago in Beirut then foreign affairs minister Melanie Joly met then LAF head, Joseph Aoun, who became president last year.

On multiple occasions the Canadian, British and US ambassadors have met the head of the LAF together. Canada also partnered with Britain on a project to support the LAF.

As part of the US-overseen Israel-Lebanon framework agreement, Washington is pushing to have the LAF replace Hezbollah in the south where Israel has destroyed dozens of villages and killed thousands. According to the recent framework accord partly designed to undercut the US Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, the Israeli military is to withdraw from designated “pilot zones” that will be taken over by Lebanese troops vetted by the US military. The LAF is then supposed to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure and prevent the resistance organization from re-establishing itself in these areas. US officials in Beirut are overseeing an initiative that gives Israel justification for its illegal occupation.

Ottawa explicitly supports this odious initiative. Two weeks Global Affairs posted, “Canada will continue to support the efforts of the Lebanese government and Lebanese Armed Forces to disarm and demobilize Hezbollah.” But the Lebanese military is completely incapable of resisting Israel. In fact, the LAF immediately withdrew from the south when Israel was about to invade in September 2024. In the past when the LAF has offered any resistance to Israel the US has punished the force.

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US Embassy Offers Large Cash Sums For Groups In Lebanon To Promote America’s Image

The US Embassy in Lebanon announced that the State Department is offering grants of up to $250,000 to groups that help promote American propaganda. 

“The US Embassy in Beirut is opening a new Notice of Funding Opportunity for 2026,” a statement published this week explained. “We’re looking for partners to implement programs that strengthen ties between the US and Lebanon, with a focus on highlighting US-led peace and stabilization efforts, and advancing digital literacy to help people identify and push back on false, adversarial narratives.“

The State Department website says the program is expected to award $500,000 to at least two groups to promote US propaganda in Lebanon.

It adds that the program’s goal is to “strengthen local public understanding of US-led peace and stabilization efforts, and its role as a partner committed to security, economic opportunity, and responsible regional leadership.”

Washington is attempting to broker a peace agreement between Tel Aviv and Beirut. However, Israel is at war with Hezbollah, a non-state military that operates outside of the control of the Lebanese government. 

While Beirut and Tel Aviv inked a deal last month, Hezbollah rejected the agreement because it allowed the IDF to occupy Lebanon until the militia is dismantled. 

According to some of the latest from The Associated Press:

After two days of U.S.-mediated talks in Rome, Lebanon and Israel took steps toward implementing “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon where Israeli forces would withdraw and turn over control to the Lebanese army, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began when the Lebanese militant group fired rockets into Israel days after Israel and the U.S. launched their war on Iran on Feb. 28. Israel invaded Lebanon and has since occupied a large swathe of the country’s south. Hezbollah has been vehemently opposed to the direct Lebanon-Israel talks.

The attempt to negotiate a peace agreement between Tel Aviv and Beirut is making it more difficult for President Donald Trump to end the war against Iran.

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Media Cheering a Deal That Puts Lebanon on the Chopping Block for Israel

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on June 26 triumphantly announced the “signing of the Trilateral Framework between Lebanon, Israel and the United States.” The document allegedly “builds a realistic path out of endless conflict” between Israel and Lebanon—“the inheritors of ancient civilizations that date back to the time of the Bible.”

According to Rubio:

This agreement establishes a clear and structured process to restore Lebanon’s sovereignty, disarm Hezbollah and dismantle its terrorist infrastructure, and enable Israel to return to its borders once that threat to its citizens is removed.

The framework also creates a cool-sounding “Military Coordination Group for Lebanon (MCG4L), facilitated by the United States.”

As should be immediately clear to anyone who has paid minimal attention to politics over the past 80 years, any US-brokered agreement between the two inheritors of ancient civilizations will automatically be designed to screw over Lebanon in favor of Israel—which has harbored designs on Lebanese territory from the get-go.

As Amnesty International noted, the agreement “betrays victims of war crimes in Lebanon” by essentially blocking their right to seek justice in international forums. It also signs off, Amnesty said, on the “prolonged and indefinite forced displacement of tens of thousands of residents of vast swathes of southern Lebanon occupied by Israeli forces.”

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After Displacing Hundreds of Thousands, Netanyahu Claims Lebanese Christians Want Israel to Annex Their Villages

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that some Christian villages in Lebanon have “asked to be annexed” by Israel to gain protection from the Iran-backed terrorists of Hezbollah.

“Among the Christian villages in Lebanon, some have even asked to be annexed to Israel, because we protect them from the fanatics of Hezbollah who want to kill them. And we do the same thing with Christians everywhere,” Netanyahu said in a Fox News interview.

“It’s not only the Christians in Lebanon who asked for our protection. It’s the Druze, it’s Muslims, the Sunni Muslims and quite a few of the Shiite Muslims, too,” he added.

Netanyahu did not specify which villages have made such requests to Israel. The mayor of the Christian village of Rmeish, Hanna al-Amil, quickly denied Netanyahu’s claim as “absolutely out of the question” in an interview with Lebanese public television.

“Fifteen Christian towns had issued a statement two days ago denying these allegations,” he said.

Amil was referring to a statement on Friday in which 13 Christian-majority border villages, including Rmeish, reiterated their commitment to the Lebanese government. The statement was issued in response to media rumors that some of these villages had asked Israel for protection.

The signatories said they had “no power, nor the legal right” to request protection from a foreign government. They reaffirmed their “loyalty to their national identity” and “attachment to their Lebanese flag.”

Amil told Arab News on Monday that the loyalty statement from the Christian border villages should be taken as their final word on the subject.

“The border villages have remained committed to the Lebanese state and its legitimacy throughout the war without wavering. Their residents take pride in their national identity and regard Lebanon as their final and permanent homeland, with no alternative on offer,” he said.

“They reject any attempt to twist their position or exploit their suffering in the service of agendas that have nothing to do with them. The fabricated reports serve only one purpose: to damage the reputation of the border communities and sow confusion,” he added.

Some residents of the Lebanese border region made it clear they were not pleased by the actions of Hezbollah, which triggered Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion, and were not happy with Beirut’s inability to protect them.

“For three years now, we have been suffering because the Lebanese state failed to extend its sovereignty over its own land,” Rmeish civil activist Gaby al-Hajj told Arab News, looking back to hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel during the Gaza War.

“That left us at the mercy of illegal weapons, and we are paying for it now,” al-Hajj said. “The Israelis have us under siege – yet we refused to leave our villages. We have not turned our backs on Lebanon and we will not. We have held on, regardless of the cost.”

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday praised the loyalty statement from border villages, and warned Lebanese citizens to ignore “Israeli political misinformation” intended to “sow discord among border communities.”

Berri also urged the Beirut government and its allies to halt the “systematic destruction and the ongoing demolition of villages.”

Israel issued evacuation orders to border towns before launching its latest operation against Hezbollah, warning that it could not overlook these villages because Hezbollah operatives were known to hide in them.

As the statement on Friday pointed out, many of the Christian villagers refused to evacuate. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have demolished buildings and homes in southern Lebanon that were allegedly used by Hezbollah to hide its fighters and weapons.

Residents of the Marjeyoun district of Lebanon’s southern Nabatieh province said they received text messages from the IDF on Monday, warning them not to allow displaced residents to return to their homes. Israeli forces conducted drone strikes against suspected Hezbollah operatives who tried to enter restricted parts of Nabatieh on Monday.

The IDF has issued periodic warnings to the mayors of Christian villages, telling them not to allow “strangers” who might be Hezbollah fighters into their towns.

The U.N. mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said over the weekend that some displaced civilians have begun returning to their villages, and the mission aids them when possible.

“We’re not able to offer support in areas where the situation remains volatile, but we are continuing to remove rubble and unexploded ordnance from roads to allow passage, while supporting municipalities and repairing essential infrastructure such as water and electricity,” said UNIFIL spokeswoman Kandice Ardiel.

“The sooner people can return home, the better for long-term stability,” she said.

The Lebanese Health Ministry has estimated about one-fifth of Lebanon’s population, or more than one million people, have been displaced since Hezbollah launched the conflict by attacking Israel on March 2. Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Haneen El Sayed said on Saturday that about 400,000 displaced persons have returned to their homes.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said last Wednesday that the IDF “will not withdraw from the security zones” it has created in Lebanon and Syria.

“The Israeli army will remain in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza until further notice to protect our residents and communities from jihadist elements,” he said.

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Marco Rubio Helps Israel Pursue Goal of Civil War in Lebanon

After President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance committed the United States to a deconfliction cell with Iran in Switzerland – a mechanism enforcing a ceasefire in Lebanon as well as Iran – Israel and its powerful lobby moved instantly to sabotage it. And in a preview of the sorts of foreign policy fissures that will likely define the 2028 GOP primary, the lobby has deployed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the man to pursue Israel’s interests and pave the way for Israel’s further occupation of Lebanon.

The first article of the 60-day interim agreement signed by the U.S. and Iran conditions an end to the conflict on the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon” and on “ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon.” That second clause, more than any other, appears to be the one Israel is most reluctant to accept.

Despite Israeli withdrawal now required to end a war that now threatens to destabilize the entire global economy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said that Israel would occupy southern Lebanon indefinitely, stating that “we dominate southern Lebanon, from the summit of the Beaufort, and we will remain as long as required,” adding that “we do not intend to withdraw from it.” Defense Minister Israel Katz meanwhile said there was “no American demand for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon,” and that Israel would not withdraw even if there were one, later telling reporters that southern Lebanon was Israel’s “playground.”

That Iran has set out to secure the complete “territorial integrity” of Lebanon is unacceptable to Israel, which seeks to ethnically cleanse southern Lebanon and possibly further north, with the goal of seizing the land for the Greater Israel Project.

In order to sabotage a deconfliction track outlined in Switzerland and continue their endless project to secure more lebensraum, the Israelis have turned to the U.S. State Department and the Israel Lobby’s man in charge, Marco Rubio, whose spearheaded deconfliction framework was signed by the governments of Israel and Lebanon in Washington on Friday.

Intended to supplant the one announced by Vance – which the Times of Israel reported “infuriated Israel” – Rubio’s agreement strips out the guarantee of Lebanese territorial integrity that Iran insists is necessary to end the war and replaces it with an Israeli wishlist that includes permissions for continued Israeli occupation of a “security zone” and a plan to deputize Lebanese forces to accomplish the likely-impossible objective of “disarming” Hezbollah.

Such an agreement is unacceptable to Hezbollah, which has vowed to keep fighting until Israeli forces leave Lebanon. That is why Israel and Marco Rubio deliberately excluded the group from the deal, producing a “peace deal” between two warring parties to which only one of them agreed.

Indeed, although the deal was pitched by Marco Rubio as “a framework for lasting peace and security,” statements made by Israelis and Hezbollah in recent days reveal that narrative to be nothing more than propaganda designed exclusively for Western audiences. On Israel’s Channel 13 after the signing of the Rubio deal, an Israeli analyst remarked how “it seems we’re leading the state of Lebanon into civil war,” adding “maybe it’s not so bad for us, let the Lebanese government fight Hezbollah.” That was “the goal from the start,” replied his co-host. Lebanese lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah, who is close to Hezbollah, agreed with the Israeli assessment, telling Al-Mayadeen on Friday that Lebanese ​authorities would not be able to enforce the agreement signed ‌in ‌Washington ​on ‌Friday ⁠unless, with ​U.S. backing, “they go ⁠to civil war.”

As John Mearsheimer foresaw in April, “what I think Netanyahu wants to do is to foment civil war in Lebanon, a war with the government on one side and Hezbollah on the other,” describing the strategy as a way of weakening them both. “The Israelis can’t disarm Hezbollah, so they want the Lebanese government to do it.”

In response to questions about the apparent divergence between the Lebanon frameworks pursued by JD Vance and Marco Rubio, the White House has denied that any divisions exist at all. Israel Katz has essentially said the same, admitting that even after Trump linked the Iran and Lebanon tracks and demanded that Israel stop “bringing down buildings in Beirut,” the IDF expanded ground operations north of the Litani River and enlarged its occupation of southern Lebanon, all of it, Katz said, “carried out with U.S. approval.”

Whether the intra-administration split is real or kayfabe, the status quo in Lebanon and its spoiling effect for a peace deal remain the same.

Harrison Berger is a correspondent at The American Conservative. He has contributed to Drop Site News, The Nation, and Responsible Statecraft. Previously, he was a researcher and producer for System Update with Glenn Greenwald. His work focuses on civil liberties and U.S. foreign policy. He studied Political Science and Russian Studies at Union College (NY).

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Israel-Lebanon Deal On Life Support: Israel Won’t Withdraw, And Lebanon’s Christians Are Split On Whether It’s A Lifeline Or A Trap

The US-brokered “Trilateral Framework” signed in Washington on June 26 — sold as a “first step toward peace” — is fraying within days. The 14-point deal ties any Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon to the “verified disarmament of non-state armed groups,” a plain reference to Hezbollah. A now-public security annex states: further IDF pullbacks are conditioned on “results, not time” — on “successful completion of agreed upon and verifiable disarmament,” with no withdrawal timeline at all. Israel can therefore stay indefinitely and call it legal.

Netanyahu, visiting troops in the self-declared “security zone” alongside Defense Minister Israel Katz, said Israel “will not leave southern Lebanon until the threat has disappeared”; Katz added they “will not withdraw a millimeter” until Hezbollah is disarmed. Since disarmament is the precondition for a withdrawal Israel refuses to start, the sequencing seems circular by design. Israeli strikes have continued across the south, the Bekaa, and Beirut’s southern suburbs. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem branded the deal “null and void,” a “humiliation,” and vowed to keep fighting until Israel leaves — a rejection driven by the Iran-backed militia’s determination to keep its weapons and its war, not by any concern for the Lebanese state.

The Christian angle is where Western coverage flattens a real divide — and it’s worth getting right, because Israel has a documented history of cultivating Lebanese politicians.

On one side, Samir Geagea’s Lebanese Forces cheered the pact as “the most significant political step taken by the Lebanese state in half a century.” But Geagea is the most Israel-friendly voice in Lebanese politics — so his enthusiasm should be weighed accordingly, not taken as the Christian consensus.

The Free Patriotic Movement, Lebanon’s second largest Christian party, founded by former President Michel Aoun and led by Gebran Bassil, did not celebrate but seems open to finding a way forward. Bassil’s verdict: the agreement “is beneficial if we regain all our rights, and dangerous if it is a recipe for strife,” demanding “responsible engagement.” The party said it backs “a comprehensive and lasting peace” but that peace “cannot be achieved through surrendering to Israeli demands or sacrificing Lebanese rights,” warning the framework “lacks guarantees for Israeli withdrawal” and that its use of “redeployment” instead of withdrawal leaves “the door open for the continuation of the occupation.”

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