Tag: lebanon

Israeli warplanes carried out a wide-scale air attack on the Nabatieh region in southern Lebanon on the morning of 8 May, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported. The violent raids came in two waves, targeting valleys, heights, and forests extending between the towns of Kfar Tibnit, Nabatieh al-Fawqa, and Kfar Reman.

Most of the raids focused on the Ali al-Taher extraction site and the former archaeological site. 

The Israeli military said in a statement that it targeted an “infrastructure site” used by Hezbollah that included “terrorists, weapons, and tunnel shafts.” 

The sound of huge explosions caused by the strikes echoed in most areas of Nabatieh and the south, sparking “an atmosphere of terror and panic among citizens, most of whom rushed to schools to evacuate their students,” NNA wrote.

The panic caused traffic jams on the roads, while dozens of ambulances were seen heading towards the vicinity of the targeted areas. Most official government departments also closed their doors.

While Israel regularly bombs southern Lebanon despite signing a ceasefire with the country reached on 27 November of last year, Thursday’s attacks were an “unusually high number.” The Times of Israel noted.

Late last month, Israel conducted an airstrike on a residential neighborhood of Dahiye in the southern suburbs of Beirut. 

Videos showed three bombs hitting a building. Rescue crews worked to put out fires after the blast. The Israeli military issued an evacuation warning before the bombing, prompting panic as residents fled the area.

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The 2024 Israel War in Lebanon never really completely ended, the invasion was somewhat stopped by a ceasefire, though near daily Israeli attacks continued throughout that ceasefires. With strikes escalating Friday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is warning that a “new war” may be brewing.

The attacks targeting southern Lebanon are more intense Friday than what is normally seen, with Israel reporting they are targeting Hezbollah after rocket fire against the Israeli border village of Metula. This is the first rocket fire from Lebanon into Israel since the ceasefire went into effect.

Israel’s attacks included dozens of airstrikes, and at least two people were killed, one of them a child, and eight others wounded. Lebanese President Aoun warned the attacks were a sign of a deterioration in the security situation in the south.

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Tel Aviv continued its relentless attacks on southern Lebanon on 10 December, carrying out several strikes, including an attack on the Lebanese Civil Defense – violating the ceasefire reached between Lebanon and Israel late last month. 

Several Israeli attacks struck south Lebanon on Tuesday. Al Mayadeen’s correspondent reported that a Lebanese citizen was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Bint Jbeil. 

Israeli forces also targeted rescue teams trying to retrieve bodies in the south. 

“An Israeli helicopter chased Lebanese Civil Defense personnel while they were trying to retrieve the bodies of martyrs from the southern Lebanese town of Shamaa, forcing them to withdraw, and targeting the location they were in with artillery shelling,” Al-Akhbar newspaper reported. 

It reported earlier on 10 December that “a joint patrol of the Lebanese army and the Polish unit in UNIFIL was subjected to warning fire from Israeli forces while trying to open the Aitaroun–Bint Jbeil highway, which had been blocked by the Israelis last Thursday.”

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), Israeli troops opened fire at the outskirts of the town of Shaqra and other areas in the south, and fired artillery at the outskirts of Sheheen and Al-Jubain. 

NNA also reported “massive bombings” in the town of Khiam, while Israeli troops continued to demolish homes and buildings in the area. 

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Ceasefire violations are raging across southern Lebanon as Iranian proxy army Hezbollah attempts to regain positions lost to the IDF in recent months.

The IDF is warning residents of the region to not return to their homes or they could be fired upon.

The IDF does not intend to shoot at you,” the IDF spokesman said in his announcement, “and therefore, at this stage, you should not return to your homes south of this line. Anyone who moves south will expose themselves to danger.”

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*Prime Minister’s Office Statement*

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have directed the IDF to not allow the entry of the population to the area of the villages adjacent to the border with southern Lebanon, as per the first stage of implementing the framework of the ceasefire.

The IDF has arrested four Hezbollah militants, including a local commander, who entered the prohibited area, and will continue to take strong action against any violation.

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Violent Israeli airstrikes continued to rain down on the southern suburb of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, on 13 November, following a heavy night of continuous attacks on the area. 

“Enemy warplanes targeted, in the third raid on the southern suburb, a building near Al-Zahraa Broasted in Mshrafiyeh,” Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported at around noon on Wednesday. 

Israeli strikes targeted the Ghobeiry area and Haret Hreik several times during the morning hours. Buildings in Laylaki, Bir al-Abed, and at the Rawdat al-Shahidayn–Shiyah intersection were also hit.

Tel Aviv issued evacuation orders to Haret Hreik and Ghobeiry earlier on 13 November. Heavy and successive airstrikes had pounded the southern suburb overnight.

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In his first speech as Secretary General, the new leader of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said that the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon had been meeting leaders of Lebanese political parties opposed to Hezbollah. According to Qassem, the ambassador was trying to convince them that Hezbollah’s collapse in the face of Israel’s offensive was imminent, urging the Lebanese parties to oppose Hezbollah. 

“You will never see our defeat,” Qassem said, addressing the ambassador, Lisa A. Johnson, directly and ignoring the Lebanese parties in question.

Two weeks earlier, a group of anti-Hezbollah parties gathered in the town of Maarab in Mount Lebanon, the headquarters of the Lebanese Forces — a far-right Christian party headed by its chairman, Samir Geagea. The parties in attendance issued a joint statement that indirectly blamed Iran for pushing Lebanon into a war it had no stake in, hijacking the decision of peace and war in Lebanon, and recruiting Lebanese citizens and using them as soldiers and “human shields.” The latter phrase was a veiled reference to Hezbollah, its social support base, and the people of southern Lebanon in general. The parties in Maarab also called for the election of a new president to the country.

Heading the meeting was Samir Geagea, a Maronite Christian known for his brutal suppression of Palestinian and Lebanese adversaries, including Christian rivals, during the Lebanese Civil War that took place between 1975 and 1989. He is also known for his collaboration with Israeli occupation forces in Lebanon after 1982 and for having spent 12 years in a Syrian prison on charges of collaboration with Israel.

Geagea has also been openly voicing his will to run for president of Lebanon, which under the Lebanese constitution must be held by a Christian Maronite. The president’s chair has been vacant for two years now, as the opposing political forces have failed to agree on a candidate. The president in Lebanon is elected by the parliament and thus needs a degree of consensus between represented parties, which has been absent since the latest president, Michel Aoun, finished his term in October 2022.

Aoun was an ally of Hezbollah and represented an important trend of Christian support for the resistance group in Lebanese politics since 2008. During his presidency, Hezbollah’s adversaries in Lebanon, like Geagea, continued to accuse the resistance group of taking over the state, especially during the height of the Syrian Civil War, in which Hezbollah was actively involved in defending the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Asad. After Aoun’s presidency, several political parties were unwilling to accept a president who would be close to Hezbollah and its allies. This presidential vacancy has extended to the current day.

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