Tag: lebanon

Biden Administration Pressuring Israel To End Lebanon War Before Hezbollah Destroyed As IDF Reaches Latani River-Nerve Gas Found In Tunnels-Hezbollah Readies Strike

Reports are emanating from Israel that the Netanyahu security cabinet is about to approve a ceasefire in its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon after severe pressure from the Biden administration. The measure will not need full government approval as it is not a formal agreement but a tactical measure.

It seems The White House wants to see Hezbollah remain in-tact and live to fight another day and continue to threaten Israel from the north. This outcome is being forced under threat of a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding a stop to the war, and sanctions against The Jewish State. A complete weapons embargo is also being threatened.

Israeli leaders are considering this development in order to get a more friendly American leader in power to Jewish interests, even though a ceasefire will be hard to end once established and there is no fighting for a period of months.

A ceasefire will bring no ‘exclusion zone’ patrolled by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, no prevention of Lebanese army assets that may be infiltrated in the region, no punishment of Hezbollah collaborators along the Israeli border, and French diplomats involved in the ceasefire implementation, who are not seen as friendly to Israel.

This comes on the heels of discoveries by IDF troops of nerve gas, chemical equipment, a large amount of weapons and date rape drugs in the Hezbollah tunnels according to reports by pro-Israeli journalists.

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Violent Israeli raids hit Beirut suburb after massacre in Mount Lebanon

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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Israel and the U.S. are interfering in Lebanese politics to oust Hezbollah — here’s why it won’t work

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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Prepping Readers to Accept Mass Slaughter in Lebanese ‘Strongholds’

Back in May 2015, the New York Times’ Isabel Kershner decided to moonlight as an Israeli military propagandist by penning an alleged exposé (5/12/15)—headlined “Israel Says Hezbollah Positions Put Lebanese at Risk”—in which she diligently conveyed all that Israel had to say about Hezbollah’s infrastructure in south Lebanon.

The minuscule hamlet of Muhaybib, for example, was said to contain no fewer than “nine arms depots, five rocket-launching sites, four infantry positions, signs of three underground tunnels, three anti-tank positions and, in the very center of the village, a Hezbollah command post.” In the village of Shaqra, home to approximately 4,000 people, the Israeli army had meanwhile identified some “400 military sites and facilities belonging to Hezbollah.”

Only after 11 full paragraphs of transmitting the Israeli line did Kershner manage to insert the disclaimer that “the Israeli claims could not be independently verified.” But by that time, of course, the damage had been done, the reader having already been persuaded that south Lebanon was one big Hezbollah military installation, where Israel could not afford to concern itself with civilian lives in any future conflict. Driving the point home was former Israeli national security adviser Yaakov Amidror, who informed Kershner that “many, many Lebanese will be killed” in the next showdown with Hezbollah.

I happened to be in south Lebanon at the time of the article’s publication, and drove over to Muhaybib and Shaqra to check out the fearsome landscape. Though I did not encounter any Hezbollah command posts, I did see some schoolchildren, elderly folks, bakeries, farms, clothing shops and, in Shaqra, a colorful establishment offering “Botox filling.”

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The long road to Beirut now Israel has bombed Syrian borders

On Thursday 7th of November I set off for Beirut. I could no longer use the direct road through the Masnaa border with Lebanon. Israel has now bombed the road at least twice reducing the stretch between the Syrian and Lebanese border to rubble. The US influence (on behalf of Israel) in Lebanon has prohibited any attempts by the Lebanese or Syrian side to repair the road. Israel has threatened to bomb it again if either side tries to restore operations.

The blue dotted line is the usual route which is fast and efficient. The purple dotted line is the route now needed to reach Beirut from Damascus. Israel has also bombed several points and bridges on the Homs western route so it is necessary to head for Tartous further north on the coast and then turn south to reach the border.

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Netanyahu Admits Israel Behind Pager Explosion Operation

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted Israeli responsibility for the Hezbollah pager explosion operation that kicked off the war on the north along the Lebanese border.

At today’s government meeting, Netanyahu acknowledged responsibility for the pager operation against Hezbollah for the first time, reported Amir Tsarfati.

“Senior security officials and the political leadership overseeing them opposed both the pager operation and Nasrallah’s elimination,” he said.

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Erasing ‘Any Sign of Life,’ Israeli Demolition Teams Razing Entire Villages in Lebanon

As the death toll from Israel’s 13-month assault on Lebanon passed 3,000, satellite imagery analyses published by multiple media outlets in recent days revealed that nearly a quarter of all buildings in 25 municipalities in the southern part of the Mideastern country have been destroyed or damaged in a ferocious campaign that has left entire villages in ruins.

Satellite photos examined by The Washington Post, Reuters, and the Financial Times showed vast destruction caused by Israeli bombing and controlled demolitions of towns and villages, many of whose residents are among the more than 1.2 million people forcibly displaced by the war.

“There are beautiful old homes, hundreds of years old,” Meiss al-Jabal Mayor Abdulmonem Choukeir told Reuters. “Thousands of artillery shells have hit the town, hundreds of air strikes. Who knows what will still be standing at the end?”

Meiss al-Jabal native Fatima Ghoul told The Washington Post that “everything has been reduced to rubble” in the town of 8,000 inhabitants. Footage circulating on social media Monday showed large portions of the village, which has been inhabited for many hundreds of years, turned to dust in a simultaneous series of demolition explosions.

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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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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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Israeli attacks on Lebanon border crossings ‘block safety’ of civilians fleeing war: UN

The UNHCR warned on 25 October that Israel’s attacks on main border crossings in Lebanon were hindering the ability of internally displaced Lebanese, as well as Syrian refugees, from crossing into Syria. 

The warning came hours after an overnight Israeli airstrike targeting the Qaa–Jusiyah crossing, one of the five main border crossings between Lebanon and Syria.

The UN agency confirmed that the crossing had been put out of service as a result of the Israeli attack.

UNHCR spokeswoman Rula Amin said around 430,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria since Israel intensified its campaign against Lebanon last month, and that attacking border crossings would prevent people from being able to flee. 

“The attacks on the border crossings are a major concern. They are blocking the path to safety for people fleeing conflict,” she said. 

The Israeli army announced the strike on 25 October, claiming the crossing was used by Hezbollah’s Unit 4400 to smuggle weapons into Lebanon. 

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