Tag: lebanon

Hezbollah hit by a wave of exploding pagers in Lebanon and Syria. At least 9 dead, hundreds injured

Pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded near simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday, killing at least nine people – including an 8-year-old girl — and wounding several thousand, officials said. They blamed Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated, remote attack.

Among those wounded was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon. The mysterious incident came amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which have exchanged fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza.

The pagers that exploded had been newly acquired by Hezbollah after the group’s leader ordered members to stop using cell phones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence. A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the pagers were a new brand the group had not used before.

At about 3:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, pagers started heating up and then exploding in the pockets and hands of those carrying them — particularly in a southern Beirut suburb and the Beqaa region of eastern Lebanon where Hezbollah has a strong presence, and in Damascus, where several Hezbollah members were wounded, Lebanese security officials and a Hezbollah official said. The Hezbollah official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

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New Lebanon War Kicks Off As IDF Pounds Hezbollah Positions Overnight

The Israeli Defense Force struck at least 16 targets overnight against Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, as the focus of The Jewish State turns from Gaza to the north of the country.

In four different areas in southern Lebanon: the IDF attacked about 30 launchers and military infrastructure of the terrorist organization Hezbollah that posed a threat to the citizens of the State of Israel, reported the IDF press office.

Air Force fighter jets attacked during the night in the areas of Al Jabin, A-Nakura, Deir Sirin and Zabkin in southern Lebanon, about 30 launchers and military infrastructures of the terrorist organization Hezbollah, which posed a threat to the citizens of the State of Israel.

Also, IDF forces attacked with artillery in the A-Dahira area in southern Lebanon.

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Israel launches violent raids on southern Lebanon as China urges nationals to leave

Israeli forces intensified their cross-border attacks on Lebanon overnight Wednesday-Thursday with a series of 10 raids across eight different southern areas within 45 minutes, Lebanese media reported on Thursday.

The attacks took place around 1am local time, according to security sources, adding that the strikes targeted and destroyed several buildings in the Khiam, Kfarchouba, Mhaybib, Aita al-Chaab, Ghazziye, Ramiye, and Kaouthraiyet al-Sayyed, villages that lie about 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) past the Blue Line. No casualties were reported.

The Israeli military said that its air forces had hit more than 10 “Hezbollah targets” in different areas in southern Lebanon.

The army claimed on X that “among the targets attacked were weapons depots, military buildings, and a launcher used by Hezbollah to carry out operations against Israel”.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah announced it had targeted Israeli army barracks in northern Israel.

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Israel Airstrike Kills Hamas Leader in South Lebanon Port City of Sidon

Israel carried out an airstrike against a car in the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon on Friday evening, killing Hamas leader Samer Mahmoud al-Haj. A bodyguard, who has not been identified, was critically wounded.

Haj worked in a nearby Palestinian refugee camp called Ayn al-Hilweh. The Israeli military and Shin Bet issued a joint statement claiming he was responsible for directing attacks against Israel and was “training terrorists” at the refugee camp.

Sidon is located deep in southern Lebanon, almost 38 miles over the border. Israel has been carrying out strikes against Sidon this year, although most have been against Hezbollah, not Hamas.

Israeli strikes against Hamas targets inside Lebanese territory are relatively rare, but often target high profile Hamas members, as in January when Saleh al-Arouri was killed. Arouri had been in charge of the critical hostage negotiations with Israel throughout the Gaza War. He was struck down in an attack in Beirut, the Lebanese capital city.

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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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U.S. Poured Billions of Military Aid Into Lebanon. Now Israel Threatens to Invade.

Attacks between Israel and Hezbollah, the militia and political party based just across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, are fueling fears that a wider regional conflict may erupt any day.

Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia group loosely allied with Hamas, has been in a low-level war with Israel since the conflict in Gaza began last October. Hezbollah, which is believed to have an arsenal of more than 150,000 rockets and missiles, has repeatedly emphasized that attacks will continue as long as the war persists.

Over the weekend, a rocket attack that the U.S. and Israel said originated in Lebanon killed at least 12 civilians in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights. The Israeli foreign minister said that the attack “crossed all red lines,” and said “the moment of all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon” is approaching. Hezbollah denied responsibility for the strike.

On Monday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken cautioned Israeli President Isaac Herzog about ramping up its war with Hezbollah in response on a call, according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

But the conflict has been escalating for weeks. Israel has increased airstrikes aimed at the group. Current and former Israeli officials have also spoken publicly about shifting their attention from Hamas to the more powerful Hezbollah.

After Israeli officials warned of the possibility of launching a war that would send Lebanon “back to the Stone Age,” the Biden administration intensified diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions and forestall a conflict that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said could have “terrible consequences for the Middle East.”

The low-level war has created a tinderbox that could explode into a regional conflict involving Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Yemen and, to an even greater extent than now, the United States.

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Lebanon Prepares For Total War As Ex-Pats Evacuate, IDF Prepares Response

The Lebanese government is preparing for an Israeli military response against Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy army which occupies the halls of power in the Middle Eastern state, and who fired a large ballistic missile which killed a dozen Druze children playing football in the Golan Heights yesterday.

The funerals are today.

Foreigners are being told to leave Lebanon immediately due to the likely break-out of all-out war. France joined Norway in calling on its citizens to evacuate. The airport in Beirut is packed as many ex-patriots are fleeing the country.

In Israel, the Port of Ashdod is getting prepared to serve as an alternative to the Port of Haifa in case of war, reported Amir Tsarfati.

The military staff is meeting to coordinate and plan a response to the missile attack in northern Israel. CDM has long been reporting on the likely break-out of war in the north of The Jewish State. The conflict is expected to be bloody on both sides as Hezbollah is a much stronger fighting force than Hamas in Gaza, and controls hundreds of thousands of rockets which can severely damage Israeli and population.

Progressive political elements in Israel are said to be preventing military plans for retribution at this point. Approval is in the balance but likely to happen soon, as the political pressure inside Israel is great, from Arabs especially, whose children were murdered.

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Pentagon chief recommends avoiding Israel-Hezbollah war but sends fighter jets to Israel anyway

For U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin an immediate diplomatic solution is needed to prevent a “costly war” between Israel and Lebanon despite “Hezbollah’s provocations.”

“Diplomacy is by far the best way to prevent more escalation. We’re urgently seeking a diplomatic agreement that restores lasting calm to Israel’s northern border and enables civilians to return safely to their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border,” Austin claimed to reporters during a meeting at the Pentagon with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on June 25.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged fire on a near-daily basis since the beginning of the war in Gaza, but escalating attacks over the last several weeks have caused growing unease. And the U.S. official blamed the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah’s threats. “Hezbollah’s provocations threaten to drag the Israeli and Lebanese people into a war that they do not want and such a war would be a catastrophe for Lebanon and it would be devastating for innocent Israeli and Lebanese civilians,” Austin told Gallant. “Another war between Israel and Hezbollah could easily become a regional war with terrible consequences for the Middle East, and so diplomacy is by far the best way to prevent more escalation.”

Previously, Gallant suggested Israel pursue a large-scale war against Hezbollah but during the meeting, he said he was “working closely” with Austin to find a diplomatic resolution. However, they also discussed military “readiness in every possible scenario.” Gallant insisted on the threat of nuclear war with Iran, telling Austin that “time is running out.”

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Top Hezbollah commander assassinated by Israeli drone in south Lebanon

An Israeli drone strike in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre killed the commander of Hezbollah’s Aziz Unit on 3 July, Mohammed Naame Nasser, marking the second high-profile assassination of a resistance commander in as many months.

The Aziz Unit reportedly operates in the eastern sector of the Lebanese–Israeli border region.

Israel’s latest provocation inside Lebanese soil comes as border tensions threaten to boil over, with western officials set to meet in the French capital on Wednesday to discuss ways to “defuse” the crisis.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, stressed that the only path to a de-escalation on Israel’s northern border is a full ceasefire in Gaza.

“If there is a ceasefire in Gaza, we will stop without any discussion,” the Lebanese resistance leader told AP.

“Israel can decide what it wants: limited war, total war, partial war,” Qassem said. “But it should expect that our response and our resistance will not be within a ceiling and rules of engagement set by Israel … If Israel wages the war, it means it doesn’t control its extent or who enters into it.”

Nearly nine months into Israel’s campaign of genocide in Gaza, authorities have recently intensified threats to expand the war against Lebanon in a last-ditch effort to regain control of the northern occupied territories.

Nevertheless, the lack of a clear strategy to disengage from Gaza, on top of a critical manpower and munitions crisis, has deepened rifts between the military and political leaders in Israel. Earlier this week, top security officials told the New York Times (NYT) that they are pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza, even if it means “keeping Hamas in power for now.”

On Tuesday, the NYT report received a swift response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Iran vows to protect Hezbollah from Israeli attack

Iran will throw all of its military power behind Hezbollah if Israel launches a full-scale attack on the Lebanon-based Islamist movement, a senior official in Tehran has warned. He added, however, that his country does not want an all-out war in the Middle East.

Tensions between the Jewish state and the Shia group, which has close ties with Iran, reached boiling point after the start of the Hamas-Israel war in October, with the two belligerents exchanging cross-border strikes. However, they have so far managed to avoid a major engagement.

In an interview with the Financial Times on Tuesday, Kamal Kharrazi, a foreign affairs adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reiterated that Iran is “not interested” in a regional war. He urged the US, Israel’s key ally, to put pressure on West Jerusalem to prevent such escalation.

However, Kharrazi insisted that “all Lebanese people, Arab countries, and members of the axis of resistance will support Lebanon against Israel” if efforts to avoid a major conflict prove unsuccessful. “In that situation, we would have no choice but to support Hezbollah by all means,” he said.

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