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Forums - Politics Discussion - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ 5 days ago

Stop ‘targeting and bombing shelters’: Gaza’s media office

Gaza’s Government Media Office has called on the international community to pressure Israel to stop targeting buildings sheltering displaced people “and to stop the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip”.

“We hold the Israeli occupation and the US administration fully responsible for the continuation of the crime of genocide and the continued commission of massacres against civilians,” it said on Telegram. “And we hold them responsible for targeting and bombing shelters and schools.”


Too one-sided to be considered a war

It’s hard to talk about the conditions here without talking about the ongoing strikes across Gaza because, at the end of the day, these are the byproducts of the intense bombing campaign that has killed over 41,000 civilians.

It also caused a level of destruction, including the infrastructure, the public facilities, and, right now, the constant, ongoing, deliberate attacks on families inside their residential homes.

It’s just hard to consider this a war because, since the beginning, it has been largely one-sided, dominated by the Israeli military, but we’re seeing it on a daily basis.

The past few hours have been quite difficult here at Al-Aqsa Hospital. Again, this courtyard has turned into a stage for funerals for those who’ve been killed in the overnight attacks or early hours of this morning, and we talk about entire families being killed.

People here are dying on a daily basis because of infectious diseases that are not treatable because of the acute shortage of medical supplies and the inability of these health facilities to stand intact and intervene and save lives.


Lebanon distracting from the ‘killing machine’ in Gaza

We’re seeing the Israeli military carrying out military operations across the Gaza Strip. Deadly air strikes, coupled with heavy artillery shelling, and the fact that we are looking at 41,000 people killed is an indication that Palestinians in Gaza have already been forgotten by the world.

If you look at the UN Security Council and how many meetings were held, how many resolutions were passed; if you look at the ICC and its rulings, what we’re seeing on the ground is completely the opposite, contrary to any of these rulings or resolutions.

The evolving events on the northern front, in Lebanon, will just make things worse here because the Israeli military keeps carrying out deadly attacks.

And it’s distracting for everyone paying attention to what’s going on in Lebanon, but the killing machine continues to cause further civilian casualties, destroy remaining in tax facilities or infrastructure if there is any left.



Around the Network
SvennoJ 5 days ago

Israeli forces arrest five Palestinians in Bethlehem

Israeli soldiers have arrested five Palestinians, including a girl, in the Bethlehem governorate in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency is reporting, citing security sources.

Earlier we reported that dozens of Palestinians, including children, were detained during an Israeli raid on the village of Haris, near Salfit.

Some 9,000 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank are currently being held in Israeli prisons, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.


Israel releases Jordanians arrested during attack on King Hussein Bridge

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry says the two Jordanians arrested by the Israeli army in the immediate aftermath of the deadly attack on the King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge on September 8 have now returned to the country.

The two men are “in good health and are now heading to their families”, the ministry said in a statement on X.

The attack on the bridge between Jordan and the occupied West Bank allegedly involved a Jordanian truck driver who shot dead three Israeli border guards. The 39-year-old suspect was also killed at the site.


Israeli forces continue raids, demolitions in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces have continued their raids on the village of Haris, west of Salfit, in the occupied West Bank, for the second day, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The head of the Haris village council Omar Samara told Wafa that Israeli soldiers harassed civilians and searched their homes, arresting about 70 people last night, most of them children.

Samara also said the army stormed schools, arresting a number of students and teachers.

Elsewhere, Israeli forces also demolished a house in al-Jiftlik village, north of Jericho. The two-storey house belonged to Nael Mustafa Bani Odeh and was built more than 15 years ago.


Israeli middle schoolers harass Palestinian classmate

This video shows Israeli middle schoolers dancing and chanting hate messages at a Palestinian classmate who called for a free Palestine and accused Israeli forces of being “murderers”.



That's a whole new level of bullying. And probably only under investigation because a student posted a video...


Israeli forces attack Shireen Abu Akleh’s image, again

Israeli soldiers were filmed tearing down an image of murdered Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh when they closed the network’s office in the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces killed Shireen in 2022. So why won’t they let her rest in peace?



SvennoJ 5 days ago

Ex-CIA chief says Lebanon pager attacks a ‘form of terrorism’

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta told the CBS broadcaster that he was worried about the possible repercussions from the pager and walkie-talkie attacks in Lebanon that killed at least 37 people.

“I don’t think there’s any question that it’s a form of terrorism,” Panetta said.

“When you have terror going into the supply chain it makes people ask the question what is next,” he said, adding that if governments “don’t try to deal with it now, mark my word, it is the battlefield of the future”.

At least two children and a medic were killed in the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday. More than 3,000 others were also wounded.

Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the attack. But Israel has yet to comment.


China urges its citizens to leave Israel ‘as soon as possible’

Last month, China asked its citizens in Lebanon to leave after an Israeli attack killed a senior Palestinian fighter in the country. Now, its embassy in Israel has urged Chinese citizens to “return home or relocate to safer areas as soon as possible”.

Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in tit-for-tat attacks since the war on Gaza began, with tensions escalating this past week.

“Currently, the situation along the Israel-Lebanon border is extremely tense, with frequent military conflicts,” the embassy said in a statement. “The security situation in Israel remains severe, complex, and unpredictable.”


Israeli tech sector faces funding uncertainty amid war with Hamas

Israel’s tech sector has remained resilient during a yearlong war on Gaza, but as it relies on large companies and foreign investment, the sector faces funding uncertainty that could harm the broader economy, a government report showed.

Since the war began on October 7, Israeli tech firms have raised some $9bn – third behind Silicon Valley and New York, according to the state-funded Israel Innovation Authority (IIA).

“The level of investment was pretty much the same as the same period before the war,” Dror Bin, CEO of the IIA, told Reuters. “So despite the fact that risk went up for investments in Israel, they still see the potential of those startups, and they continue to invest in them.”

High-tech drives Israel’s economy and accounts for 16 percent of employment, more than half of Israel’s exports, a third of income taxes and 20 percent of its overall economic output.

Bin expressed concerns that employment in the sector has remained stagnant, which could curb income tax when the state needs funds to finance the war. At the same time, most investment is in mature startups and cybersecurity firms, while other areas are suffering.

“We are looking at something that might evolve to be a problem,” said Bin, adding that many good companies that should be funded are currently having trouble.



SvennoJ 5 days ago

Israel’s military launches ‘extensive’ attacks on Hezbollah

The announcement moments ago comes after Hezbollah claimed several attacks on Israeli military positions in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa farms as well as in northern Israel. The intensifying conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has sparked global concerns of a full-scale war in the Middle East.


Smoke billows from the site of Israeli air attacks in Aramta, near the Lebanon-Israel border


‘Violent’ explosions as Israeli jets pound Bekaa, south Lebanon


Translation: Heavy attacks on Hermel and Zboud

Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV said Israeli warplanes carried out a series of air attacks on towns in the eastern Bekaa Valley and in southern parts of the country.

The towns of Hermel, Zboud and Harbata in Bekaa were attacked, while areas in Tyre and Nabatieh in southern Lebanon were also bombed, the channel said.

Footage posted on social media, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency, showed huge clouds of smoke billowing over towns in Bekaa and southern Lebanon.


Translation: Violent Israeli raids hit Nabatieh Fawka in southern Lebanon.

Israeli forces launched 80 air attacks on Lebanon’s Nabatieh in half an hour

Lebanon’s National News Agency is reporting that Israeli warplanes carried out more than 80 air raids in just half an hour in the southern governorate of Nabatieh. It is not immediately clear if the attacks caused deaths and injuries.


Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following Israeli attack



SvennoJ 5 days ago

Israeli attacks targeting eastern and southern Lebanon

As we’ve been reporting, more attacks have been launched on Lebanon by the Israeli army, with its spokesperson saying “preemptive strikes” targeted Hezbollah sites.

Our colleagues on the ground are reporting that the attacks targeted towns in eastern and southern Lebanon.

The raids targeted the towns of al-Tayri, Bint Jbeil, Hanine, Zawtar, and the Nabatieh region in southern Lebanon, as well as the areas surrounding the Shaara, Harbata, and Hermel regions, and the areas surrounding the towns of Shamstar, Taria, and Bouday in eastern Lebanon.

The Israeli military, in a rare appeal, told people in Lebanon to move away from what it called Hezbollah targets as it said it would carry out more strikes.

“We advise civilians from Lebanese villages located in and next to buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purposes, such as those used to store weapons, to immediately move out of harm’s way for their own safety,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists.


People walk at a beach as smoke billows over southern Lebanon following Israeli attacks


One killed, 4 wounded in Israeli attacks on Lebanon

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) is reporting that at least one civilian has been killed in the new wave of Israeli air strikes targeting eastern and southern Lebanon.

The NNA reported that “enemy warplanes launched … more than 80 air strikes in half an hour”, targeting south Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh district. It also reported strikes in the Tyre area.

At the same time, the NNA reported “intense raids in the Bekaa” Valley in the east, deep inside Lebanon near the Syrian border, including in the vicinity of Baalbek and the outskirts of Hermel.

The NNA said the strikes in the east killed a “civilian”, a shepherd, “and wounded two members of his family” and four others.


Israel tells Lebanese residents to flee amid intense air attacks

Around 4:30 GMT, we heard a number of strikes. I counted 10 just in the vicinity around me.

The Israeli army said it mounted intensive strikes this morning as Israeli fighters launched dozens of air strikes in scattered areas in southern and eastern Lebanon.

In Tyre, which is about 80km from Beirut, strikes hit Hosh, Qasimia, and Bazouriyeh. We’ve seen the pictures from there. They seem to be very large strikes, and towns across the southern Lebanon border, including al-Tayba.

Now in the Bekaa region, in the east of Lebanon, the Israeli army says they hit Nabi Rachad, Tarayya, Shmestar and Bodai, which are a very concentrated ring of towns in the Bekaa.

The Israeli army spokesman has also issued an urgent warning to villages in Lebanon. He says, “If you’re inside or near a building used by Hezbollah to store weapons or combat equipment, you must evacuate the building and move away from it immediately. Anyone who is near Hezbollah elements or weapons is putting himself at risk.”


Rocket hits area in Lebanon previously not targeted

A rocket hit an uninhabited mountainside east of the Lebanese port city of Byblos, according to Lebanon’s state media and a resident Reuters spoke to. The area was not hit previously by air strikes in months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanese media reports that in addition to the one civilian killed in Israeli attacks across eastern and southern Lebanon, 17 people have been wounded. Israeli jets launched more than 80 air raids within 30 minutes early this morning.

A Lebanese shepherd was killed and six people were injured, including two family members, in an attack in Bodai in eastern Lebanon, state media reported. The Health Ministry said 11 more people were wounded in another strike in Aitaroun, southern Lebanon.



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SvennoJ 5 days ago

South Lebanon residents receive calls to move away from Hezbollah sites

Residents of southern Lebanon are receiving phone calls from a Lebanese number ordering them to immediately move away from any post used by Hezbollah, Reuters is reporting.

In a televised statement earlier, an Israeli military spokesperson issued a similar warning and said it was being “distributed in Arabic on all networks and platforms in Lebanon”.

The Israeli army has been telling Lebanese civilians to “move away” from Hezbollah sites it plans to target and as the Israeli military said it will carry out more “extensive and precise” strikes against Hezbollah. It was the first such warning issued to Lebanese people by Israel’s military since the war in Gaza erupted nearly a year ago.


Israeli warnings are psychological warfare

Israeli warnings are a classic example of psychological warfare that is carried out in other areas as well. We’ve seen similar things in Gaza and the West Bank. Now we’re seeing it in Lebanon.

They issue these warnings, which are really intended to imply to civilians that their leaders, people fighting on their side, and people surrounding them are using them as human shields.

This is an accusation that the Israeli army has put up against Hamas in the past, and against armed groups in the West Bank. It is part and parcel of what Israel does. It masks its own aggression, tactics and military prowess in this cocoon of the idea that the other side is using the population that Israel is killing as human shields, whether that is true or not.

And Israel has shown no differentiation in its own military acts in the past anytime it’s come across a civilian population.


People in Beirut receiving calls for evacuation

People in Beirut are also receiving text messages, purportedly from the Israeli army, asking them to evacuate their locations quickly, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) is reporting.

Minister of Information Ziad Makary received a call with a voicemail left on his phone, urging the building be evacuated, the agency said. On Saturday, an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut killed 45 people, including a senior Hezbollah commander, and wounded 66.


Level of anxiety in Beirut at all-time high

People in the Lebanese capital woke up to the news of Israel’s unprecedented level of attack on the southern and eastern parts of the country. People here have relatives, family and friends living in the south.

According to analysts I spoke to, about a quarter of the population lives in the southern parts. It is home to roughly 800,000 people.

Now about 100,000 of those people have been relocated, but they’re still in southern Lebanon. There are a lot of phone calls, text messages and videos being sent from residents in the south. Their relatives and friends here in the capital are extremely concerned.

They are anxious about not only what is happening in the south, but about how close they are to actually being in a full-out war between Hezbollah and Israel.

This is the first time that they have felt this level of anxiety in almost a year because of everything that has happened and the continuing level of strikes from Israel as well as Hezbollah’s response. Hezbollah has shown no sign of backing down.


Lebanon death toll rises to 182

The death toll in Israeli attacks across Lebanon today has risen to 182, the Health Ministry has announced.

Another 727 people were wounded in the attacks.



SvennoJ 5 days ago

Sidon residents flee Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon

Thousands of people are fleeing southern Lebanon, with the main highway in the southern port city of Sidon packed with cars heading towards Beirut, the Associated Press is reporting.

Minister of Environment Nasser Yassin told reporters that some schools are being prepared in Mount Lebanon for people who are fleeing.

The Lebanese interior minister, meanwhile, has said schools in Beirut, Tripoli and eastern and southern Lebanon are being turned into shelters amid the heavy displacement, Reuters reported.



Amount of firepower ‘might be unprecedented’ in Israel’s wars on Lebanon

Jamal Ghosn, a Beirut-based political commentator and writer, has described today’s situation in parts of the country as “panicky”. “It was a bit chaotic; a lot of people had to flee quickly facing this barrage of air raids,” he told Al Jazeera.

“We’re talking about 400 air raids within a couple of hours and now we are expecting more of course and we are expecting to reach different parts of Lebanon,” Ghosh said.

“The sheer amount of firepower that’s used today might be unprecedented in the wars that Israel has conducted against Lebanon.”




Videos show aftermath of Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon

Footage shared online has captured the immediate aftermath of the ongoing Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon that began early this morning. The videos, which have been verified by Al Jazeera, show buildings damaged with plumes of smoke rising, as well as debris and rubble strewn across the streets following the attacks.

https://www.facebook.com/sadawadialtaym/posts/1086587273474668


Israeli military says detected rocket launches from Lebanon

The Israeli military has said it detected 35 rockets launched from Lebanon towards Carmel, as well as the upper, lower and central Galilee. “Air defence fighters intercepted several launches and we detected rocket landings in open areas,” the military said in a statement on its official Telegram channel.


Netanyahu calls for unity as Israel escalates attacks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the country faced “complicated days” as it stepped up strikes in southern Lebanon.

“I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north – that is exactly what we are doing,” he said in a message issued following a situational assessment at military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

He called on Israelis to stay united as the campaign unfolded.



LegitHyperbole 5 days ago

Man, this shits about to turn real serious. Isreal really want it to spread far out away from the border to control where the rockets are coming from cause they can't keep the dome up indefinitely. Shits about to get wild. 



SvennoJ 5 days ago
LegitHyperbole said:

Man, this shits about to turn real serious. Isreal really want it to spread far out away from the border to control where the rockets are coming from cause they can't keep the dome up indefinitely. Shits about to get wild. 

The US will keep the Iron Dome well stocked as well as provide additional assistance.

However the Iron Dome is not that effective short range, hence Israel wants Southern Lebanon cleared of rocket launchers. There is also collateral damage from shooting down rockets, debris still comes down, as well as the intercepting missiles. Hence Israel wants to shoot them down before they cross the border, but that only works if they're launched from much farther.

The only way to achieve that is to occupy Southern Lebanon. Yet that simply moves the 'border' and Israel will have the same problem in the newly occupied area. Plus they need to increase the Iron Dome range again, more territory to defend.

So in the end, it's all futile what Israel is trying to do. Lebanon is no Gaza, and Israel can't even stop Hamas from firing rockets. Hamas has learned how to use unexploded ordnance for rockets and IEDs. Israel is providing them with plenty materials... Over 10% fails to explode.



On the other hand, Netanyahu needs some sort of 'victory', something to give to his followers. Annexation of the West Bank is messy and goes too slow. Plus more Western countries are starting to turn on the Settlers.

Resettling Gaza is also on the table but the International community has their eyes full on that. Still plans have been proposed to force everyone in Gaza out of the North including Gaza city to south of the Netzarim corridor. Where Israel cut Gaza in two, clearing (blowing up) 1 km on either side of the new military access road. There is only minority support in the Knesset for this plan so far.

Thus Netanyahu has his eyes now on Southern Lebanon. First to make it possible for the 60,000 evacuees, currently living in hotels, to return home. Yet Zionists have their eyes set on more land, Lebanon, Jordan, parts of Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia. The land 'promised' in the bible.

https://mepei.com/greater-israel-an-ongoing-expansion-plan-for-the-middle-east-and-north-africa/



So yes, it will continue to be messy as long as the US keeps up their 'ironclad support' providing the bombs to continue.

And the risk is that Iran might say enough is enough at some point. Directing all its allies to overwhelm the Iron dome in coordinated attacks. Iran tested the limits of the defenses with their previous counter attack.

Netanyahu is playing with fire, literally. Just to stay in power as their are no realistic gains to be had here. Only making more long term enemies, radicalizing and driving more people towards the influence of Iran.



SvennoJ 5 days ago

‘This needs to stop’: UN

The UN has voiced deep worry “about the escalation in Lebanon”, where Israeli air raids today have killed at least 182 people.

“The attacks that we saw on the communication devices, the pagers, followed by rocket attacks and rocket fire being exchanged on both sides … marks a real escalation,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN rights office, told AFP.

“What we’ve been warning about all along, the regional spillover of the conflict, it appears that both the actions and the rhetoric of the parties to the conflict is taking the conflict to another level.”

After nearly a year of tit-for-tat cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, the strikes since the weekend are the most intense since the outbreak of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Shamdasani highlighted the calls from across the international community “pleading for a de-escalation”. “But instead of a de-escalation, what we have seen … is further rhetoric with further plans of an escalation,” she said.

“This needs to stop.”


A man watches rescuers sift through the rubble as they search for people still missing at the site of Friday’s Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs


Iran’s Pezeshkian says Israel seeking wider conflict

The Iranian president has spoken to journalists at the UN General Assembly in New York. “We know more than anyone else that if a larger war were to erupt in the Middle East, it will not benefit anyone throughout the world,” Masoud Pezeshkian said.

“It is Israel that seeks to create this wider conflict,” he added, insisting that Iran was not destabilising the region.

Death toll in Israeli strikes on Lebanon rises to 274

Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad says Israeli bombing has targeted medical centres, ambulances and cars of people trying to flee. According to the minister, at least 274 people have been killed, including 21 children, 39 women and two medics.


Civil defence teams extinguish fires in Lebanon’s south

The Lebanese Civil Defence has said its teams have been working to extinguish fires that broke out “in several homes, factories and warehouses in the southern governorates, Nabatieh and Bekaa” as a result of the Israeli attacks.

“The personnel also continue to treat the wounded, recover the bodies of those killed and transport them to hospitals to receive the necessary medical care,” it added in a statement.

Separately, the organisation said search-and-rescue operations and a comprehensive field survey are ongoing at the site of the building that collapsed” in an Israeli air raid on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday.

It added that the search for the missing has so far resulted in the recovery of the bodies of 54 people and 66 wounded. Five citizens remain missing.


Nurseries in Lebanon to close amid fighting: State media

Lebanon’s Health Ministry has announced the shutting down of all nurseries across the country, according to the National News Agency. Earlier, education authorities said that schools will be closed for two days in areas hit by Israeli strikes.

Firass Abiad says that the ministry is working to ensure those injured in Israeli strikes are getting the healthcare they need. The health minister said he has asked hospitals to stop taking regular, light cases to make space for the wounded from the south.

“We are working on directives for the first-aid centres to be turned into places that can receive the wounded,” he said. “The displaced people who have cancer, kidney failure and other chronic diseases, we have a plan to continue their treatment in different medical centres.”

UNIFIL urges diplomatic efforts to protect civilians in southern Lebanon

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has expressed “grave concern” for the wellbeing and safety of civilians residing in southern Lebanon.

“UNIFIL reiterates its strong call for a diplomatic solution and urges all parties to prioritize civilian lives and ensure they are not put in harm’s way,” it posted on X. The mission said it was vital to “fully recommit” to implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

Under the resolution, adopted in 2006 to bring an end to the war between Israel and Hezbollah, UN peacekeepers were deployed to monitor a ceasefire along the 120km (75-mile) demarcation line, or Blue Line, between Israel and Lebanon.