Hezbollah says ready for any Israeli military scenario

Hezbollah says this is a war of reckoning. It has been preparing for a potential ground invasion since 2006. And it has always said it is ready for any scenario. Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, was very clear in his speech a few days ago, saying that if Israel tries put a buffer zone into southern Lebanon, it will fail.

In the last few moments, I’ve heard at least two air strikes come in. The Israeli army announced that they were concentrating on Nabatieh governorate. That’s where I am. All the afternoon, we’ve seen air strikes take place.

There are two things that are going on here: First, it’s the offensive air strikes that take place – those designed to knock out Hezbollah infrastructure. And then there’s the reactive air strikes – every time we hear a barrage of Hezbollah rockets going into Israel, about 15-20 minutes later, we see an air strike in that area.

UN agencies, Lebanese authorities preparing for mass casualty events

The UN agency OCHA says the World Health Organization and the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health are preparing for mass casualty events in Lebanon and maintaining essential services as Israel intensifies its bombing campaign.

These including mental health support despite health stock levels being critically low, and urgent restocking being needed, it said.

OCHA also said that several agencies are making preparations to meet humanitarian needs, noting that the UNFPA has 25,000 dignity kits ready and the WFP has prepositioned food for up to 150,000 people.

However, it said more shelters are needed beyond schools and that funding for repairs is lacking. It also said that 290 schools are being used as shelters, affecting education for 100,000 students and exacerbating pre-existing challenges.

Israel continues attacks on southern Lebanon

_{Residents clean the area after Israeli raids in Jiyeh}

Israeli army boss says Lebanon air raids preparing way for possible ground push

General Herzi Halevi has told Israeli soldiers that the air attacks on Lebanon would continue in order to destroy Hezbollah’s infrastructure and to prepare the way for a possible ground offensive.

“You hear the jets overhead; we have been striking all day,” the Israeli army chief told troops on the border with Lebanon, according to a statement from the military.

“This is both to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah.”

‘Netanyahu expanding genocidal campaign to Lebanon’

US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan says the Biden-Harris administration continues to allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right government to “operate with impunity as they carry out war crimes”.

“After facing no red line in Gaza, in an attempt to remain in power, Netanyahu is now expanding his genocidal campaign to Lebanon, using the same tactics the Biden-Harris administration has endorsed,” she said.

Tlaib represents the Detroit suburbs of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights – home to one of the largest Lebanese communities in the United States.

“The same US weapons being used to kill innocent civilians in Gaza have already claimed the lives of over 500 people in Lebanon, including over 50 children, and have injured thousands more civilians,” she said in a statement.

“Deploying more US troops and sending more US bombs will only lead to more suffering and carnage. The Biden-Harris administration is capable of stopping the bloodshed. President Biden must implement an immediate arms embargo to end the slaughter and de-escalate the risk of a wider regional war.”

_{Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in the US Congress, at a Gaza ceasefire rally in September}

Blinken says US working to avoid full-blown war on Lebanon

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the risk to the Middle East is “acute” and Washington and its allies are trying to avoid an all-out conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

“With regard to Lebanon, we’ve been working tirelessly with partners to avoid a full-blown war and to move to a diplomatic process that would allow Israelis and Lebanese alike to go back to their homes,” Blinken said at the start of a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in New York City.

“Risk of escalation in the region is acute. The best answer is diplomacy, and our coordinated efforts are vital to preventing further escalation.”

The United States has been slammed for not putting an end to the war on Gaza, now approaching its one-year mark, which critics say has enabled Israel to carry out attacks on Lebanon.

By now 'Blinken says' should be replaced with 'Blinken lies'. The only thing he's doing is telling everyone not to defend themselves against Israel.

Israel is repeating its Gaza assault in Lebanon. Why?

Because Israel needs a quick end and thinks this will work, said Yousef Munayyer from the Arab Center Washington DC.

“And so they’re using the same sort of tactics that they used in Gaza,” Munayyer said. “This is part of an Israeli strategy aimed at bringing great pressure on Hezbollah.”

He said Israel hopes to “get out of the situation without a ground invasion, without a long drawn-out battle” – and to avoid getting bogged down in Lebanon just as it has in Gaza.

Trying the same thing over and over, expecting different results. That's Israel in a nutshell.

More from Israel’s army chief on possible Lebanon invasion

A statement provided more comments from army chief Herzi Halevi on Israel’s plan against Hezbollah.

“Hezbollah today expanded its [range] of fire. Later today, it will receive a very strong response … We are not stopping. We will keep attacking and harming them everywhere,” Halevi told a tank unit along the border with Lebanon.

“Your entry there with force … will show [Hezbollah] what it is like to meet a professional combat force. You are coming in much stronger than them, much more experienced than them. Go in, destroy the enemy there, and go destroy the infrastructure.

“These are the things that will allow us to safely repatriate the residents of the north later.”

Professional combat force? It's a bunch of reservists with expensive toys and little discipline. Unless the IDF has been holding back the professionals for the last 11 months, this sounds delusional. But I guess they have experience harassing unarmed Palestinians in the West Bank...

Five killed in Israeli attack near southern Lebanon’s Tyre

Among those killed is a baby, Lebanon’s National News Agency reports. The Israeli air raid hit the suburb of Chehour, on the outskirts of Tyre, in southern Lebanon.

Thousands of terrified families have fled southern Lebanon, joining an estimated 110,000 people who escaped earlier to seek shelter wherever possible from Israeli bombardment. The total number of displaced Lebanese is about 500,000 now.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon putting civilians ‘at grave risk’

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is pressing for an international investigation into attacks on Lebanon. Israeli strikes on the country on Monday killed at least 558 people – the deadliest day of violence since Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war.

“More than 1,000 Israeli strikes across Lebanon that have killed hundreds of people and injured thousands are placing civilians across the country at grave risk of harm,” HRW said in a statement.

United Nations “member states should take urgent action to establish an independent inquiry into violations during the current hostilities”, said Lama Fakih, HRW’s Middle East and North Africa director.

“The presence of a Hezbollah commander, rocket launcher, or other military facility in a populated area does not justify attacking the area without regard to the civilian population.”

Islamic Resistance in Iraq claims drone attacks on Israel

Islamic Resistance in Iraq called for intensified attacks on Israel as it claimed responsibility for an attack by two unmanned aerial vehicles on the southern city of Eilat.

In a statement on Telegram, it said the attacks were “in support of the people in Palestine and Lebanon and in response to the massacres” committed by Israel.

The Israeli army said it intercepted a drone launched towards Eilat from “the east”, adding another fell inside the port city. Two people were slightly wounded.

Earlier, Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah spokesperson Abu Ali al-Askari issued an appeal for ramped-up operations against Israel. “We hope factions in the Islamic Resistance, which support Palestine and Lebanon, will increase the number and severity of their operations,” Askari said.

Israeli attacks against Palestinians in Gaza continue


_{A wounded Palestinian woman waits in an ambulance as victims of an Israeli attack on Bureij refugee camp are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for medical treatment}

_{People perform funeral prayers after receiving the bodies of those killed in the attack on Bureij}

Israeli air raids on Rafah kill 4 Palestinians

The Israeli military struck a house northeast of Rafah city, killing four people, two of them women, the Palestinian civil defence agency says.

Netanyahu UN speech ‘at a point of being persona non grata’

The UN Security Council holds an emergency meeting in about one hour with the focus on Israel’s deadly assault on Lebanon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, is expected to address the UN General Assembly on Friday. He will seek to persuade a world growing increasingly hostile to Israel’s war on Gaza and attacks on Lebanon that the aims are justified.

“He arrives almost at a point of being persona non grata,” said Alon Liel, a former director-general of Israel’s foreign ministry and outspoken critic of Netanyahu. “There is no doubt that he knows how to deliver a speech. I think the world buys his chatter less and less.”

Yossi Shain, a professor of international relations at Georgetown and Tel Aviv University, said Netanyahu’s speeches abroad were often meant to impress audiences at home, and this one is no different.

“In his view, any such trips to New York, to the grand stage of world affairs, he considers an advantage,” said Shain.

Israeli fighter jets forced to flee Lebanon airspace: Hezbollah

Hezbollah says its air defence units engaged and successfully forced two Israeli aircraft to leave Lebanese airspace “using appropriate weapons” near the Lebanese towns of Hula and Meiss el-Jabal.

Fighters also targeted the Kiryat Motzkin settlement with a barrage of rockets and carried out a second round of strikes with Fadi-1 missiles.

Israel has launched waves of deadly air strikes on Lebanon since Monday, killing nearly 700 people. The international community has warned against Israeli attacks on Lebanon as they raise the spectre of spreading the Gaza war regionally.

IMF says Israel-Hezbollah conflict inflicting heavy human, infrastructure toll

The International Monetary Fund says it’s closely watching the escalating Israel-Hezbollah conflict’s impact on Lebanon, which is already suffering heavy human and infrastructure costs.

“We are monitoring with grave concern the escalation of conflict in the region,” an unnamed IMF spokesperson said in an emailed statement to the Reuters news agency.

“The current conflict is inflicting a heavy human toll, damaging physical infrastructure in southern Lebanon, and exacerbating Lebanon’s already fragile macroeconomic and social situation.”

Mass displacement as Israel strikes Lebanon

Situation ‘very tense’ in Beirut as hundreds of thousands flee Israeli bombing

Hundreds of thousands of thousands of people have moved up here to Beirut. In Beirut itself, I have been speaking to people who are very worried about the situation. They’ve been thinking of moving out of Beirut and up to Mount Lebanon.

But then we had that strike today on the Keserwan district up on Mount Lebanon, so they are rethinking their plans. In fact, people have been talking to me about moving up further north, up to Tripoli – the city in the north of Lebanon.

The situation here in Beirut is very tense.

Every night, we can hear the Israeli drones flying overhead, and now there are these reports of the Israeli military saying there are plans for a possible ground offensive in Lebanon.

UN Security Council meets after ‘bloodiest day in a generation’ in Lebanon

The secretary-general described Monday as the bloodiest day in a generation in Lebanon. But the whole point of this meeting, which was urgently convened at the request of France, is to establish some kind of consensus as to a way forward.

The United States made it clear it still continues to support Israel’s right to defend itself, as it puts it.

The one notable point though, in what was said is that the US is working on a proposal with other parties designed to bring this conflict to an end. We may hear more about that in the hours ahead.

We also heard from the US that, basically, Hezbollah is to blame for this ongoing conflict because of its attacks on Israel. But the Russian deputy ambassador earlier on made clearer the timeline of events that led to the crisis in Lebanon, making very clear that it all began with Israel’s war in Gaza.

Well it all began with the Balfour declaration in 1917 leading to the one-sided UN partition plan in 1947 while the indigenous people were already being massacred and displaced under UK occupation.


Israel envoy: Diplomacy on Lebanon preferred, but we’ll use ‘all means’ necessary

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations says his country is open to a diplomatic solution on Lebanon but promised to use “all means” in its goal of stopping Hezbollah attacks on civilians in the north.

“We are grateful for all those who are making a sincere effort with diplomacy to avoid escalation, to avoid a full war,” Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said.

But he added if negotiations fail: “We will use all means at our disposal, in accordance with international law, to achieve our aims.”

Danon said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to arrive on Thursday and address the UN General Assembly on Friday.

That ship has sailed long ago, sunk to the bottom and covered with sand. Your interpretation of international law is, Israel can do no wrong.

Israel ‘spreading terror’ in Lebanon, PM tells UN Security Council

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has told an emergency meeting of the UNSC that Israel “is spreading terror and fear among the Lebanese citizens in full view of the world”.

“Israel is violating our sovereignty by sending their warplanes and drones to our skies,” he said. “Hundreds of civilians lost their life within a few days. Hospitals are overwhelmed, unable to accept more injured.”

“Lebanon is today victim of an electronic cyber aggression and of an air and maritime aggression that can turn into a ground aggression and can become an all-out regional war,” Mikati warned the council, before imploring its 15 members to respond.

“I hope to come back to my country armed with your explicit stance calling for the cessation of this aggression and for the respect of the sovereignty and safety of my country,” he said.


‘Hell is breaking loose in Lebanon,’ warns UN secretary-general

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed an emergency UN Security Council meeting on the burgeoning conflict in Lebanon after days of deadly Israeli attacks.

The UN chief said Lebanon cannot become another Gaza and an all-out war must be avoided “at all costs”. “I implore the Council to work in lockstep to help put out this fire. The parties must immediately return to a cessation of hostilities,” Guterres said.

“Civilians must be protected. Civilian infrastructure must not be targeted. The safety and security of all UN assets must be ensured. International law must be respected,” he said.

“To all sides, let’s say in one clear voice: Stop the killing and destruction, tone down the rhetoric and threats, and step back from the brink,” he added.

To the UN, for once do your fucking job.