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

SvennoJ on 13 October 2024

At least 15 killed in most recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon

As we reported earlier, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that at least 15 people were killed in Israeli strikes on two areas in the north of the country and one to the south of the capital.

The ministry said nine people were killed and 15 wounded in an “Israeli enemy strike” on the village of Maaysrah, located to the north of Beirut. The ministry also reported two people killed, four wounded and unidentified “body parts” recovered following an Israeli strike on Deir Bella, near the northern Lebanese town of Batroun.

Four people were also killed and 18 wounded in a strike on Barja, south of Beirut.

Israel also hit the southern city of Nabatieh, where eight people were reported wounded. Rescuers were assessing overnight the actual number of casualties from the attack and a massive fire that broke out after the air strike.


A rescuer searches for survivors at the site of an Israeli air strike that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on Saturday night


Hezbollah says fighters battle Israeli ‘infiltration’ in border village of Ramyah

Hezbollah said its fighters detonated an explosive device and have clashed in gun battles with Israeli forces who tried to infiltrate Ramyah village in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel.

Hezbollah said on social media that it had inflicted casualties on the Israelis and that fighting was continuing around the village.


‘Huge fireball’: Intense Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon overnight

Nabatieh governorate is where I am, and Nabatieh town is just a few kilometres away. It’s one of the towns that we’ve driven through several times. That market, I am actually very familiar with, is now completely destroyed.

The fire was so bad that emergency services were not able to get in and see if there were bodies in the rubble.

But that was not the only major strike in southern Lebanon. We also had an air strike in Aita al-Shaab. Aita al-Shaab has been under intense bombardment since September 29 when the Israelis announced their ground invasion. But this was the biggest strike that I’ve seen, certainly since September 29.

It was a huge fireball.


Israel’s widespread bombing of Lebanon possible attempt to ‘fan sectarian strife’

This is now very concerning to common Lebanese people. Two things are going on here. Firstly, they are looking at the strikes in the north of the country.

A few days ago, we had a strike against a Palestinian refugee camp just outside the major town of Tripoli in the north. Then this attack in Deir Billa, which is in the Batroun governorate. These areas are far away from the southern suburbs of Beirut. They are far away from where I am standing right now [in Hasbaiyya].

This is now a concern to the Lebanese people because a lot of people who fled from this place have avoided Beirut, have avoided Tyre governorate, Sidon, and places like that because they were being bombed.

Now they are finding that those other places are being attacked as well. Israel keeps saying that this is a war against Hezbollah. But it also keeps saying to the Lebanese people – you have to topple Hezbollah.

It’s trying to fan sectarian strife within this country and that may well be why they are hitting farther and farther away.



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SvennoJ on 13 October 2024

Israeli attack destroys mosque in southern Lebanon

An early morning attack by an Israeli aircraft has “completely destroyed” an old mosque in the centre of the small town of Kfar Tebnit in southern Lebanon, according to the country’s National News Agency.

In Sidon, Israeli warplanes targeted an apartment in a residential building in Sharhabeel to the northeast, but it is believed to have been empty.

The Israeli military also launched another strike on Nabatieh, which has been pounded multiple times since last night, destroying a building in the town of Roumine, the state-run agency reported.


Israeli military transports injured soldiers to hospital in Haifa: Reports

Israeli military helicopters landed at Rambam hospital in Haifa city carrying soldiers wounded during fighting with Hezbollah on the border with Lebanon in northern Israel, our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues report.

The Quds News Network reports that “at least seven” Israeli soldiers have been hospitalised following the “serious security incident”.

Translation: Helicopters land at Rambam hospital to transport soldiers and wounded from the north.


More than 300 rockets fired from Lebanon towards Israel in 24 hours

Around 5am today, we heard a barrage of rockets from Hezbollah into northern Israel. What Israel is saying is that over a 24-hour period, some 300 rockets were detected coming from southern Lebanon into northern Israel.


Rockets are launched from southern Lebanon towards northern Israel on October 8


Israel’s army says 5 rockets targeting Haifa intercepted

The rockets were fired from Lebanon towards the northern Israeli coastal city and all were taken down by air defences, according to a military statement. Aerial defence systems detected the attack at about 9am (06:00 GMT), the military added.

The Israeli media quoting medical sources said there were no casualties.



SvennoJ on 13 October 2024

Iran sends 3 tonnes of emergency medical supplies to Lebanon

The Red Crescent Society of Iran announced a fourth aid consignment containing three tonnes of medical supplies arrived in Lebanon.

Babak Mahmoudi, an official with the organisation, told state media the aid delivery includes emergency medicine, including for children.

He also confirmed a previous announcement that the Red Crescent aims to establish a new field hospital on Lebanon’s border with Syria following the Israeli military’s bombing of its hospital there a week ago. The new hospital will be built some 40km (24 miles) from the facility targeted by Israel.

Mahmoudi also said at least 11 Iranian Red Crescent aid workers would be deployed to Lebanon in the coming days.

Iran’s parliament speaker and former air force commander, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who piloted a plane to Beirut on Saturday and visited the site of the latest Israeli air attack on the city, said Tehran is prepared to send more supplies if the Lebanese government can secure an air corridor over the capital.


Israel’s army says it struck 240 targets in Lebanon and Gaza

A military statement says Israeli forces continued to attack Hezbollah targets over the past day. The sites included rocket launchers, antitank positions, weapon depots, and other infrastructure, according to the statement.

They also continued to operate in Gaza, where some 40 targets were attacked, weapons were destroyed, and dozens of fighters were killed in the last 24 hours.


Israeli strike wounds 4 Lebanese Red Cross paramedics

Four paramedics with the Lebanese Red Cross have just been injured in southern Lebanon as a result of an Israeli air strike, the organisation said in a statement.

The emergency responders were on a rescue mission to a house in the town of Sarbin that was bombed by the Israeli military this morning and coordinated with UN peacekeepers to search for casualties.

But just as ambulances arrived, a second Israeli air strike hit the area, wounding the paramedics, who were taken to hospital but are not in life-threatening condition. “As the team was searching for casualties to rescue, the house was hit for a second time resulting in concussions to the volunteers and damage to the two ambulances,” it said.

Israel has been steadily ramping up its attacks on medics and civil defence crews in Lebanon, openly threatening to hit ambulances based on the claim they may carry Hezbollah fighters or weapons.


Lebanese Red Cross teams on search and rescue operation in Nabatieh governorate


Hezbollah claims new attack on Israeli army post in Shebaa Farms

The Lebanese group says it carried out an attack on the Zabadin barracks in the Israeli-occupied territory.

A statement on Telegram said the rocket attack took place at 5:30am local time (02:30 GMT).

Hezbollah has intensified its attacks on Israeli troops during their ongoing incursion into southern Lebanon, with helicopters ferrying the wounded to a hospital in northern Israel on Sunday.

The group’s fighters “targeted at 10:10am [07:10 GMT] … a gathering of Israeli enemy forces in the village of Maroun al-Ras with artillery shells”, Hezbollah said in a statement.



SvennoJ on 13 October 2024

Lebanese civil defence crew retrieves 17 bodies

Emergency responders have found 17 bodies and rescued 12 wounded overnight as Israeli air raids on Lebanon continue.

Rescue workers are still operating at the site of an air attack that destroyed two residential buildings in the Basta neighbourhood of Beirut on Thursday evening to find a missing girl, according to the official National News Agency.

Civil defence crews also responded to multiple fires that erupted in the Bekaa Valley, Baalbek and Nabatieh as a result of Israeli attacks.


Israeli army confirms 2 soldiers seriously wounded in Lebanon fighting

The Israeli military says two soldiers with its Etzioni Brigade were seriously wounded in separate firefights in southern Lebanon. Additional soldiers suffered light to moderate injuries.

It didn’t provide further details as news reports said wounded troops were transferred to the Rambam hospital, in Israel’s northern Haifa city, during its ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah earlier said it inflicted casualties on Israeli troops after fighters detonated an explosive device and engaged in a gun battle with soldiers trying to infiltrate the Ramyah village.

In the past hour, the group said its operatives clashed with Israeli soldiers trying to enter another village, inflicting casualties in close-quarters combat.


Israeli military claims to capture Hezbollah fighter in south Lebanon

Israeli troops seized a Hezbollah fighter from an underground bunker and took him back to Israel for interrogation, the army says.

It released a video purporting to show the operative surrendering and getting out of a tunnel in an unspecified location in southern Lebanon. The man, whose face was blurred out, was told to strip before coming out.

The army said he was found in a space 7 metres (23 feet) underground and had weapons and supplies. Hezbollah has not commented on the claim.


Hospital in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley closes over Israeli attacks

Israel has expanded its bombing campaign in Lebanon by hitting at least three areas outside traditional Hezbollah strongholds.

Many people fled to northern Lebanon to escape Israeli air raids. The local hospital in the village of Tamnine el-Tahta, in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, was forced to close after repeated air attacks nearby.



SvennoJ on 13 October 2024

Netanyahu tells UN chief to move peacekeepers in Lebanon ‘immediately’

Addressing Guterres, the Israeli prime minister has demanded removing UN peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon after many of them were wounded in Israeli attacks.

“Mr secretary-general, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm’s way. It should be done right now, immediately,” Netanyahu said in a video statement issued by his office.

At least five UN peacekeepers have been wounded in recent days as Israeli forces fight against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu’s appeal comes a day after the UN forces in Lebanon refused to withdraw from the border area despite five of its members being wounded in Israeli fire in recent days.

Netanyahu, speaking at a cabinet meeting, said Israeli forces asked UNIFIL several times to leave but it “met with repeated refusals” that provided a “human shield to Hezbollah terrorists”.

“Your refusal to evacuate the UNIFIL soldiers makes them hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers. We regret the injuring of UNIFIL soldiers and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injuring. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone.”


Israeli army orders evacuation of 21 Lebanese villages

The order announced by the military’s Arabic-speaking spokesperson says residents from 21 more Lebanese villages should evacuate, in addition to the previous orders listed. Residents were told to move to areas north of the Awali River, which flows through southern Lebanon, according to a post on X.

The Israeli army has intensified its attacks on various parts of Lebanon against, it says, the infrastructure of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.


25 Israeli soldiers wounded in southern Lebanon fighting: Reports

We’re hearing from the Israeli media that about 25 soldiers were injured in battles in southern Lebanon this morning, and they’ve been transferred to hospitals in Israel.

That is one of the bigger numbers of injuries that we’ve seen in a single day certainly, as reported by the Israeli side. The fighting is taking place in three key areas, including Kfar Kila and Odaisseh, which aren’t that far from where I’m standing.

These battles are ongoing and seem to be getting a lot tougher for the Israelis. But Israel still has air superiority and its bombing campaign continues. There were huge attacks on the village of Aita al-Shaab and the market in Nabatieh.

What we’ve also heard is that Israeli soldiers are actually within about 2km (1 mile) of Lebanese territory, and that might suggest why they are sustaining so many injuries – because Hezbollah is fighting them on the ground and firing rockets.


Hezbollah claims new attacks on northern Israel

The Lebanese group says it carried out a rocket attack on the Kiryat Shmona settlement in northern Israel at 1:50pm (10:50 GMT). Separately, the group said it also hit an army base in the Tzurit settlement, west of Karmiel, with “a large missile salvo” about 15 minutes later.

About 115 rockets and other projectiles were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel on Sunday. There were no reports of casualties.



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SvennoJ on 13 October 2024

Lebanon’s Mikati condemns Netanyahu’s call to move UN peacekeepers

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand for UN chief Antonio Guterres to move UN peacekeepers away from Lebanon’s border.

Beirut “condemns Netanyahu’s position and the Israeli aggression against UNIFIL” peacekeepers, Mikati said.

“The warning that Netanyahu addressed to … Guterres demanding the removal of the UNIFIL represents a new chapter in the enemy’s approach of not complying with international [norms],” he added.


Italy leader slams attacks on UN troops in call with Israel PM

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told Prime Minister Netanyahu that attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon are “unacceptable”. “Prime Minister Meloni reiterated the unacceptability of UNIFIL being attacked by Israeli armed forces,” the Italian government said in a statement.

In a phone call with Netanyahu, Meloni called for the “full implementation” of the UN’s Security Council Resolution 1701 on Lebanon, stressing the urgent need to de-escalate conflict.

Italy is a significant contributor to the UN peacekeeping mission on the Israel-Lebanon border.


‘No military solution’ for Israeli-Hezbollah conflict

With no sign of the war easing, UN peacekeepers in Lebanon warned against a “catastrophic” regional conflict erupting.

Andrea Tenenti, spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission UNIFIL, said he fears Israeli attacks on Hezbollah could soon spiral “into a regional conflict with catastrophic impact for everyone”.

There is “no military solution”, Tenenti added.


Camp Shamrock where Irish and Polish peacekeepers of UNIFIL are stationed


Israel accused of using cluster bombs in southern Lebanon

Hezbollah accused Israel of inundating border towns in southern Lebanon with internationally banned cluster munitions. The Lebanese group said the Israeli military bombed the area between the towns of Hanine and Tayri with rockets loaded with banned cluster bombs.

“We are not surprised at all by the new barbaric crime, which is added to Israel’s record of crimes against the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

The use of cluster munitions in or near populated areas is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions as they pose a threat to the lives of civilians.


A defused cluster bomb that failed to explode on impact in Ukraine


Netanyahu doesn’t want to end the war, former Israeli diplomat tells CNN

Israel’s widening military operations in Gaza and Lebanon – and looming response to Iran’s missile attack – are testament to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s need for political survival, a former Israeli diplomat told CNN.

“Netanyahu does not want to end the war,” Israel’s former consul general to New York Alon Pinkas told CNN’s Lynda Kinkade. “He wanted to extend, to prolong the war in order to create … a war-like atmosphere which is important to him politically and expedient to him politically,” said Pinkas, who was speaking from Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu’s self-styled image as “Mister Security” seemed irrevocably shattered by the October 7 Hamas attack, but he has since staged a turnaround.

The war to eliminate Hamas in Gaza remains largely popular in Israel, but it has raised complex questions around long-term occupation, relations with Palestinians, and conflict with Israel’s neighbors including Iran-backed proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel’s war goals have expanded to target Hezbollah, and Netanyahu’s cabinet is weighing its response to Iran’s October 1 missile attack.

“I don’t see him ending the war,” Pinkas said, citing Netanyahu’s repeated rejection of US President Joe Biden’s post-war Gaza plans and refusal to make any ceasefire-for-hostages deal. “He doesn’t even mention the hostages anymore, there are still 100 hostages in Gaza,” he said.

Only a ceasefire in Gaza – where Pinkas believes Israel has already achieved its war goals – could bring about a de-escalation in Lebanon, yet the prime minister has “legitimately but wrongly refused to see that logic.”



SvennoJ on 13 October 2024

US officials says no indication Israel will target Iran nuclear facilities: Report

US officials believe Israel has narrowed down targets it intends to attack in Iran to military and energy infrastructure, NBC reports.

Citing unnamed US officials, NBC said there is no indication that Israel will target Iran’s nuclear facilities or carry out more assassinations, though Israel has not yet made final decisions about how and when to act.

Iran has warned that it will respond harshly to any further attacks by Israel.


Nuclear is energy infrastructure... Seems oil reserves are still on the table.

Iran blasts new US oil sanctions as ‘ransom’ to Israel

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman denounced as “illegal and unjustified” new US sanctions on Iran’s oil sector in response to the Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel. Esmail Baghaei said in a statement the sanctions are devoid of any legal or logical basis and referred to them as a form of “ransom payment” to a rogue Israeli state.

“The US, as the most important political backer and top provider of arms used by the Zionist regime in the genocide of Gaza and its aggression against Lebanon, is an accomplice of the regime in the commission of the most severe international crimes,” he said.

Baghaei added Washington is emboldening Israel to continue massacring civilians and endangering regional and global peace and security. US sanctions will not undermine Iran’s “will to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity, national interests or nationals”, he said.


US ‘putting troops at risk’ by sending them to Israel: Iran

Washington is “putting lives of its troops at risk” by deploying them to Israel in order to operate US missile systems, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned.

“While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests,” he wrote in a post on X.

Araghchi noted the United States has sent record volumes of arms to Israel during its war on Gaza.

The comments come amid news reports that the US is considering sending its advanced THAAD missile defence system to Israel in order to defend it against a potential Iranian response to a looming Israeli attack on Iran. The system requires US personnel on the ground to operate it.



SvennoJ on 13 October 2024

Iraq will not be turned into arena for war, says foreign minister

The foreign ministers of Iran and Iraq have said at a news conference in Baghdad they hope to prevent Israel from dragging the Middle East into full-scale war.

“Communications are ongoing to push the spectre of war away from the region,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told reporters, shortly after welcoming his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi.

“If there is a war, Iraq and its airspace must be kept out of it.”

Araghchi said Tehran is prepared for both a ceasefire and war, but is pushing to stop Israeli aggression against Gaza and Lebanon. His regional tour has also been aimed at ensuring Arab countries of the region do not allow Israel to use their airspace to carry out its promised attack on Iran.

Upon arriving in the Iraqi capital, Araghchi visited the site where Iran’s top general Qassem Soleimani was assassinated by the US in January 2020 while travelling with Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

He is going to Oman next, potentially eyeing a crucial Jordan visit as well.


Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, right, welcomes his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Baghdad on Sunday


Suez Canal Authority: Red Sea situation an ‘exceptional crisis’

The current situation in the Red Sea constitutes an unprecedented and “exceptional crisis” for the region as navigation through the vital canal to the Mediterranean Sea has plummeted because of Houthi attacks, the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority says.

Osama Rabie told the Global Logistics Forum in Saudi Arabia it’s also a “major security challenge that has had a negative impact and repercussions on the sustainability of global supply chains, ship transit rates through the canal, and the flow of goods”.

The number of ships passing through the canal fell from 25,887 during the fiscal year 2022-23 to 20,148 ships in 2023-24. Revenue decreased from $9.4bn to $7.2bn.


A container ship crosses the Gulf of Suez towards the Red Sea



SvennoJ on 13 October 2024

Israeli envoy criticises Japan’s atomic bomb survivor’s Gaza comparison

Israel’s ambassador to Japan has criticised a leader of an atomic bomb survivors’ group awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for comparing their experiences with the children of Gaza.

Ambassador Gilad Cohen congratulated the group Nihon Hidankyo for winning this year’s prize, but said in a post on X the comparison drawn by the group’s co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki “is outrageous and baseless”.

Mimaki said after the prize was announced on Friday the plight of children in Gaza is similar to what Japan faced at the end of World War II. “In Gaza, bleeding children are being held [by their parents]. It’s like in Japan 80 years ago,” Mimaki said.


Children react next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks

I often think of Grave of the Fireflies when I see the reports of 17,000 orphaned children, many trying to take care of their younger siblings.

Australian police threaten students with arrest for pro-Palestine posters

A pro-Palestine activist in the Australian city of Sydney documented police threatening to arrest students who placed pro-Palestine posters in the public Hyde Park. The video clip below, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency, shows police officers stopping the students and confiscating the posters.

The student who filmed the incident commented: “We are protesting a genocide and we are being targeted as criminals. How outrageous!”

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBC9LsryrZb


Pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Berlin


Police walk behind protesters holding Palestinian and Lebanese flags in Germany’s capital


The death toll in Gaza and Lebanon continues to rise from Israeli attacks

It started with the German-Ottoman alliance back in 1914, while people living in the area were pushing for independence from the Ottoman empire. The British then promised that independence in trade for uprising against the Ottoman empire and fighting the Germans in WW1. Then betrayed the people in the area with the Balfour declaration (1917) and creating Mandatory Palestine (1920-1948) to realize Theodor Herzl's (1860-1904 Hungary) dreams of a Zionist state.

The holocaust (1941-1945) locked Germany into unconditional support for Israel (created 1948) out of guilt.



SvennoJ on 13 October 2024

Palestinian UN envoy calls Israeli operation in north Gaza ‘genocide within genocide’

Ambassador Majed Bamya, the deputy permanent observer of Palestine to the UN, has condemned Israel’s eight-day siege of northern Israel, in which hundreds of Palestinians have been reported killed and thousands of residents ordered to flee.

“What is happening in northern Gaza now is a genocide within the genocide,” Bamya wrote on X.

Osama Hamdan, Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, told Al Jazeera that Israel has “prevented the entry of food supplies to the north for 10 days”, as he called Israel’s recent military operations in the Jabalia refugee camp “a crime against humanity”.



Translation: Documenting the moment a quadcopter dropped a bomb on a group of Palestinians, including children, in Jabalia camp.


Eight confirmed dead in Nuseirat attack, including 6 children

We earlier reported that at least seven people had been killed in an Israeli attack on the Abu Dalal family home in the Nuseirat area of central Gaza. The Wafa news agency now confirms that at least eight people – six children and their parents – were killed in that attack.

Wafa also reports that six Palestinians, most of them children, were injured when the Israeli military bombed a home in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City.


Israel attempts Jabalia camp takeover after earlier failures: Analyst

Military analyst Elijah Magnier has told Al Jazeera that the Israeli military’s siege of northern Gaza – which has entered its ninth day and resulted in hundreds of Palestinians reported killed so far – is part of the latest attempt by Israel to take control of the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Strip.

“The Israeli army pushed their tanks to surround the Jabalia camp. This is the third time they are trying to break into the camp after failing the first and the second time,” Magnier said.

“They bombarded and destroyed large parts of it in the previous attempts, causing large numbers of casualties,” he said. “And their operation now aims at controlling the Jabalia camp, if they can this time. They have not managed that so far,” he added.


Palestinians in north Gaza ‘cut off from the outside world’

Palestinians in northern Gaza, about 400,000 people, are trapped, with the Israeli military not allowing anyone to leave the area despite issuing an evacuation order. People are stuck in their homes and not getting any food, water supplies or other essentials. They’ve been cut off from the outside world and constantly bombarded.

This is a systematic mass slaughter. At least 200 people have been killed since the beginning of this ground offensive earlier this month. More than 70 bodies are still on the streets of Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoon as civil defence workers say they’re unable to retrieve them because of Israeli attacks.

What’s happening now is a continuation of the genocidal acts that began a year ago.