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[VIDEOS] Hezbollah, resistance force from Lebanon: A decades-long conflict with Israel

FearlessRoar

FearlessRoar

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The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began in 1982 when Israel invaded Lebanon, leading to the formation of Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim group that sought to resist the invasion. Over the years, the situation has escalated, with both sides attacking and retaliating against each other.

In 1993, Israel launched the Seven-Day War, which resulted in a lot of civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure. And in 2006, the July War saw even more destruction and loss of life.

On 8 October 2023, Hezbollah began firing guided rockets and artillery shells at Israeli positions, stating it was in solidarity with Palestinians after Israel's aggression towards Gaza. Israel responded by launching drone strikes and artillery shells at Hezbollah positions near the Lebanon-Israel boundary.

What role do you think international intervention should play in this conflict?
 
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Israel’s military says it began ‘series’ of airstrikes in Lebanon

The Israeli military said Wednesday its fighter jets “began a series of strikes in Lebanon,” raising fears of a war between the two countries after months of cross-border fire.

The military gave no further details of the air strikes, while Lebanese media reported three villages were hit.

The strikes came hours after fire from Lebanon wounded multiple people in northern Israel, according to medics.

Seven people were wounded, five of them in the town of Safed, the Magen David Adom emergency service said.

An AFP photographer saw medics and troops evacuating a wounded person by military helicopter from Safed’s Ziv hospital.

There was no immediate claim for the rocket launches from Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has traded near-daily fire with Israeli troops since the outbreak of the war in Gaza more than four months ago.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Tuesday fire from southern Lebanon will end “when the attack on Gaza stops and there is a ceasefire” between the group's Palestinian allies Hamas and arch foe Israel.

“If they (Israel) broaden the confrontation, we will do the same,” Nasrallah warned in a televised address.

Fears have been growing of another full-blown conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, with tens of thousands displaced on both sides of the border and regional tensions soaring.

Since the outbreak of the Hamas-Israel war on October 7, at least 243 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 30 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, nine soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to Israeli official figures.

 
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Israel is in the mood to expand the war. It is an alarming situation for the Middle East.
 
The value of human life is diminishing by the day. I can just shake my head looking at these events, and thank the good Lord above for where I was born.
 
Israel is unhinged and behaving like a demon, murdering children at will. The videos of young children splattered against walls with their heads blown off are the stuff of nightmares.

Its extraordinary that they still have not become a pariah state. This level of barbarity has not been seen in human history.
 
DeadlyVenom said:
Israel is unhinged and behaving like a demon, murdering children at will. The videos of young children splattered against walls with their heads blown off are the stuff of nightmares.

Its extraordinary that they still have not become a pariah state. This level of barbarity has not been seen in human history.
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Egged on by the West and US in particular.
 
Hitman said:
The value of human life is diminishing by the day. I can just shake my head looking at these events, and thank the good Lord above for where I was born.
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Life never had much value through out history. Everyone believes that their ideology is better than the rest and they should rule the world.
 
The Bald Eagle said:
Israel has gone bonkers hopefully will fall in the hole that it digged for others.
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It knows it can do whatever it wants as big daddy US has its warships stationed just off the coast in case anyone tries to intervene.
 
If any other country had attacked Israel the way they did to Lebanon, America and the Western world would have gone crazy and would have called it a terrorist attack.
 
FearlessRoar said:
If any other country had attacked Israel the way they did to Lebanon, America and the Western world would have gone crazy and would have called it a terrorist attack.
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It's Lebanon's own fault that despite existing as an independent nation for nearly 80 years it's become completely irrelevant to the world. When we holidayed there back in the 90s, it felt like one of the most beautiful seaside cities in the world, today it ranks closer to African war zones. It's a sad story!
 
Israeli airstrikes target the town of Blida, while Israeli artillery continue to shell Al-Tarash neighborhood in the town of Mayss al-Jabal, southern Lebanon.

Quds News
 
FearlessRoar said:
Israeli airstrikes target the town of Blida, while Israeli artillery continue to shell Al-Tarash neighborhood in the town of Mayss al-Jabal, southern Lebanon.

Quds News
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Isreal is marching towards the world war because they have reached to the extreme level now.
 
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The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has said it fired dozens of rockets at a town in northern Israel in response to air raids that killed at least 10 civilians and three Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon.

“Islamic resistance fighters fired dozens of Katyusha-type rockets at Kiryat Shmona,” an Israeli town near the Lebanese border, Hezbollah said in a statement.

It said the rocket fire was “a first response” to the deadly Israeli attacks on the southern city of Nabatieh and as-Sawana on Wednesday.

Five children were among those killed in the Israeli attacks on Lebanon in the deadliest day for Lebanese civilians in four months of hostilities across the Lebanon-Israel border.

Seven of the civilians were killed in Nabatieh late on Wednesday when a rare Israeli attack on the city hit a multistorey building, sources in Lebanon said. The dead were from the same extended family, and included three children. A boy initially reported missing was found alive under the rubble.

It followed an earlier attack that killed a woman and two children in the village of as-Sawana at the border, who were buried on Thursday.

The bodies of the children, wrapped in green shrouds, were so small they each fitted on two plastic chairs as people came to pay respects. Their father held them tight before they were buried as another man sobbed on his shoulder.

Israel said it killed a senior commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, his deputy and a third fighter in an air raid on Nabatieh in an attack the previous day.

The Israeli military named the first two men as Ali Muhammad Aldbas and Ibrahim Issa. Aldbas was reportedly involved in a roadside bombing in northern Israel last March, and had been involved in cross-border fighting since October, it added.

Hezbollah said three of its fighters had been killed but did not identify any as commanders, which it has done in the past.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Israeli strikes on targets in south Lebanon killed five fighters from Hezbollah and the allied Amal movement, the groups said on Friday, adding to an uptick in violence causing international alarm.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli warplanes hit five villages in southern Lebanon overnight Thursday-Friday.

A strike on one house in al-Qantara village killed three members of the Shia Amal movement led by parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, the movement said.

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia movement, separately announced the death of two of its fighters, bringing to 12 the number killed since Wednesday.

Hamas ally Hezbollah and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.

But the United Nations secretary-general’s spokesman called on Wednesday for a halt to dangerous “recent escalation,” which also sparked concern from the United States.

Wednesday was the bloodiest day in more than four months of cross-border exchanges, with 10 civilians and five Hezbollah members including a commander killed.

Hezbollah said it retaliated on Thursday by firing dozens of rockets into northern Israel.

The Israeli army said it carried out Wednesday’s strikes after rocket fire from Lebanon killed a soldier.

Source: Al Arabiya

 
FearlessRoar said:
Israeli strikes on targets in south Lebanon killed five fighters from Hezbollah and the allied Amal movement, the groups said on Friday, adding to an uptick in violence causing international alarm.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli warplanes hit five villages in southern Lebanon overnight Thursday-Friday.

A strike on one house in al-Qantara village killed three members of the Shia Amal movement led by parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, the movement said.

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia movement, separately announced the death of two of its fighters, bringing to 12 the number killed since Wednesday.

Hamas ally Hezbollah and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.

But the United Nations secretary-general’s spokesman called on Wednesday for a halt to dangerous “recent escalation,” which also sparked concern from the United States.

Wednesday was the bloodiest day in more than four months of cross-border exchanges, with 10 civilians and five Hezbollah members including a commander killed.

Hezbollah said it retaliated on Thursday by firing dozens of rockets into northern Israel.

The Israeli army said it carried out Wednesday’s strikes after rocket fire from Lebanon killed a soldier.

Source: Al Arabiya

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The "Amal movement" is actually the Amal Movement, a Lebanese political and paramilitary group founded during the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s. It has become a significant Shia political and social movement, and it's allied with Hezbollah in Lebanon. The term "Amal" means "hope" in Arabic.
 
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed Friday that Israel will pay “with blood” for civilians killed this week in Lebanon, warning his group has missiles that can reach Israel’s far south.

“The enemy will pay with blood” for every woman and child killed in Lebanon by cross-border fire, Nasrallah said in a televised address.

He warned that his Iran-backed movement has “precision-guided missiles that can reach... Eilat,” on Israel’s Red Sea coast, well beyond the northern towns it usually targets in retaliatory strikes.

Hamas ally Hezbollah and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.

In the bloodiest day for Lebanon since then, the Israeli military said it had killed Hezbollah commander Ali al-Debs, his deputy and another fighter in Nabatiyeh on Wednesday.

A security source in Lebanon said that along with al-Debs and two other Hezbollah members, the strike had killed seven civilians from the same family. The source requested anonymity, not being authorized to speak to the media.

Nasrallah said the killing of civilians was aimed at “putting pressure” on Hezbollah “to stop” firing rockets into Israel, but stressed that instead the group will intensify its cross-border attacks.

The Israeli army said it carried out Wednesday’s strikes after a soldier was killed by rocket fire from Lebanon.

Hezbollah retaliated with a barrage of rocket fire at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.

It said the rocket fire was “a first response” to the deadly Israeli strikes.

Israel hit back with new strikes on south Lebanon on Friday that killed five fighters from Hezbollah and the allied Amal movement, the groups said.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli warplanes hit five southern village overnight.

The latest uptick in violence between the two neighbors has caused international alarm, with fears growing of another full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah like that of 2006.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) urged “intensified” diplomatic efforts “to restore stability and safeguard the safety of civilians” following Wednesday’s bloodshed.

“The devastation, loss of life and injuries witnessed are deeply concerning,” said UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti, urging “all parties involved to halt hostilities immediately to prevent further escalation.”

UN humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon Imran Riza said “the rules of war are clear: parties must protect civilians.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who condemned the latest deadly Israeli strikes, has said Beirut will lodge a complaint with the UN Security Council.

Since October, cross-border exchanges have killed at least 268 people on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 40 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army.

Source: Al Arabiya

 
Well, now the tensions between Lebanon and Israel are serious. I reckon there could be a full-scale war.
 
At least two Israeli airstrikes hit southern Lebanon on Monday near the coastal city of Sidon, state media and an AFP photographer said.

Hamas ally Hezbollah and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.

“Israeli warplanes carried out ... strikes on the town of Ghaziyeh,” the state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Monday, adding that a vehicle was targeted and ambulances rushed to the scene, without providing further details.

Israel’s chief military spokesperson said that Israeli forces struck weapons depots near Sidon in southern Lebanon in response to a drone launched into Israel by Hezbollah.

“We located an unmanned aerial vehicle from Hezbollah near Tiberias, which apparently crossed today and crashed near Tiberias. In response to this activity, we attacked weapons depots near Sidon,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a televised news briefing.

While most the exchanges in recent months have been limited to areas near the frontier, Ghaziyeh is some 30 kilometers (around 20 miles) from the nearest Israeli frontier and less than five kilometers from the city of Sidon.

The AFP photographer reported the sound of at least two successive strikes in Ghaziyeh, with dark smoke billowing across the area.

One of the strikes appeared to have targeted a hangar close to the main coastal highway, the photographer added.

The NNA had earlier in the afternoon reported an “enemy drone” at low altitude over the Sidon area.

Video circulating on social media showed large plumes of smoke arising from at least two strikes.

The Israeli military last week said it killed a Hezbollah commander, his deputy and another fighter in a strike in the south Lebanon city of Nabatiyeh.

The strike on a residential building also killed seven members of the same family, according to a security source, while another strike elsewhere killed a woman, her child and stepchild.

On Friday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed that Israel would pay “with blood” for civilians it killed in Lebanon in recent days, warning the group had missiles that could reach anywhere in Israel.

He warned that his Iran-backed movement has “precision-guided missiles that can reach ... Eilat,” on Israel’s Red Sea coast, well beyond the northern towns it usually targets.

The latest uptick in violence has caused international alarm, with fears growing of another full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah like that of 2006.

Since October, cross-border exchanges have killed at least 269 people on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 40 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army.

Source: Al Arabiya

 
Israel has destroyed Gaza completely and is now diverting the war towards Lebanon rapidly.
 
Israel launches deadly air strikes in Lebanon after rockets hit army base

At least seven civilians have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, security sources say, after Hezbollah rocket fire killed a soldier in Israel.

A woman and two children were killed in Souaneh, and at least four members of a family were later killed in Nabatieh.

At least two Hezbollah fighters were also killed in attacks in southern Lebanon, the group said.

Israel's military said it hit Hezbollah infrastructure in response to a deadly rocket attack on northern Israel.

Hezbollah fighters have exchanged fire with Israeli forces almost every day along the border since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip in October.

The clashes have raised fears of a wider regional conflict.

On Wednesday morning, sirens sounded across northern Israel as barrages of rockets were fired towards the border communities of Netua and Manara, and the town of Safed, which is 14 km (9 miles) south of the frontier.

One Israeli soldier was killed and seven others were wounded after their base in Safed was hit by rockets, Israeli media and emergency services said. The soldier who died was later identified as Staff-Sergeant Omer Sarah Benjo.

A video showed that another rocket landed near the gate of Safed's hospital.

Hezbollah later claimed it had attacked an "enemy position" in Safed "in support of the people and resistance of Gaza which is being subjected to brutal Zionist aggression with a US green light".

In the afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that fighter jets had "struck a series of Hezbollah terror targets" in Souaneh, Aadchit, Jabal al-Braij, Kfar Houneh and Kfar Dunin in response to the rocket fire.

"Among the targets struck were military compounds, operational control rooms, and terror infrastructure," it said, adding that several targets belonged to Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, whose well-trained members are considered the group's special forces.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said a strike on a home in Souaneh killed a Syrian woman, Rawaa al-Mohammed, and her two sons, Hassan Mohsen, 13, and Amir Mohsen, two.

Video from the town showed residents inspecting the rubble of at least one destroyed building and the burned-out wreckage of a car.

NNA also reported that one man was killed and 10 other people were injured in Aadchit. It named the dead man as Hassan Ali Najm, a Hezbollah fighter whose death the group confirmed in a statement on Telegram.

Later on Wednesday, a security source told AFP four members of the same family, including two women, were killed in a subsequent strike. The source said they had no links to Hezbollah.

"As we have made clear time and time again, Israel is not interested in a war on two fronts. But if provoked, we will respond forcefully," Israeli government spokesperson Ilana Stein told Reuters news agency.

"The current reality, where tens of thousands of Israelis are displaced [in the north] and cannot return to their homes, is unbearable. They must be able to return home and live in peace and security."

The IDF's chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, meanwhile told the heads of northern municipalities: "There are great achievements striking Hezbollah in Lebanon, but we continue to operate - this is not the time to stop.

"We are intensifying the strikes all the time, and Hezbollah are paying an increasingly heavy price."

On Tuesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Israeli leaders in a speech that launching a war against the group would result in a "million evacuees" from northern Israel.

"To those who threaten us with a widening of the war: if you widen, we will too," he said, adding that "those who think the resistance might be afraid are very mistaken".

He also vowed that Hezbollah would only cease fire "when the aggression stops and there is a ceasefire in Gaza".

BBC
 
The Israeli military and Hezbollah have a window to de-escalate tensions along Lebanon’s southern border before a possible Israeli military offensive against the Lebanese armed group, two Democratic US senators told Reuters on Wednesday.

Senators Chris Coons and Richard Blumenthal met Lebanese officials on a tour of the region, which has been gripped by conflict following Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, which responded with a heavy air, land, and sea assault on Gaza.

In Lebanon, Israeli shelling has killed nearly 190 Hezbollah fighters and 50 civilians. A dozen Israeli troops and five Israeli civilians have been killed in northern Israel, and tens of thousands have been displaced on each side.

“The next few weeks are a real hinge point - for Gaza, for Israel, for Lebanon, for the Red Sea, for Iraq,” said Coons, adding that a ceasefire for Gaza could have “positive consequences” for Lebanon.

“It could create that window of 45 days, quite likely during Ramadan as well, when the next steps can be taken to begin to build the confidence that could lead to a full implementation of (United Nations Security Council resolution) 1701,” he said.

That 2006 resolution ended the last major conflict between Hezbollah and Israel and says no armed factions should be present in a swathe of south Lebanon except the Lebanese army.

France submitted a written proposal to Lebanon earlier this month on a possible diplomatic resolution. US envoy Amos Hochstein has also been working on a plan, which Coons said he hoped was “making steady progress” without sharing further details. He said there was an “urgency” for both sides to de-escalate.

The senators said they told Lebanese Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, who heads the Hezbollah-allied Amal Movement, that Israel “is not bluffing” about an offensive.

“It’s not just rhetoric. It will act. And we hope that that message was conveyed to Hezbollah,” Blumenthal said.

Al Arabiya

 
In the midst of escalating tensions, pursuing peace remains the best policy. Hoping for diplomatic efforts to prevail, fostering dialogue, and finding common ground for stability in the region
 
Israel is doing what any sovereign country would do to protect itself and its citizens. Lebanon should get rid of Hezbollah if they want peace with Israel. They cannot harbor terrorists who attack Israel and expect Israel to do nothing about it.
 
At least two Hezbollah fighters were killed and three others wounded in an Israeli drone strike on a residential building in south Lebanon on Thursday, a security source said.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.

An Israeli drone shot two guided missiles at the building in Kfar Rumman, near south Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh, the security source said, declining to be identified as they were not authorized to brief the media.

Kfar Rumman lies around 12 kilometers (seven miles) from the Israeli border.

Hamas ally Hezbollah had claimed a series of attacks on Israeli troops and positions on Thursday, including one which it said was in response to “Israeli attacks on villages and civilian houses.”

The violence on Israel’s northern border has sparked fears of another full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah like that of 2006.

Since October, at least 273 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 42 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army.

Last week, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed that Israel would pay “with blood,” after 10 civilians, including seven members of one family, were killed in Lebanon’s largest single-day death toll so far. Five Hezbollah fighters were also killed.

On Wednesday, an Israeli strike killed a woman and a girl, prompting retaliatory fire from Hezbollah.

Source: Al Arabiya

 
Is the world interested in talking about it and calming this escalation?
 
FearlessRoar said:
Is the world interested in talking about it and calming this escalation?
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An Israeli strike on a truck in Syria near the Lebanese border killed two Hezbollah members at dawn on Sunday, a war monitor said.

“Israel struck a civilian truck with a missile near the Syrian-Lebanese border,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a report.

The strike led to “the death of at least two Hezbollah members,” said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources in Syria.

Hezbollah later announced in separate statements that two of its fighters were “martyred on the road to Jerusalem,” the phrase it uses to refer to members killed by Israeli fire.

A source close to Hezbollah confirmed that both were killed this morning in Syria.

Syrian state media did not report the strike.

Since Syria’s civil war began in 2011 following an uprising against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria, primarily against pro-Iran forces, among them Hezbollah and the Syrian army.

The strikes have multiplied amidst the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

An Israeli strike on a Damascus residential neighborhood on Wednesday killed three Iran-backed fighters, a Syrian and two foreigners, according to the Observatory.

On February 10, the Observatory reported an Israeli strike on a building west of Damascus that killed three people from pro-Iran militias.

Since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, Hezbollah has announced the death of 16 members killed by Israeli strikes in Syria.

The Israeli military announced on February 3 that it had “attacked, from the ground and air, more than 50 such targets of Hezbollah spread throughout Syria.”

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in Syria.

Al Arabiya

 
What exactly Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthi rebels have been expecting? I know people will say that Israel is occupying Palestine etc etc but Israel is there and will be there no matter what..

Houthi rebels have been targeting ships, Hezbollah and Hamas have been firing rockets towards Israel. This fresh tension started when Hamas decided to attack and abduct Israelis. They thought Israel will shower flowers over them after what they did? No retaliation??? Innocents always suffer in armed conflicts.

All parties against Israel should have pushed for negotiations and continue looking for peaceful solution(2 state solution). They can never win an armed conflict with Israel. This continued rocket/missile attacks will further deteriorate the conditions of Palestinians, Lebanese and others.
 
FearlessRoar said:
Is the world interested in talking about it and calming this escalation?
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At least two simultaneous Israeli strikes hit around Lebanon’s city of Baalbek on Monday, two security sources told Reuters, the first bombardment of eastern Lebanon since regional hostilities erupted following the start of the war in Gaza.

The Israeli military said it was “currently striking Hezbollah terror targets deep inside Lebanon” but provided no further details. There was no immediate comment from the heavily armed, Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire along Lebanon’s southern border since October, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, which is it at war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli strikes had been mostly limited to the southern border region of Lebanon, although they have edged further north in recent weeks. Monday’s bombardment represented a broadening of Israel’s campaign, a Lebanese security source said.

Lebanese television station Al-Jadeed broadcast images of plumes of smoke emanating from the area of Baalbek on Monday.

The Baalbek region, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, is known to be a political stronghold of Hezbollah but is also home to ancient Roman ruins and is an important agricultural and transport hub for Lebanon.

Al Arabiya

 
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Monday it had downed an Israeli Hermes 450 drone over Lebanese territory with a surface-to-air missile, the second time it has announced bringing down this type of unmanned aerial vehicle.

The Hermes 450 is an Israeli multi-payload drone made by Elbit Systems, an Israel-based weapons manufacturer.

The Israeli military said on Monday that two missile launches had targeted an Israeli Air Force UAV operating over Lebanon. The first, it said, was intercepted by Israel’s ‘David’s Sling’ Aerial Defense System but the drone “fell inside Lebanese territory” after a second launch.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has said it has downed or seized control of several Israeli drones in the months since it began exchanging fire with the Israeli military across Lebanon’s southern border.

Al Arabiya

 
Israel is challenging the sovereignty of Lebanon. They deserve this befitting reply.
 
Israel has opened the doors for a world war now. Poking its nose in every country.

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Israel strikes deeper into Lebanon after Hezbollah downs drone

Israeli warplanes struck Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on Monday, killing at least two Hezbollah members in its deepest attack into Lebanese territory since hostilities erupted with the Iran-backed group last October, sources in Lebanon said.

Underlining the risks of escalation, Hezbollah responded by firing 60 rockets at an Israeli army headquarters in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the group's al-Manar television reported. An Israeli army spokesperson said dozens of rockets were fired towards the Golan Heights from Lebanon.

The attacks marked an intensification of the worst violence between the heavily armed Hezbollah and Israel since their 2006 war, fuelling concern of the potential for further escalation and regional spillover of the Gaza war.

The Israeli army said its fighter jets had struck Hezbollah air defences in the Bekaa Valley in response to the downing of an Israeli drone, which Hezbollah said it had shot down with a surface-to-air missile earlier on Monday.

The airstrikes hit part of the Bekaa Valley region near the Syrian border which is a political stronghold of the Shi'ite Islamist Hezbollah. The targeted area was some 18 km (11 miles) from the city of Baalbek, which is known for its ancient ruins.

The sources said Israel had carried out simultaneous strikes in the area. A Lebanese security source and a source familiar with the matter said two Hezbollah members had been killed.

Lebanese television station Al-Jadeed broadcast images of plumes of smoke rising from the area.

In a separate attack, an Israeli airstrike hit a car in the town of Mjadel in southern Lebanon, killing a Hezbollah field commander, three security sources in Lebanon said.

Israel's military posted a video of the strike and said the target was Hassan Hossein Salami, who it said had been responsible for activities including missile launches directed at Israel.

Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah said Israel had widened its strikes by hitting Baalbek and other areas, and was seeking to "compensate" for the downing of its drone.

"Its aggression on Baalbek or any other areas will not remain without response," he said in televised remarks delivered at the funeral of a Hezbollah fighter killed in recent days.

The Israeli military said it would "continue operating to defend the State of Israel from the threat of Hezbollah terrorist organization, including in aerial operations above Lebanese territory".

Hezbollah has been waging a campaign of attacks on targets at the border with Israel since the Oct. 7 raid from the Gaza Strip by its Palestinian ally Hamas. Hezbollah describes it as an effort to support Palestinians under Israeli fire in Gaza.

ISRAEL SAYS TO 'INCREASE THE FIRE' ON HEZBOLLAH

The hostilities have largely played out in areas near the Lebanese-Israeli border, but last week widened when Israel struck an area just south of the coastal city of Sidon.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant indicated on Sunday that Israel planned to increase attacks on Hezbollah in the event of a possible ceasefire in the Gaza conflict.

"If a temporary pause is reached in Gaza, we will increase the fire in the north separately, and will continue until the full withdrawal of Hezbollah [from the border] and the return of Israeli citizens to their homes," he said.

However, he left the door open to diplomacy. "The goal is simple - to withdraw Hezbollah to where it should be - either via a [diplomatic] agreement, or we will do it by force," he said in the statement sent from his office.

The violence has uprooted tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.

Hezbollah said earlier on Monday it had shot down an Israeli Hermes 450 drone over Lebanese territory with a surface-to-air missile.

The Israeli military said two missile launches had targeted an Israeli Air Force unmanned aerial vehicle operating over Lebanon. The first, it said, was intercepted by Israel's "David's Sling" Aerial Defense System but the drone "fell inside Lebanese territory" after a second launch.

Israeli strikes since October have killed some 50 civilians in Lebanon, in addition to some 200 Hezbollah fighters.

Attacks from Lebanon into Israel have killed a dozen Israeli soldiers troops and five civilians.

Reporting by Maya Gebeily, Laila Bassam and Tom Perry in Beirut; Dan Williams and Ari Rabinovitch and Henriette Chacar in Jerusalem; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Timothy Heritage

REUTERS
 
Israel-Hezbollah clashes deepen Lebanese crisis as war fears mount

Recent weeks have seen an escalation of tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border, with clashes intensifying between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces. The situation, already fragile, has been exacerbated by retaliatory attacks and targeted assassinations, deepening concerns of a full-blown war and heightening fears of further destabilization in the region.

Analysts suggest that Israel is pursuing a dual strategy in its dealings with Hezbollah: politically advocating for compromise while demonstrating determination through military actions.

“Israel’s objective is to secure the northern borders and facilitate the return of internally displaced Israeli citizens, showcasing political capability,” Ziad Majed, political scientist and professor of Middle East studies at the American University of Paris, told Al Arabiya English. “It also seeks to push Hezbollah away from the Litani River to maintain border security.”

Diplomatically, Majed added, Israel is conveying its conditions through intermediaries, aiming to avoid full-scale conflict but signaling readiness for escalation if other channels fail.

The deadly confrontations over the past few months have signaled a perilous ***-for-tat exchange with no resolution in sight. Israel has lately stepped up its air campaign, bombing deeper into Lebanon, while Hezbollah has used some of its extensive arsenal of rockets and missiles.

On Monday, Israeli airstrikes targeted Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, killing at least two Hezbollah members, marking the most significant assault on Lebanese soil since tensions flared with the Iran-backed group last October. It was the first instance of Israel striking eastern Lebanon following the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

In response, Hezbollah launched a barrage of 60 Katyusha rockets toward an Israeli army base in the occupied Golan Heights.

Last week, Israeli jets struck two warehouses in Ghazieh, southern Lebanon, near the city of Sidon, almost 30 kilometers from the nearest Israeli boundary. The attacks wounded 14 people, according to state media. The Israeli army claimed to have targeted “Hezbollah weapons storage facilities” in response to an apparent suicide drone that crashed and exploded earlier in the day near the Tiberias area.

Hezbollah and Israel’s military have exchanged fire almost daily since the start of the war in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli communities and military bases in southern Israel, which left 1,200 Israelis dead with another 240 taken hostage.

Hezbollah has said its campaign aims to offer “support to the Palestinian people and the resistance in Gaza.”

Since the hostilities began, Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed around 200 Hezbollah fighters and 35 civilians. In Israel, nine soldiers and nine civilians have been killed in Hezbollah attacks.

Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border have been uprooted and displaced.

Despite international diplomatic efforts, the situation remains volatile, with the potential for the conflict to spiral out of control and the looming risk of regional spillover from the Gaza war.

Over recent months, the US has engaged in negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, aiming to mitigate the risk of higher conflict. Amos Hochstein, a US envoy and senior energy advisor who played a key role in brokering the maritime border agreement between Lebanon and Israel in October 2022, continues to pursue diplomatic avenues to find a resolution.

Discussions, though, have been intricately nuanced due to the US policy of not directly communicating with Hezbollah in Lebanon. The group, widely recognized as the most influential military entity in the country, is designated as a terrorist organization by the US.

On Thursday, CNN published a report citing concerns among US officials regarding Israel’s potential initiation of a ground invasion into Lebanon in the late spring or early summer if diplomatic endeavors do not succeed in compelling Hezbollah to retreat from the northern border with Israel.

“While a final Israeli decision has yet to be made, the worry is acute enough inside the Biden administration that the prospect of an incursion has made its way into intelligence briefings for senior administration officials,” the report read.

The pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is high as many believe he will be forced to relinquish his post once the war against Hamas in Gaza ends.

“If Gaza tensions ease and Israeli public opinion increasingly perceives conflict in the north as untenable, Netanyahu’s government may face pressure to act decisively,” Majed noted.

On the Lebanese front, Hezbollah has repeatedly stated its resilience in the face of threats, asserting readiness for any scenario.

“While Iran and Hezbollah prefer to avoid an all-out war, Hezbollah faces a credibility dilemma at home,” Majed said. “Despite its rhetoric of maintaining a balance of power with Israel, the current events challenge this narrative. Hezbollah’s approach to the conflict involves a calculated strategy of low-to-moderate intensity warfare with Israel, influenced by internal considerations coupled with regional dynamics.”

He added: “Hezbollah’s response to Israeli provocations is nuanced. While the group demonstrates military preparedness by occasionally displaying new weaponry to deter Israeli aggression, its actions aim to signal resolve rather than provoke escalation.”

However, Hezbollah may resort to using greater force if Israel persists with its airstrikes, according to Majed.

“Should Israeli strikes penetrate deeper into Lebanese territory, Hezbollah could escalate its targeting to include more strategic locations within Israel,” he explained.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech last month that the group would adhere to a ceasefire in southern Lebanon if one were to be reached in Gaza. Nonetheless, he made it clear that Hezbollah would resume its attacks if Israel continued strikes in Lebanon following any agreement with Hamas.

Last Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant indicated that Israel planned to increase attacks on Hezbollah in the event of a possible ceasefire in the Gaza conflict.

“If a temporary pause is reached in Gaza, we will increase the fire in the north separately and will continue until the full withdrawal of Hezbollah [from the border] and the return of Israeli citizens to their homes,” he said in a statement on X.

Despite these tensions, Majed believes that both Hezbollah and Israel remain cautiously optimistic about the potential for diplomatic interventions to defuse the situation.

Experts warn that a wider war in Lebanon would be catastrophic. The country’s already fragile economy, battered by years of political turmoil, corruption, and lack of reforms, is now grappling with the impact of the ongoing skirmishes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah. With attacks hitting areas along the border, economic activity in these regions has been severely disrupted.

According to The Policy Initiative, a Beirut-based independent think-tank, vital sectors such as tourism and agriculture, particularly in southern Lebanon, bear the brunt of the continued fighting. Meanwhile, the illegal use of phosphorus in Israeli attacks not only ravages the land but also jeopardizes future agricultural productivity, rendering vast areas unusable for farming due to its long-lasting effects.

The investment sector is also facing a notable decline, with October 2023 seeing a 60 percent drop in nationwide real estate transactions compared to the 12-year average. This hesitancy suggests a potential $105 million loss in foreign direct investment (FDI) over six months, totaling about $550 million in lost inflows for Lebanon.

“The crux of Lebanon’s economic vulnerability lies in its heavy reliance on external inflows, comprising tourism, remittances, investments, and exports, which collectively constitute a staggering 90 percent of the economy,” Sami Zoughaib, an economist and research manager at The Policy Initiative, told Al Arabiya English. “These inflows are sensitive to conflict and instability, rendering them exceptionally vulnerable during periods of war. The ongoing conflict has already exacted a toll, evident in the 23 percent reduction in inbound passengers and significant downturns in real estate transactions.”

Lebanon’s inherent vulnerabilities stemming from its cash-based economy exacerbate the economic fallout in the event of war-induced disruptions to ports and airports, hindering the flow of capital, Zoughaib added.

The country is grappling with an economic crisis, ranked by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern history. Decades of corruption and mismanagement have forced it deep into an abyss of financial despair.

It has yet to implement critical structural and financial reforms necessary to unlock billions in aid from the International Monetary Fund and other international donors. Political discord is preventing the consensus needed to enact these reforms.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of former head of state Michel Aoun ended in October 2022. It has a caretaker cabinet led by Prime Minister Najib Mikati, but with limited powers.

The tiny Mediterranean country has weathered numerous crises in its history, including a decade-and-a-half-long civil war and the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. However, the scenario today paints a starkly different picture.

“In 2006, Lebanon boasted considerable financial resources and operational banks, along with fiscal capacity, enabling public expenditure. Our relations with neighboring countries were positive. This is not the case today,” Zoughaib noted.

 
A missile strike on northern Israel killed a foreign worker on Monday and wounded seven others, medics said, the latest casualties in months of hostilities along the Lebanese border.

An anti-tank missile hit “foreign workers who were working in a plantation,” killing one man and wounding at least seven, the Magen David Adom emergency response service said in a statement.

The wounded were all Indian men in their 30s, the statement said, without detailing the nationality of the person killed.

The Israeli military said “a number of civilians” were hit by the incoming fire from Lebanon and airlifted to hospital.

The attack occurred near Margaliot, a small agricultural community on the border, the military said, adding that it had “struck the source of the launch” in Lebanon in response.

The Israeli military and Lebanese groups have traded near daily fire since October 7, when war erupted in Gaza after militants of the territory’s rulers Hamas attacked southern Israel.

The fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides and killed at least 296 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also 46 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

In Israel, 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed.

 
This is just the start, It is gonna get much, much worse in the coming weeks. I think neighbouring Arab countries are gonna gang up against Israel. Not sure how far the west will support Israel now seeing the great anti-Israel sentiment.
 
FearlessRoar said:
A missile strike on northern Israel killed a foreign worker on Monday and wounded seven others, medics said, the latest casualties in months of hostilities along the Lebanese border.

An anti-tank missile hit “foreign workers who were working in a plantation,” killing one man and wounding at least seven, the Magen David Adom emergency response service said in a statement.

The wounded were all Indian men in their 30s, the statement said, without detailing the nationality of the person killed.

The Israeli military said “a number of civilians” were hit by the incoming fire from Lebanon and airlifted to hospital.

The attack occurred near Margaliot, a small agricultural community on the border, the military said, adding that it had “struck the source of the launch” in Lebanon in response.

The Israeli military and Lebanese groups have traded near daily fire since October 7, when war erupted in Gaza after militants of the territory’s rulers Hamas attacked southern Israel.

The fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides and killed at least 296 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also 46 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

In Israel, 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed.

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Indian worker from Kerala called Pat Maxwell was killed.

Foreign workers should get the heck out of Southern Lebanon and Northern Israel. It's a hot border and barely any safer than Gaza.
 
Champ_Pal said:
Israel is doing what any sovereign country would do to protect itself and its citizens. Lebanon should get rid of Hezbollah if they want peace with Israel. They cannot harbor terrorists who attack Israel and expect Israel to do nothing about it.
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Lebanon is a basket case. They defaulted on their debt a few years ago. Not strong enough to tackle Hezbollah which's virtually a state within a state.

Buzzinga said:
What exactly Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthi rebels have been expecting? I know people will say that Israel is occupying Palestine etc etc but Israel is there and will be there no matter what..

Houthi rebels have been targeting ships, Hezbollah and Hamas have been firing rockets towards Israel. This fresh tension started when Hamas decided to attack and abduct Israelis. They thought Israel will shower flowers over them after what they did? No retaliation??? Innocents always suffer in armed conflicts.

All parties against Israel should have pushed for negotiations and continue looking for peaceful solution(2 state solution). They can never win an armed conflict with Israel. This continued rocket/missile attacks will further deteriorate the conditions of Palestinians, Lebanese and others.
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Who will they negotiate with ? For 30+ years Netanyahu has opposed the foundation of a Palestinian state. Will they negotiate with the two far-right extremists propping Netanyahu's Govt, messrs Ben Gvir and Smotrich, who say Palestinians should emigrate from Gaza ?

Israel's refusal to negotiate meaningfully since 2014 and keeping Palestinians caged like prisoners in their own homes was going to blow up eventually. Netayahu's deliberate divide and rule strategy - strengthening Hamas by channeling Qatari funds to them, while isolating Abbas in the West Bank was going to blow up eventually. And it did on Oct 7th.
 
Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Sunday said it had fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel after Israeli strikes the day before left five dead in southern Lebanon, including three of the group’s members.

Hamas ally Hezbollah and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.

Hezbollah said it had launched “dozens of katyusha-type rockets” in the morning on the Israeli village of Meron, eight kilometres (five miles) from the border.

Meron is home to a major air control base that the Iran-backed group has targeted several times since the start of the year.

Hezbollah said it had acted “in response to Israeli attacks against villages in the south and the homes of civilians”, particularly the targeting of the home of a fighter in Kherbet Selm the day before.

A woman and another person were also killed in the same strike, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency.

“Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel, approximately 35 launches from Lebanon toward Israeli territory were identified, a number of which were intercepted,” the Israeli army said on Sunday.

The statement added that the Israeli air force struck Hezbollah infrastructure during the night, including a “military structure in which Hezbollah terrorists were identified in the area of Khirbet Selm”.

At least 312 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of cross-border violence on October 8, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 53 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed, according to the latest official figures.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the fighting on both sides of the border.

Strikes have largely remained confined to border regions for the moment, but several have hit Hezbollah positions further north in recent weeks, raising fears of a full-blown conflict.

The group has repeatedly said that it will only stop its attacks on Israel with a ceasefire in Gaza.

But Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said recently that any truce in Gaza would not change Israel’s goal of pushing Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon, by force or diplomacy.

gulfnews.com

Hezbollah fires dozens of rockets into Israel after deadly strikes

312 have been killed in Lebanon since start of cross-border violence on October 8
gulfnews.com gulfnews.com
 
The world doesn't care about Lebanon, it's a hellhole. The Lebanese are running away in droves and migrating to anywhere possible. Bombing Lebanon will not lead to a world war.
 
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When Manahel Rammal and her family fled their home in the border village of Odaisseh, little did they know that their displacement would stretch into months of uncertainty. Forced to leave everything behind on October 8, the day after Hamas launched an attack on Israel, they found themselves forced into an unfamiliar location, far away from the comfort of their village.

Initially hopeful about a swift return, they soon realized that the situation was far from temporary.

“Winter was exceptionally harsh for us. We feel uneasy outside our homes. We yearn for our land,” Rammal said.

Manahel, a former teacher and widow, now resides in a large shelter in Marwanieh, a village approximately halfway between the cities of Saida and Nabatieh. The makeshift shelter, formerly an abandoned hotel, has been repurposed to accommodate displaced people. It currently houses 45 families.

Lebanon finds itself teetering on the brink, enduring near-daily bombardments from Israel that target border villages and extend deeper into the country, persisting for five months now.

The cycle of violence began on October 8, one day after Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel, which prompted Israeli retaliation against Gaza. Since then, with Lebanon’s Hezbollah joining the fray, both Israel and the Iran-backed militant group have been engaged in ongoing exchanges of fire.

Amidst the ongoing turmoil, tens of thousands are facing displacement in Lebanon. Recent figures from the International Organization for Migration, published in a report last week, show that about 90,850 people have been forced to flee their homes following the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war. Most are staying with host families, in rented apartments, or within collective shelters.

NGOs have been providing assistance to those displaced amid the growing escalations.

“The array of humanitarian needs encompasses essentials such as mattresses, clothing, and sustenance. With livelihoods lost and incomes depleted, displaced individuals are left in dire need of basic necessities after several months without financial support,” the Head of Mission for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Lebanon, Jeremy Ristord, told Al Arabiya English.

“Also, the disruption of displacement has interrupted the medical treatment of those with chronic diseases, necessitating urgent healthcare interventions.”

MSF has been actively responding to these needs by deploying mobile medical teams to provide continuous care for chronic diseases and offering psychological first aid.

The story of Husun Sayed echoes that of Rammal, illustrating the stark reality of upheaval.

Sayed, hailing from the village of Beit Leef nestled in the Bint Jbeil District of southern Lebanon, was compelled to flee with her family and feline companion, Lea, as Israeli airstrikes descended upon her hometown.

“Our home has become an uninhabitable place, with shattered windows, doors, and damaged belongings,” she recounted. “We’re all fine, thankfully. However, the separation burdens us as my husband and youngest son seek refuge in Beirut with relatives while my two elder sons, Ali and Ayoub, and I remain here. We hope we can reunite in our home in the near future.”

Human psyche bears the weight of displacement in the throes of upheaval, a challenge not easily cast aside. This has been evident among many residents of the south navigating the labyrinth of prolonged displacement.

“The extended period of displacement has resulted in a notable increase in depression and anxiety disorders among affected individuals, reflecting the profound psychological strain of their circumstances,” Ristord explained.

“While people often exhibit resilience in the face of acute crises, the enduring unpredictability of displacement lasting over five months has taken a heavy toll. Families have witnessed their children grappling with mental breakdowns, a manifestation of the traumatic environment they are subjected to.”

He added: “The monotonous routine of displacement, coupled with perpetual ambiguity, weighs heavily on children, robbing them of a sense of stability and security.”

“There’s anxiety and fear, and people can’t help but overthink. Children here shout and cry whenever something happens,” Rammal said.

The uncertainty of the future looms large, casting a shadow on the once-vibrant dreams of the youth. Yet, a glimmer of hope persists – a determination to return home at the first sign of peace.

“We are a resilient people, steadfast in our roots. We do not abandon our homes, nor do we seek refuge elsewhere. At the mere mention of a ceasefire, you will see us all returning to our towns,” Rammal emphasized.

Beyond the displacement crisis, the border clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have wrought extensive damage to Lebanon’s economy, environment, and agriculture, compounding the myriad struggles already facing its populace.

Since late 2019, the country has been wrestling with an economic crisis, ranked by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern history. Decades of corruption and mismanagement have forced it deep into an abyss of financial despair.

The country has been without a president since the term of former head-of-state Michel Aoun ended in October 2022. It currently has a caretaker cabinet led by Prime Minister Najib Mikati, but with limited powers.

The United Nations noted that Lebanon’s economy, particularly its tourism, services, and agriculture sectors, had suffered significant blows since the hostilities began last October, leading to livelihood disruptions and increased instability in border areas.

Moreover, alongside economic concerns, there has been a loss of agricultural productivity resulting from cross-border shelling and rocket fire. The clashes have sparked fires in agricultural areas, devastating olive groves, citrus and banana farms, pasture lands, and forests, with southern Lebanon bearing the brunt of these losses, according to a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report.

The use of illegal phosphorus in Israeli attacks rendered large swaths of land unusable for farming due to its long-lasting effects. Despite the favorable agricultural conditions in southern Lebanon, border skirmishes have severely impeded farming activities, forcing many farmers to abandon their fields, particularly during crucial harvest seasons like that of olives. Israeli airstrikes also led to widespread crop destruction, with the National Council for Scientific Research documenting millions of square meters of land damage.

In addition to economic and agricultural setbacks, the environmental repercussions of white phosphorus bombings and artillery shelling pose long-term threats to biodiversity and ecosystem health, experts say. The persistent fires caused by white phosphorus exacerbate land scorching, while toxic chemicals infiltrating soil and air further degrade soil fertility and pollute water sources.

 
Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement on Sunday announced the death of two of its fighters in attacks by Israel, accusing the country of trying to expand its strikes

The accusation came after security sources reported two Israeli air raids deep inside Lebanon, in the country’s east.

Israel and Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group allied to Hamas, have been exchanging cross-border fire almost daily since the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas militants began last October.

But fears have surged of an all-out conflict in recent weeks with Israel launching air strikes deeper into eastern Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah strongholds in the Bekaa Valley area several times.

The car damaged by Israeli strike. (Lebanese Civil Defense on X)

“Today the enemy is trying to expand its attacks against civilians in Baalbek, in the western Bekaa or elsewhere,” Hezbollah’s deputy chief Naim Qassem said Sunday.

“There will be responses to each of them.”

Hezbollah did not say where its two fighters died or give other details but said they “died as martyrs” in Israeli attacks.

Earlier Sunday an Israeli strike on a car near the Syrian border killed a man, a security source said, after overnight fire also in Lebanon’s east wounded four people, a second security official said.

“Israeli aircraft targeted a vehicle in... Suwairi, killing its Syrian driver,” the security source told AFP, requesting anonymity because of security concerns.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said the driver killed by the strike had been delivering food in a car that belonged to a supermarket owner.

Images from the scene showed a blue vehicle shredded and burned, with a streak of blood on the ground nearby.

Overnight Saturday, Israeli jets struck a Hezbollah center that had been deserted for some time in the Baalbek area, the second security source told AFP, adding four people were wounded.

The strike at al-Osseira, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the Israel-Lebanon border, ended a period of relative calm that had lasted around 10 days.

The Israeli military said in a statement that its fighter jets “struck a Hezbollah manufacturing site containing weapons in the area of Baalbek,” the main city in the Bekaa Valley.

Later, Hezbollah said it fired “more than 60 Katyusha-type rockets” at two Israeli military positions in the occupied Golan Heights in response to the Israeli strikes.

The Israeli military said, “approximately 50 launches were identified from Lebanon toward northern Israel,” but it did not indicate any victims or damage.

Hezbollah began near-daily attacks against Israel on October 8 in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, whose attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza. Both groups are backed by Israel’s arch enemy Iran.

Hezbollah says it will only end its attacks on Israel if there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned in February that a possible truce in Gaza would not affect Israel’s “objective” of pushing Hezbollah back from its northern border, by force or diplomacy.

At least 326 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but including more than 50 civilians, according to an AFP count.

At least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to the military.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

 
How much more can the world turn a blind eye of the actions of the terrorist state of the Jews

We have major media outlets continue to disguise their barbaric acts.
 
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aboveandbeyond said:
How much more can the world turn a blind eye of the actions of the terrorist state of the Jews.

We have major media outlets continue to disguise their barbaric acts.
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World turned a blind eye to Iraq, this is nothing compared to those lies.
 
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Hezbollah rocket kills Israeli following deadly Lebanon strike​


Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel Wednesday killing a civilian, after Israel carried out a deadly strike in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas, has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army since Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 triggering war in Gaza.

Israeli rescue teams searching a building that had been hit in the border town of Kiryat Shmona "found a 25 year old who was unconscious, with no pulse and not breathing", and pronounced him dead at the scene, the Magen David Adom emergency service said.

Hezbollah said they fired "dozens of rockets" at Kiryat Shmona in retaliation for what it called "the massacre committed by the Zionist enemy (Israel)" in the south Lebanon village of Habariyeh.

The emergency response arm of Jamaa Islamiya, a Lebanese militant group closely linked to Hamas, said "a number" of people were killed in the overnight Israeli strike in Habariyeh.

Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, a Jamaa Islamiya official said the seven dead were "rescuers" who were killed when an emergency centre in the village was hit.

Another Jamaa Islamiya official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said a dozen first responders were in the centre at the time of the strike, adding that bodies were being pulled from the rubble.

The Israeli military said the target of the strike was "a military compound" and those killed were Jamaa Islamiya "terrorists".

It said a "significant terrorist operative" and other members of the group were planning attacks against Israel at the time of the strike.

Cross-border fire since October has killed at least 338 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including at least 57 civilians, according to an AFP count.

At least 10 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed in Israel, according to the Israeli military.

The hostilities have prompted an exodus of civilians from vulnerable areas on both sides of the border and raised fears of all-out conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which fought a devastating war in 2006.

www.france24.com

Hezbollah rocket kills Israeli following deadly Lebanon strike

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel Wednesday killing a civilian, after Israel carried out a deadly strike in south Lebanon.
www.france24.com www.france24.com
 
JaDed said:
World turned a blind eye to Iraq, this is nothing compared to those lies.
Click to expand...

This. The world barely blinked when the Iraqi military was annihilated and the region was destabilised based on the WMD lies.
 
Hezbollah official killed in Israeli strike in Lebanon: Report

A military security source in Lebanon has told the AFP news agency that a previously reported Israeli strike on a car in the south of the country killed a Hezbollah official.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency and other local media reported the strike earlier as they posted videos of a car on fire.

The NNA said “a raid by an enemy drone targeted a car” in Bazourieh in south Lebanon’s Tyre district, reporting at least one dead.

The Hezbollah group has exchanged near daily fire with the Israeli army since the war in Gaza began.

Al Jazeera
 

Three UN observers hurt when shell exploded nearby in south Lebanon, peacekeepers say​


Three United Nations observers and a translator were wounded on Saturday when a shell exploded near them as they were carrying out a foot patrol in south Lebanon, the UN peacekeeping mission said, adding it was still investigating the origin of the blast.

The UN peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL, as well as unarmed technical observers known as UNTSO, are stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel, known as the Blue Line.

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has been trading fire with the Israeli military across the Blue Line since October in parallel with the war in Gaza.

UNIFIL said in a statement on Saturday that the targeting of peacekeepers is “unacceptable” and that the wounded staff had
been evacuated for treatment.

Two security sources had earlier told Reuters the observers were wounded in an Israeli strike outside the border town of Rmeish.

The Israeli military denied involvement in the incident.

“Contrary to the reports, the IDF did not strike a UNIFIL vehicle in the area of Rmeish this morning,” the military said in a statement.

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati spoke with UNIFIL commander Aroldo Lozaro, condemning the “targeting” and wounding of UN staff in southern Lebanon, according to a statement from Mikati’s office.

The mayor of Rmeish, Milad Alam, told Reuters that he had spoken with the Lebanese translator and confirmed his condition was stable.

“From Rmeish, we heard a blast and then saw a UNIFIL car zipping by. The foreign observers were taken to hospitals in Tyre and Beirut by helicopter and car,” Milad said, without providing details on their condition.

One of the observers was a Norwegian citizen, who was lightly injured, the Nordic country’s defense ministry told Reuters. Lebanon’s National News Agency said the other two wounded observers were Chilean and Australian.

Israel’s shelling of Lebanon has killed nearly 270 Hezbollah fighters, but has also killed around 50 civilians - including children, medics and journalists - and hit both UNIFIL and the Lebanese army.

UNIFIL last month said that the Israeli military violated international law by firing on a group of clearly identifiable journalists, killing Reuters reporter Issam Abdallah.

The UN’s Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Joanna Wronecka, said in a statement that she was “saddened” to learn of the injuries and that the incident served as “another reminder of the urgent need to return to a cessation of hostilities across the Blue Line.”

The US and other countries have sought to secure a diplomatic resolution to the exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel. Hezbollah said it will not halt fire before a ceasefire is implemented in Gaza.

 
FearlessRoar said:
So I assume now it's a full-fledged war between Israel and Lebanon.
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Israeli airstrike kills ‘significant’ Hezbollah commander in Lebanon​


The Israeli military said it killed a Hezbollah commander in an airstrike on a vehicle in Lebanon on Sunday, identifying him as Ismail Al-Zin, a significant commander in the anti-tank missile unit of Hezbollah’s Radwan Forces.

“Al-Zin was a significant source of knowledge regarding anti-tank missiles and was responsible for dozens of anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli civilians, communities and security forces,” the military said.

 

Israel launches strikes on eastern Lebanon after Hezbollah downs drone​


Israel launched air strikes on eastern Lebanon early on Sunday, hitting what it said were Hezbollah infrastructure sites after the armed group downed an Israeli drone over the country as both sides continue to trade fire amid escalating regional tensions.

The Israeli army said in a statement that fighter jets struck a military complex and three other infrastructure sites belonging to Hezbollah in the eastern city of Baalbek.

It said the latest attack was in response to Iran-backed Hezbollah’s downing of an unmanned aerial vehicle in Lebanese airspace, which the group identified as the Israeli-made Hermes 900 drone.

Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel across Lebanon’s southern border since Oct. 8, a day after the Palestinian group Hamas launched an attack on Israel that sparked Israel’s war in Gaza and led to escalating regional tensions.

Israeli shelling has killed around 270 Hezbollah fighters and around 50 civilians. In southern Lebanon some 90,000 people have also been displaced, while more than 96,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country’s northern border area.

The US and other countries have sought a diplomatic resolution to the exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel. Hezbollah said it would not halt fire before a ceasefire is implemented in Gaza.

Two security sources said the latest Israeli attack on Lebanon targeted a training camp belonging to Hezbollah in Janta village near the border with Syria and the town of Safri near Baalbek.

There were no reported casualties from the strikes, the sources said.

www.arabnews.pk

Israel launches strikes on eastern Lebanon after Hezbollah downs drone

Israel launched air strikes on eastern Lebanon early on Sunday, hitting what it said were Hezbollah infrastructure sites after the armed group downed an Israeli drone over the country as both sides continue to trade fire amid escalating regional tensions. The Israeli army said in a statement...
www.arabnews.pk www.arabnews.pk
 
Lebanon - the Paris of the East (Beirut). The land that invented Hummus and Falafels and other amazing food - today exists only to get slapped around by Israel.
 
FearlessRoar said:
Israel has opened up the war front on all sides.
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Israel kills commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan unit, UN urges halt to fighting

An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon early on Monday killed a field commander in the heavily-armed Lebanese group Hezbollah, as the United Nations warned that shelling was spreading and urged a halt to the violence.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire across Lebanon’s southern frontier in parallel with the Gaza war, adding to fears of a wider regional conflict.

Early on Monday, Israeli fighter jets hit the village of al-Sultaniyah and killed a field commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan units and two other people, the Israeli military and two Lebanese security sources said.

The Israeli military identified the commander as Ali Ahmed Hassin, and said he was responsible for planning and executing attacks against Israelis. Hezbollah issued a funeral notice for Hassin but without details of his role.

Israeli strikes have killed around 270 Hezbollah fighters in the last six months as well as around 50 civilians, including children, medics and journalists. Hezbollah’s rocket fire has killed around a dozen Israeli soldiers and half as many civilians.

The shelling has displaced tens of thousands on each side and hit the farming economy in southern Lebanon particularly hard, with bombed-out fields left unplanted or unharvested.

In a joint statement on Monday, United Nations’ Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka and the commander of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, Aroldo Lazaro, said the violence must stop.

“The unrelenting cycle of strikes and counterstrikes in breach of the cessation of hostilities constitute the most serious violation of Security Council Resolution 1701 since its adoption in 2006,” they said.

That UN decision ended a month-long war between Hezbollah and Israel nearly two decades ago but many of its points - including a withdrawal of armed groups from the south and deployment of Lebanese army troops - were never implemented.

“It is six months since the exchanges of fire across the Blue Line began, and continue unabated, taking a heavy toll on both sides,” the joine statement added.

UNIFIL peacekeepers patrol the so-called Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel, demarcated by the UN in 2000 after Israeli troops pulled out of southern Lebanon.

“The violence and suffering has gone on too long. It must stop,” the officials said.

They urged all sides to “avail of all avenues to avoid further escalation while there is still space for diplomacy.”

 

Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it attacked Israeli military facility in Arab al-Aramshe​


Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it launched a drone and missile attack on an Israeli base on Wednesday in response to strikes that killed three Hezbollah fighters the day before.

Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah have been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire since the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israel on October 7, triggering war in the Gaza Strip.

But Wednesday’s incident marked the third day in a row that Hezbollah strikes wounded people in Israel, with regional tensions high after Iran launched a direct attack on Israel over the weekend in retaliation for a deadly strike on Tehran’s Damascus consulate.

Hezbollah said it launched “a combined attack with guided missiles and explosive drones on a new military reconnaissance command center in Arab al-Aramshe,” an Arab-majority village of northern Israel.

The attack came “in response to the enemy assassinating a number of resistance fighters in Ain Baal and Shehabiya” on Tuesday, the movement said.

Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, said six people had been injured after a strike in Western Galilee.

The six injured are “men in their 30s, including: 1 in serious condition,” the rescuers said on X, formerly Twitter.

The Israeli army said “a number of launches from Lebanon were identified crossing into the area of Arab al-Aramshe,” adding that it struck the sources of the fire.

On Tuesday, Israel said its strikes in south Lebanon killed two local Hezbollah commanders and another operative, with the Iran-backed group saying three of its members were killed as it launched rockets in retaliation.

Local Israeli authorities said three people were wounded in a strike from Lebanon earlier that day.

On Monday, Hezbollah targeted Israeli troops with explosive devices, wounding four soldiers who crossed into Lebanese territory, the first such attack in six months of clashes.

The violence has killed at least 368 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also at least 70 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

In Israel, the military says 10 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed near the northern border since hostilities began.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled their homes on both sides of the border, with the violence fueling fears of all-out conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which last went to war in 2006.

 
At least 14 IDF soldiers injured in Hezbollah strikes

Strikes from Lebanon had injured people in northern Israel.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group has since claimed responsibility, saying it launched missiles and drones at a military facility in northern Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah members yesterday.

At least 14 Israeli soldiers were injured in today's attack, with six in serious condition, according to the Israel Defence Forces.

The Israeli Ynet news site said the soldiers were in a community centre in the village.

The IDF in retaliation said it "struck the sources of fire" after identifying several anti-tank missile and drone launches from Lebanon towards the Bedouin village of Arab al Aramshe.

Source: Sky News
 

Hezbollah launches deepest attack inside Israel since Gaza war began​

The Lebanese group Hezbollah says it has launched drone attacks on Israeli bases north of the city of Acre in retaliation for the killing of one of its fighters, marking the deepest attack into Israeli territory since the Gaza war began.

Hezbollah launched “a combined air attack using decoy and explosive drones that targeted” two Israeli bases halfway between Acre and Nahariyya, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Iran-backed group said it acted in retaliation for an earlier Israeli attack killing one of its fighters. It published what appeared to be a satellite photo, with the location of the attack symbolised by a flash with a red circle around it.

The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of any of its facilities being hit by Hezbollah, but had said earlier that it intercepted two “aerial targets” off Israel’s northern coast.

Later on Tuesday, Lebanon’s official news agency NNA said at least two people were killed and six others injured after an Israeli air raid hit a residential area in the southern Lebanese town of Hanin.

“Israeli warplanes struck a two-storey house with two air-to-surface missiles, completely destroying the building which was inhabited by a family that had not left the town since Israeli attacks began,” NNA said.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli military said its air raids killed two Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah later confirmed the death of one of its fighters, Hussein Azkoul, but provided no further details.

A separate Israeli attack overnight killed Muhammad Attiya, a fighter in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces, the military said. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on the claim.

Since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack triggered Israel’s war on Gaza, there have been near-daily cross-border exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army.

Israeli attacks have killed about 270 Hezbollah fighters, as well as about 50 civilians.

Hezbollah’s rocket and drone fire has killed about a dozen Israeli soldiers and half as many civilians. The shelling has displaced tens of thousands on each side.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
 

Israeli Army Claims Strike On 40 Hezbollah "Terror Targets"

The Israeli army said Wednesday it struck 40 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon as near-daily exchanges of fire rage on the border between the two countries.

"A short while ago, IDF (army) fighter jets and artillery struck approximately 40 Hezbollah terror targets" around Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, including storage facilities and weaponry, the army said in a statement.

www.ndtv.com

Israeli Army Claims Strike On 40 Hezbollah "Terror Targets"

The Israeli army said Wednesday it struck 40 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon as near-daily exchanges of fire rage on the border between the two countries.
www.ndtv.com www.ndtv.com
 

Hezbollah says fired dozens of rockets at Israeli base after strike on east Lebanon​


Lebanese official media said an Israeli strike Monday wounded three people in the country’s east, with Hezbollah saying it launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at an Israeli base in retaliation.

Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have exchanged regular cross-border fire since Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel sparked war in the Gaza Strip.

In recent weeks Hamas-ally Hezbollah has stepped up its attacks on northern Israel, and the Israeli military has struck deeper into Lebanese territory.

“Enemy warplanes launched a strike at around 1:30 am this morning on a factory in Sifri, wounding three civilians and destroying the building,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency said.

Sifri is in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley in the Baalbek area, a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has repeatedly struck in recent weeks, located around 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Israel-Lebanon frontier.

The Israeli army said its warplanes “struck a Hezbollah military structure... deep inside Lebanon,” referring to the location as “Safri.”

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets" targeting “the headquarters of the Golan Division... at Nafah base” in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

The strikes by Hezbollah on Israel came “in response to the enemy’s attack targeting the Bekaa region,” it said.

Hezbollah later claimed a drone attack on troops in northern Israel, with the Israeli army saying “a UAV [drone] was identified crossing from Lebanon into the area of Metula.”

The army also said “fighter jets struck approximately 15 [Hezbollah] military structures and terror infrastructure” in south Lebanon.

Last month, a building in Sifri was targeted in an Israeli raid, while the Israeli army said it had targeted Hezbollah sites in Lebanon’s east.

The intensifying exchanges have stoked fears of all-out conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which went to war in 2006.

In Lebanon, at least 390 people have been killed in nearly seven months of cross-border violence, mostly militants but also more than 70 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On Sunday official media in Lebanon said an Israeli strike on a southern village killed four family members, with Hezbollah announcing retaliatory attacks.

Israel says 11 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed on its side of the border.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides.

 

IDF says it struck 10 Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon in response to drone strike​


The military says it carried out strikes against some 10 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon a short while ago, including buildings where operatives were gathered.

The IDF also confirms that earlier today it carried out a drone strike on a vehicle with two Hezbollah operatives, near the southern Lebanon towns of Qana and Seddiqine.

According to the IDF, the pair were “en route to carrying out an immediate terror attack” against Israel.

Fighter jets, meanwhile, struck several Hezbollah sites, including a building and an observation post in Mays al-Jabal, another building in Kafr Qila, and two more buildings in Naqoura and Houla, where operatives were gathered, the IDF says.

www.timesofisrael.com

IDF says it struck 10 Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon in response to drone strike

* * *
www.timesofisrael.com www.timesofisrael.com
 

Hezbollah targets Israeli spying equipment warehouse​


According to Al Mayadeen, Lebanon's Hezbollah in a statement announced that to support the steadfast Palestinian nation in the Gaza Strip and help their brave and noble resistance, it has targeted the Al-Raheb base of the illegal regime with a rocket.

Al-Raheb is one of the bases where the technical systems and espionage equipment of the Israeli army are located.

Also, in a statement, Hezbollah announced that resistance fighters had targeted an IDF vehicle in Al-Malkiyya base with a guided missile, killing and injuring people on board.

The Israeli media also reported that the alarm sounded in the israeli settlements of Al-Malkiyya, Yiftah, Ramot, Naftali, and Dishon near the Lebanese border, northern occupied territories.

en.irna.ir

Hezbollah targets Israeli spying equipment warehouse

Tehran, IRNA – Lebanon's Hezbollah, in continuation of its attacks against the Zionist regime in support of the Palestinian people and resistance in the Gaza Strip, targeted the warehouse of the regime's espionage equipment and army positions in the north of occupied Palestine and killed and...
en.irna.ir en.irna.ir
 
The Israeli army claimed Thursday to have assassinated a Hezbollah military commander in an airstrike in southern Lebanon

A military statement said Ali Nasser Farran, allegedly responsible for Hezbollah’s weapons production, was killed in the strike.

It, however, did not provide any details about where the Hezbollah commander was killed.

Hezbollah, for its part, confirmed that Farran was killed in southern Lebanon, without providing any details about the circumstances of his death.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency earlier reported that one person had been killed and three others injured in an Israeli drone strike on a highway between the towns of Kafr Dajjal and Nabatieh in southern Lebanon.

Tensions have risen along Lebanon’s border with Israel amid cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israeli forces as Tel Aviv presses ahead with a deadly onslaught against the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 35,700 people since last October following an attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas.

Israel stands accused of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered Tel Aviv to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Source: Dawn News
 

Hezbollah conducts retaliatory attack on Israeli positions​


According to al-Ahed news website, Hezbollah fighters targeted the new headquarters of the 91st Israeli division with tens of Katyusha rockets on Thursday.

Hezbollah issued a statement, announcing that the attack was carried out in support of the steadfast Palestinian nation in the Gaza Strip and in response to a recent killing of resistance fighters in Kfar Dajjal region,.

An Israeli drone hit a car in a road between al-Nabatieh and Kfar Dajjal, which also caused damage to a school vehicle and injured three students.

Since the initiation of Operation Al-Aqsa Storm by Hamas against the Israeli regime on October 7, Hezbollah has launched attacks in northern occupied Palestine to engage a segment of the regime’s armed forces on that front and detach Israelis from the Gaza battlefield.

en.irna.ir

Hezbollah conducts retaliatory attack on Israeli positions

Tehran, IRNA – The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has carried out an attack on the Israeli regime’s military positions in retaliation for a deadly drone strike on a vehicle in southern Lebanon.
en.irna.ir en.irna.ir
 

Israeli strike kills two Hezbollah fighters in Syria: Monitor​


An Israeli drone strike in central Syria killed two fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah group on Saturday, a war monitor said.

“An Israeli drone fired two missiles at a Hezbollah car and truck near the town of Qusayr in Homs province, as they were on their way to al-Dabaa military airport, killing at least two Hezbollah fighters and wounding others,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

 

Lebanon backtracks on ICC jurisdiction to probe alleged war crimes​


Lebanon has reversed a move to authorise the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged war crimes on its soil, prompting a prominent rights group to deplore what it called the loss of an "historic opportunity" for justice.

Lebanon has accused Israel of repeatedly violating international law since October, when the Israeli military and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah began trading fire in parallel with the Gaza war. Israeli shelling has since killed around 80 civilians in Lebanon, including children, medics and reporters.

Neither Lebanon nor Israel are members of the ICC, so a formal declaration to the court would be required from either to give it jurisdiction to launch probes into a particular period.

In April, Lebanon's caretaker cabinet voted to instruct the foreign ministry to file a declaration with the ICC authorising it to investigate and prosecute alleged war crimes on Lebanese territory since Oct. 7.

Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib never filed the requested declaration and on Tuesday the cabinet published an amended decision that omitted mention of the ICC, saying Lebanon would file complaints to the United Nations instead.

Lebanon has regularly lodged complaints with the U.N. Security Council about Israeli bombardments over the past seven months, but they have yielded no binding U.N. decisions.

Habib did not respond to a Reuters question on why he did not file the requested declaration.

A Lebanese official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the initial cabinet decision raised "confusion" over whether a declaration would "open the door for the court to investigate whatever it wanted across different files".

The official said the request to revisit the decision came from George Kallas, a cabinet minister close to parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the Shi'ite Muslim Amal movement that is allied with the politically powerful Hezbollah.

Since October, Hezbollah and Amal have both fired rockets into Israel, killing 10 civilians, according to the Israeli army, and displacing around 60,000 residents near the border.

Contacted by Reuters, Kallas confirmed he requested a review of cabinet's initial decision but denied it was out of fear Hezbollah or Amal could become subject to ICC arrest warrants.

Human Rights Watch condemned the cabinet's reversal.

"The Lebanese government had a historic opportunity to ensure there was justice and accountability for war crimes in Lebanon. It's shameful that they are forgoing this opportunity," said HRW's Lebanon researcher Ramzi Kaiss.

"Rescinding this decision shows that Lebanon's calls for accountability ring hollow," he told Reuters.

Information Minister Ziad Makary, the government spokesman, said that he had backed the initial decision and would "continue to explore other international tribunals to render justice" despite the reversal.

Lebanon backtracked a few days after the ICC requested arrest warrants over alleged war crimes for Israel's prime minister and defence minister and three Hamas leaders.

The initial push to file an ICC declaration came from MP Halima Kaakour, who holds a PhD in public international law. She recommended the measure to parliament's justice committee, which unanimously endorsed it. Cabinet approved it in late April.

"The political parties that backed this initiative at first seem to have changed their mind. But they never explained the reason to us or the Lebanese people," Kaakour told Reuters.

"Lebanon's complaints to the U.N. Security Council don't get anywhere. We had an opportunity to give the ICC a period of time to look at it, we have the documentation - if we can use these international mechanisms, why not?"

 
The Israeli army announced on Saturday that the Lebanese group Hezbollah launched a Volcano missile toward the Gibor military camp in the northern settlement of Kiryat Shmona, resulting in “significant damage.”

“Hezbollah launched a Volcano missile this morning, hitting the Gibor camp, which is the headquarters of the 769th Brigade in the city of Kiryat Shmona,” the Israeli army radio said.

The brigade is responsible for securing the border in the eastern sector between Israel and Lebanon.

The radio indicated “significant damage” to the camp, without mentioning any human casualties.

Earlier in the day, Israeli news accounts on Telegram broadcast videos they claimed were scenes of a missile striking the Gibor camp, showing significant destruction inside.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah announced in a statement that it targeted a Kiryat Shmona barracks near the Lebanese border, leading to fires breaking out in parts of it.

Tension has flared along the border between Lebanon and Israel amid intermittent exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006.

The border tension comes amid an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 36,400 people since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

Source: Anadolu Agency
 
Israel accused of using white phosphorus in Lebanon as potential for all-out war ratchets up

The potential for all-out war between Israel and Lebanon seems to have dramatically moved up a notch - or more - over the past few days.

And the Israeli prime minister has done nothing to dissuade that notion - telling his troops on the northern border with Lebanon on Wednesday that they are prepared for "very strong action" inside Lebanon.

"Yesterday the land was burning here," Benjamin Netanyahu said in Kiryat Shmona to his audience of soldiers and emergency workers.

"I'm glad you put it out, but the ground was also on fire in Lebanon. Whoever thinks that he will hurt us and we will sit idly by is making a big mistake. We are prepared for a very strong action in the north. One way or another we will restore security to the north."

His words follow days of escalation in the cross-border attacks between the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah fighters.

There have been large fires in several areas in northern Israel after rockets fired by Hezbollah - and claims of white phosphorus being used by the Israelis on Lebanese towns in the same period.

And both the Israeli and Arab media have been awash with worries and dire warnings about the possibility of all-out war on the Lebanese front.

There are multiple reports of serious diplomatic warnings from several Western envoys about an imminent Israeli attack on Lebanon. "Prepare for war," one is thought to have told the Lebanese authorities.

The Israeli prime minister is not the only one to be engaging in increasingly tough rhetoric.

His war cabinet met on Tuesday night amid a video message from his security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who called for war, saying: "Now the IDF's job is to destroy Hezbollah."

He added: "They're burning us here. All Hezbollah strongholds should be burned, they should be destroyed. War!"

The Times of Israel also reported the IDF chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi as saying that Israel is close to making a decision about how to deal with Hezbollah's daily attacks on the northern border and insisted his soldiers were trained and prepared for an operation across the border.

The spike in cross-border tension comes as the global human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) released the findings of an investigation saying Israel's widespread use of white phosphorus in southern Lebanon was "putting civilians at grave risk and contributing to civilian displacement".

The HRW report verified the use of white phosphorus munitions by Israeli forces in at least 17 municipalities across south Lebanon after focussing on the weeks and months immediately after the Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October.

It included five municipalities where airburst munitions were unlawfully used over populated residential areas, HRW says.


news.sky.com

Israel accused of using white phosphorus in Lebanon as potential for all-out war ratchets up

When Sky News contacted the IDF about our findings and those of Human Rights Watch, a spokesperson vehemently denied the illegal use of white phosphorus.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
 

IDF strikes Hezbollah infrastructure in south Lebanon​


Israeli fighter jets struck Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon’s Deir Seryan a short while ago, the military says.

The IDF also says that suspected drone infiltration sirens that sounded in the Golan Heights an hour ago were triggered by three targets that were identified.

The three targets, possibly drones, were downed by air defenses, the military says.

www.timesofisrael.com

IDF strikes Hezbollah infrastructure in south Lebanon

* * *
www.timesofisrael.com www.timesofisrael.com
 

Civilian killed, dozens injured in Israeli strike near Lebanon’s Tyre​


An Israeli strike on a building east of the Lebanese port city of Tyre in the early hours of Friday left one civilian woman dead and more than a dozen wounded, many of them children, according to two security sources.

The Israeli military said it was investigating the report.

The attack came shortly after Hezbollah said it had launched rockets and weaponized drones at nine Israeli military sites in a coordinated attack on Thursday, ramping up hostilities on Lebanon’s southern border for the second consecutive day.

Hezbollah said the attack was carried out in retaliation for an Israeli strike on Tuesday that killed a senior Hezbollah field commander. A security source told Lebanon it was the largest attack waged by Hezbollah since October, when the group started exchanging fire with Israel in parallel with the Gaza war.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 300 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon - more than it lost in 2006, when the sides last fought a major war, according to a Reuters tally. The number of civilians killed is around 80, the tally says. Attacks from Lebanon have killed 18 Israeli soldiers and 10 civilians, Israel says.

The exchanges of fire have also displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.

 

Hezbollah fires rockets at Israel after fighter killed​


Hezbollah said it fired “dozens” of rockets into northern Israel Thursday in retaliation for a deadly strike in south Lebanon, a day after a fiery speech from the group’s leader.

Israel and Hezbollah, a Lebanese movement allied with Hamas, have traded near-daily cross-border fire since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel which triggered war in the Gaza Strip.

Fears of a regional war rose after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned Wednesday “no place” in Israel would be spared in case of all-out war against his group, and threatened the nearby island nation of Cyprus if it opened its airports to Israel.

Hezbollah on Thursday said that “in response to the assassination that the Israeli enemy carried out in the village of Deir Kifa,” fighters targeted an Israeli barracks “with dozens of Katyusha rockets.”

Lebanon’s official National News Agency had reported one dead after an “enemy drone” struck a vehicle in south Lebanon’s Deir Kifa area.

Hezbollah announced that one of its fighters had been killed. A source close to the group, requesting anonymity, told AFP he was killed in the Deir Kifa strike.

The Israeli military said an airstrike “eliminated” a Hezbollah operative in the Deir Kifa area, saying he was “responsible for planning and carrying out terror attacks against Israel and commanding Hezbollah ground forces” in south Lebanon’s Jouaiyya area.

Elsewhere, Israeli fighter jets struck “a Hezbollah surface-to-air missile launcher that posed a threat to aircraft operating over Lebanon,” the army statement added.

The exchanges between the foes, which last went to war in 2006, have escalated in recent weeks, and the Israeli military said Tuesday that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated.”

After the Hezbollah leader’s threats against Cyprus, Lebanon’s foreign ministry said Thursday that “relations between Lebanon and Cyprus are based on a rich history of diplomatic cooperation.”

Contacts and consultations continue between the two countries “at the highest levels,” a foreign ministry statement said, without making specific reference to Nasrallah’s remarks.

The cross-border violence has killed at least 479 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 93 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Israeli authorities say at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed in the country’s north.

 
In the last 5 years, I have not seen a nation's downfall as fast as Lebanon's. While it has always found challenges due to political instability and economic mismanagement, no one predicted it would turn into a basket case so quickly. From what was a well to do hilly coastal paradise facing the Mediterranean sea, strong agriculture and tourism sectors, it's turned itself into a poverty stricken third-world nation. Worthless currency, unemployment, extremely high inflation, massive debt.... top it all with Hezbollah.
It's an eye opener to how quickly a country can fall!
 

Iran mission to UN: All options on table if Israel wages war on Lebanon​


Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations has dismissed Israel’s threats of launching a war on Lebanon as “psychological warfare”, stressing that all options, including full involvement of all resistance groups in West Asia, are on the table in case of such military aggression.

“Albeit Iran deems as psychological warfare the Zionist regime’s propaganda about intending to attack Lebanon, should it embark on full-scale military aggression, an obliterating war will ensue. All options, incl. the full involvement of all Resistance Fronts, are on the table,” the mission said in a post published on its official X account on Saturday.

Earlier this week, the secretary general of Iraq’s Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq resistance group warned Israel against waging a new war on Lebanon, emphasizing that the strategic interests of its main ally, the United States, in West Asia will be targeted in such a case.

“If America continues to support the usurping Israeli regime, and the Zionist enemy expands its assaults on Lebanon and Hezbollah, Washington’s interests in the region and Iraq will be in jeopardy,” Qais al-Khazali said.

The Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq chief stated that the occupying Israeli regime and its extremist right-wing administration led by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be of any benefit to the United States, apparently questioning Washington’s full-fledged support for the Tel Aviv regime.

Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging deadly fire since early October last year, shortly after the regime launched a genocidal aggression against the Gaza Strip following a surprise operation by the Palestinian Hamas resistance group.

Hezbollah has vowed to keep up its retaliatory attacks as long as the Tel Aviv regime continues its Gaza war, which has so far killed at least 37,765 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 86,429 others.

Hezbollah officials have repeatedly said they do not want a war with Israel but if it happens they are ready.

Hezbollah officials have repeatedly said they do not want a war with Israel but if it happens they are ready.

Lebanon’s Grand Shia Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan says Hezbollah has a massive arsenal of missiles of different types, warning that the resistance movement would fire up to half a million missiles toward the Israeli-occupied territories in case of a new war on Lebanon.

“In case of an open war between Lebanon and Israel, the latter should expect the launch of some 500,000 missiles [from southern Lebanon into the occupied lands]. The destructive power of these missiles can send the occupying regime back to 70 years ago,” Qabalan noted.

www.presstv.ir

Iran mission to UN: All options on table if Israel wages war on Lebanon

Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations says all options, including full involvement of resistance groups in West Asia, are on the table in case Israel decides to launch a war on Lebanon.
www.presstv.ir www.presstv.ir
 
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