#2006 lebanon war

[playitagin]

The 2006 Lebanon War begins.

The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War[42] and known in Lebanon as the July War[2] (Arabic: حرب تموز, Ḥarb Tammūz) and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War (Hebrew: מלחמת לבנון השנייה, Milhemet Levanon HaShniya),[43] was a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Golan Heights. The principal parties were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The conflict started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. Due to unprecedented Iranian military support to Hezbollah before and during the war,[44] some consider it the first round of the Iran–Israel proxy conflict, rather than a continuation of the Arab–Israeli conflict.

The conflict was precipitated by the 2006 Hezbollah cross-border raid. On 12 July 2006, Hezbollah fighters fired rockets at Israeli border towns as a diversion for an anti-tank missile attack on two armored Humvees patrolling the Israeli side of the border fence.[45] The ambush left three soldiers dead. Two Israeli soldiers were abducted and taken by Hezbollah to Lebanon.[45][46] Five more were killed in Lebanon, in a failed rescue attempt. Hezbollah demanded the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel in exchange for the release of the abducted soldiers.[47] Israel refused and responded with airstrikes and artillery fire on targets in Lebanon. Israel attacked both Hezbollah military targets and Lebanese civilian infrastructure, including Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport.[48] The IDF launched a ground invasion of Southern Lebanon. Israel also imposed an air and naval blockade.[49] Hezbollah then launched more rockets into northern Israel and engaged the IDF in guerrilla warfare from hardened positions.[50]

The conflict is believed to have killed between 1,191 and 1,300 Lebanese people,[51][52][53][54] and 165 Israelis.[55] It severely damaged Lebanese civil infrastructure, and displaced approximately one million Lebanese[56] and 300,000–500,000 Israelis.[57][58][59]

#Jul.12.2006 #2006 Lebanon War #2006 Israel–Hezbollah War #July War #history today

[mauricedharris]

Under the Bombs (2007) movie review

Under the Bombs (2007) movie review

A simple story that gently rips your heart out Just watched Under the Bombs for the first time, a 2007 Lebanese feature film directed by Philippe Aractingi and written by Aractingi and Michel Leviant. Nada Abu Farhat plays Zeina, a wealthy Lebanese Muslim mother of a young boy, Karim, from whom she has been separated during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah (started July 12, 2006 –…

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#2006 Lebanon War #cluster bombs #Georges Khabbaz #Hezbollah #Hezbollah-Israel War 2006 #Israel #Israeli-Palestinian #Lebanon #Nada Abou Farhat #odd couple #Philippe Aractingi #SLA #Sous les Bombes #Southern Lebanese Army #Southern Lebanon #The SLA #UN #UN Res 1701 #Under the Bombs #Under the Bombs (2007) #unexpected companions thrown together by crisis #UNIFIL

[news4dzhozhar]

If Israel is arrogant & crazy enough to provoke this, they will get what they deserve.

#you dont fuck with hezbollah unless you have a death wish #Hezbollah #iron dome will be useless #bravado kills #karma is a bitch #apartheid #save palestine #ethnic cleansing #israel is an apartheid state #seek truth #free palestine 🇵🇸 #genocide #illegal occupation #israel is committing genocide #israeli war crimes #lebanon #did they learn nothing from 2006? #they already got their asses handed to them once #inept iof wouldn't last a week #syria #tel aviv #arrogance begets downfall #the US wouldnt help you #the icj would be the least of their problems #talk is cheap

[fursasaida]

In just one month, approximately 462 hectares (4.6 million m²) of woodland, "notably pines and oaks, as well as around 20 hectares of centuries-old olive groves," have been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes, said Georges Mitri, Director of the Land and Natural Resources Programme at Balamand University. Since the escalation of tensions between Hezbollah and the Israeli army on Oct. 8, the latter has used white phosphorus to set fire to forests and fields in border areas. The 1980 Geneva Convention, which Israel has not signed, prohibits the use of white phosphorous on civilians and in civilian areas due to its devastating effects on humans, animals and the environment.

[...]

Amid the ongoing economic crisis, the attacks targeting olive groves ahead of harvest season have a major negative impact on the local economy in the area. "Traditionally, people gather around the olive trees, harvest their crops, press their oil together... A big part of their lives is being lost," lamented Younes. “The olive trees being burned are centuries old," he pointed out. “If we were to replant them today, how long would it be before these fields became productive?” Giving an estimate of the economic losses attributed to the daily fires in the South, Mitri put the figure at nearly 20 million dollars. In the long term, Younes is particularly concerned about the environmental impact of the phosphorus bombs. "We have no choice but to wait until the end of hostilities before assessing the situation on the ground," he said. In Younes’ view, the greater the rate of absorption of phosphorus into the soil and water, the greater the risk of dramatic long-term consequences on Lebanon’s environment.

I'll add here that southern Lebanon has never fully recovered from 2006. There are still unexploded cluster bombs in the ground, killing and maiming people. There is still chemical contamination. The economic impact on agriculture has never been fully recouped. The cancer rates are still elevated and unaddressed. The labor structure and which crops are grown changed after 2006 and have never reverted. I remember weeping watching the bombing of Gaza in 2021 as I was in the middle of writing a paper about the long term legacies of the July War in Lebanon, with these additional long-term violences of the bombing at the forefront of my mind along with the immediate deaths and tragedies. This is a horrifying compounding of an existing injury, at a time when Lebanon is in economic free fall and (as the article also explains) in the middle of fire season, and with firefighters unable to do much because the area is. being bombed.

#lebanon #israel #waste #contamination #agriculture #UXOs

[sayruq]

Here's another update because the situation is changing again.

The fighting continues

Things are clearly not going well for the Israelis because they've trotted out the widely unpopular president of the Palestinian Authority to try and weaken support for Hamas among Palestinians and the global South.

For a while there, it seemed Israel was truly preparing for the ground invasion of Gaza it has been promising since Operation Al Aqsa Flood started

Israel has even come up with a plan for the tunnels of Gaza that the Palestinian resistance was planning on using and it's predictably evil and, by their own admission, unlikely to truly work

Israel and Hezbollah have been increasingly tussling over the past day and a half. Remember Hezbollah has said if there's a ground operation in Gaza, it will officially join the war (unofficially, it's been supporting Palestine by bombing military targets in northern and southern Israel)

Israel is understandable worried about Hezbollah. After all, they were humiliated in 2006 when they invaded Lebanon. They were so humiliated, they don't really mess with Hezbollah (prior to this war that is). They bomb Syria, assassinate Iranian officials, bomb the Egyptian border but they largely leave Lebanon alone.

In fact, they're so worried about facing Hamas in Gaza with Hezbollah and possibly Iran coming in that the inevitable Gaza ground operation started to get hiccups

Ah yes, clouds.

But that's not the real reason. Rumours have been circulating that there has desertions in the army, enough people are leaving that the top Israeli military officials are having trouble with their plans. Morale is also very low which is part of the reason they're attacking Gaza so heavily. It's a depraved and desperate attempt to project strength to their soldiers and the settlers

There is also the fact that Hezbollah is nothing to sneer at

The situation is simply not looking good for Israel at all and America is rightly worried

America has tried helping it out by convincing Iran to back down

I bet both America and Israel regret all those assassinations.

So, what now? It should be obvious that a ground of invasion of Gaza is unlikely to happen

Israel situation is so humbling, it is putting out statements like this. Imagine Israel saying this 2 weeks ago

Surely without a ground invasion, Iran and Hezbollah will also back down? Nope, the red line has shifted and now Israel has to stop its bombardment of Gaza or face a regional war

Israel now has a choice to make that will decide the future of the settler colony

Of course when Israel inevitably backs down, it'll try to frame it as though it was because the West pressured them to, out of concern for Palestinians. Nevermind Biden outrightly lying about seeing pictures of the 40 beheaded babies and this

and also nevermind that the entire western media has been calling for genocide against Palestinians. Nevermind the EU's first act when the war broke out was to cut off aid to Palestine.

Needless to say the rest of the world will know what caused Israel to back down.

Palestine.

Palestinians have dealt a huge blow, not just to Israel but also the US and the EU who have lost a lot of credibility by publicly calling for and materially supporting genocide in Gaza.

Best believe the global South has been watching this closely.

#palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #colonialism #genocide

[zvaigzdelasas]

What will cause a change in Western policy is Israeli military failure. That is why the Biden administration has devoted more energy to compelling Israel to formulate attainable objectives than it has counseled the restoration of fuel and water to Gaza’s hospitals.

To give a prominent recent example in this regard, in 2006, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ecstatically welcomed Israel’s war against Lebanon as the “birth pangs of a new Middle East.” Confident that Israel was pulverizing Hezbollah, the U.S. imperiously dismissed efforts to achieve a cessation of hostilities. Yet, as soon as Israeli armored columns and ground forces faced slaughter when they attempted to advance into southern Lebanon, the U.S. immediately changed its tune and beseeched the UN Security Council to adopt a ceasefire resolution.

Similarly, in 1982, the U.S. gave Israel a free hand to eradicate the PLO in Lebanon. Once it became clear it lacked the capacity to occupy West Beirut, the Reagan administration sent Philip Habib to negotiate an agreement that preserved the PLO. In other words, so long as the U.S. and other Western governments reject a Gaza truce and focus on meaningless obscenities like “humanitarian pauses,” it means they still believe Israel will or can succeed. If they reverse their position, you can take all the homilies about civilian suffering motivating their new position with a grain of salt. Window dressing. It means they have concluded Israel has failed.

An alternative scenario would be that Western governments have concluded that their and Israel’s conduct is producing a significant threat to their own interests and that it’s time to wind down the clock.

12 Nov 23

[matan4il]

Update post:

The biggest thing everyone's talking about on the news in Israel right now is the finding of a MASSIVE Hamas compound underneath UNRWA's main headquarters in Gaza, and finding proof that UNRWA were supplying the compound with electricity and internet services, supply which allowed Hamas to develop their intelligence, used during the Hamas massacre among other things. When Israel published the finding of the compound, the head of UNRWA claimed they found nothing up until October, and weren't able to check anything since. Israel responded by pointing out that a compound so developed most likely took no less than ten years to dig and build, and that UNRWA was repeatedly told that Hamas is operating under its headquarters, but chose to ignore this. What I think is most telling is a tour taken by an Israeli journalist in the compound, where they showed him that the server farm in the Hamas compound is found directly under the server farm of UNRWA, and that cables from the latter were running down into the terror tunnel compound directly beneath it (source in Hebrew, here's a vid in English giving viewers a tour of the compound, I'll attach the vid itself below, too). Something like that doesn't happen by coincidence, and without the knowledge of those in the server farm above groud. Some of the cables were also cut in the UNRWA server farm, like someone realized the IDF was coming, and tried to hide the link between the two server farms. As one officer pointed out, if you're an innoncent, interenational humanitarian aid organization, you have no reason to cut the cables of your own server farm, or remove the name tags from the doors of the rooms inside your headquarters. You only do that if you have something to hide.

Israel's army has been fighting Hamas in all of Gaza, except the southern city of Rafiach (Rafah in English). There are a lot of Gazans there, who have been evacuated from other zones. There's also 4 Hamas regiments there, which means Israel will have no choice but to fight there. So the only question is how to fight in that city, in order to minimize the harm to the civilian population. There are reports that Israel's Prime Minister has asked the IDF to present plans both on how to fight Hamas in Rafah, and how to evacuate the civilians.

In that context, I got to hear a radio interview with an Israeli minister, who used to be the head of Shabak (Israel's equivalent of the FBI). When asked about the US warning for Israel not to fight in Rafah during the upcoming month of Ramadan, Avi Dichter said that it has never been a month during which Muslims have not fought in wars. In fact, in 1973 the Egyptians and Syrians (with soldiers from even more Arab countries fighting alongside them) chose to attack Israel on Oct 6, despite Ramadan that year starting on Oct 4, causing the war to be known in the Arab world as "The Ramadan War." More than that, in Israel Ramadan is always a time of peak alert, because so many terrorist attacks are carried out during it (here's an example from Mar 2023, when Hamas was encouraging individuals to carry out terrorist attacks during Ramadan, and here's another from 2022). Dichter suggested that if Muslims can carry out terrorist attacks during Ramadan (and it has happened outside Israel, too), the war in Gaza which was started by Hamas can continue during it.

On an Israeli TV news panel, someone shared the estimate that over 100,000,000 dollars (one hundred million dollars!) is the sum of money that Hamas made just since the start of the war from selling to the civilian population the humanitarian aid that was allowed into Gaza, and which Hamas stole from the Gazans (more than once, by using violence).

This is Chagit Rein.

She lost her son Benaya in the Second Lebanon War, back in 2006. I got to hear an interview with her following the fact that during this war, she decided she would try to visit the shiva (the mourning week following a burial) of every fallen soldier. According to her, she has so far visited the families of 400 soldiers killed on Oct 7 or since. "If they see me, then it's living proof that there can be a life alongside the loss. That was our kids' last will and testament. They died so we could live. So we have to live." When asked what she's asked most often when she visits the families, she said it was what she did first after her son's shiva. "My other son was being drafted into the army, so the first thing I did was to accompany him in that." She was asked whether there were moments when she was overwhelmed herself. She replied that she's seen wounded soldiers making incredible effortrs to come to the shiva of others who were killed, to offer their families some comfort. In one case, an injured soldier recognized her, and told her that it was thanks to her son Benaya that he was an officer in the armored forced. He tried to hug her, but was at first unable to get up or reach her from the stretcher he was on. Chagit recounted that she tries to make sure her visits would be about the families she's conmforting, not about herself, but that's when she broke down and cried.

This is Doctor Elai Chogeg-Golan with her husband Ariel and their baby daughter, Yael. On the right, their house in kibbutz Kfar Azza.

On Oct 7, due to Hamas' massive rocket attack, Elai was inside the bomb shelter in her home with her family from 6:30 in the morning, when Gazan civilians got in at around 1 in the afternoon. The Gazans tried to get the family to come out, but it wouldn't. Then, those invaders set the house on fire, probably thinking that would force the family out. Instead, Elai and the family tried to keep themselves safe using water. At some point, she recounts they even fought face to face with the Gazans, who tried to beat them with sticks from the outside. She said she managed to grab a stick, and beat them back. These Gazans then threw in two gas balloons into the burning house. Elai says that most of the burns she sustained were from the fire ball that that created. At some point, the Gazans moved on, and that's when the family got out, because the whole place was on fire, they were choking from the smoke, and even the roof collapsed. They hid nearby, but then baby Yael lost consciousness, and the parents decided to try and get out of the kibbutz. At the entrance, they met soldiers who helped get them to a hospital. Elai had severe burns on over 60% of her body. She was in a coma for 53 days, but incredibly, they all survived.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

#israel #antisemitism #israeli #israel news #israel under attack #israel under fire #terrorism #anti terrorism #hamas #antisemitic #antisemites #jews #jew #judaism #jumblr #frumblr #jewish #israelunderattack

[onesettleronebullet]

Israel carried out airstrikes near the northeast Lebanese towns of Ras Baabelk and Hermel on Tuesday, four security sources told Reuters, in the furthest bombardment yet from the southern border where Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israel. Israel confirmed the strikes and said its aircraft targeted a number of military sites used by Hezbollah in response to a rocket attack on one of its bases near the Lebanese border. Incoming rocket alerts sounded in northern Israel throughout Tuesday. Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been trading fire since October in the worst cross-border violence since the 2006 Lebanon War.

26/03/2024

#die nuus #sabc #Israel #Lebanon

[tamamita]

Also Israel deliberately targeting civilians is not something they're shying away from. Ever since they bombed Dahiya in Lebanon, a Shi'a quarter in the 2006 Lebanon war, Dahiya was always invoked as a military strategy. Besides targetting Hezbollah, the whole purpose was to level the neighbourhood to humiliate the population, and collectively punish them. The regime reused this form of asymmetrical warfare in its genocide against Gaza by levelling schools, hospitals and neighbourhoods, all of which had been endorsed by various Israeli politicians and IOF officials. Various reports from UN and Amnesty even show the disproportional damage done by the IOF.

This is exactly a repetition of previous atrocities they've committed, but at a bigger scale.

[quasi-normalcy]

I remember back in 2006 when Israel was attacking Lebanon and Michael Ignatieff was running for leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and he said in English that he "wasn't losing any sleep at night" over Lebanese civilian casualties, and then like a week later, he said in French that Israel was committing war crimes, and anyways, I think that that says everything anyone has ever needed to know the principles of the Liberal Party.

#cdnpoli

[thebrightestwitchofherage]

Responding to yet more unhinged Anti zionists arguments

Because I am not going to waste my precious time and energy on replying to each ignorant person who believes Hamas are a "brave resistance group"

For the millionth time: I do not support the genocide of Palestinians when I say Israelis shouldn't die. I am not deflecting or denying anything, I am making posts about how I and other Israelis have been impacted by October 7th and the war ever since. I am allowed to mourn my people.

Released female Israeli hostages aren't "weaponizing Feminism". Just because some were "only" sexually assaulted and threatened with rape, doesn't mean others aren't raped. Israeli women were targeted on October 7th. Their assault, mutilation, and violent rape were all planned. Hamas terrorists who were caught and interrogated have said so themselves in published recorded interrogations. *** Regarding Mia Shem- I've said before: mocking her appearance isn't making you the great humane person you think you are. I've had some nutjob tell me "Oh well in an interview she said she was only groped and others were raped. She's using feminism and things people care about in order to gain sympathy." She was: -Kidnapped from a party and shot. -Operated on by a veterinarian while in captivity for over 50 days. -Starved ,beaten, mocked , groped and sexually assulted while constantly threatened with being raped. And you're mocking her. Wow that is a new low. Believe Jewish women.

You are constantly backing up your "facts" and statistics with un-credible sources. Let me make this clear one final time: Al Jazeera = racist and antisemitic supports terrorism There isn't a Gaza Ministry of Health- it's Hamas.

Palestinians and Hamas specifically are very racist towards Afro-Palestinian / black people. A quick Google search will lead you to this:

Anti-Black racism in Palestine

The State of Palestine has a community of Afro-Palestinians, many of whom are descendants of the victims of the historical Slavery in Palestine, which ended in the 20th-century.[43]

Racism against African Americans in Palestinian media (Wikipedia)

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has been the subject of some viciously racial personal attacks, alongside vociferous criticism of her policies.[44] These included an anti-black racist cartoon in Palestinian Authority's controlled Press Al Quds. The New York Times reported in 2006:

Her comment that the Israel-Lebanon war represented the "birth pangs of a new Middle East"— coming at a time when television stations were showing images of dead Lebanese children — sparked ridicule and even racist cartoons. A Palestinian newspaper, Al Quds," which "depicted Ms. Rice as pregnant with an armed monkey, and a caption that read, "Rice speaks about the birth of a new Middle East.[45]

The Palestinian media has used racist terms including "black spinster" and "colored dark skin lady."[46][47]

.... The African Palestinians who now live in the two compounds near al-Aqsa mosque have called the area home since 1930.[12] They have experienced prejudice, with some Palestinian Arabs[21] referring to them as "slaves" (abeed) and to their neighbourhood as the "slaves' prison" (habs al-abeed), and their colour has led to objections against them marrying Palestinians with lighter skin.[9][3] According to Mousa Qous, director of the African Community Society and a former member of the PFLP, "Sometimes when a black Palestinian wants to marry a white Palestinian woman, some members of her family might object." Interracial marriage with Afro-Palestinians has become more common in recent years.[8] In colloquial Palestinian Arabic, standard usage prefers the word sumr (dark colour) over sawd, which has an uncouth connotation.[22]

-For further reading I found this research paper to be very detailed: https://d-nb.info/1204258597/34

*** I have to mention this as well since some anti-Zionist brought up MLK as an example for their argument against Israel: you clearly have no idea what you're talking about... he was a Zionist!

Jews and African Americans have historically been allies in their struggles for equality. He literally wrote an open letter titled "Letter to an Anti-Zionist friend", explaining why he supports Zionism. Do your research.

5. Gaza hasn't been under Israel's control since 2006, it is controlled by Hamas! Before that, it was governed by Fatah, Another terrorist organization (Hamas killed all of the Fatah members when they came to power). Hamas = terror organization leaching off the Palestinian people. They want to kill all Jews and are against everything that represents the West. UWNRA - Is filled with Hamas terrorists. UN & ICRC - Both have a long history of being biased against Jews and have failed the Jewish people once again.

6. Israelis don't deserve to die just because they are Israeli. They are not privileged to have a government that (relative to Hamas) cares about their civilians.

7. "From the river to the sea" Is a genocidal chant calling for the death of all Jews / Israelis. The final solution / one solution = killing all Jews, holocaust. Intifadas aren't peaceful or inspiring resistance. It's Terror attacks targeting civilians: Shootings, stabbings, lynchings, school buses exploding, etc.

I have an entire post explaining this, you're welcome to read it but the main takeaway should be: You don't get to decide what's anti-Semitic, Jews do. If Jews tell you this chant threatens them and is antisemitic- it is.

#israel palestine conflict #believe jewish women #israel #gaza strip #jewish #ישראל #human rights #hamas is isis #current events #middle east #jewish history #news on gaza #israeli #free gaza #טאמבלר ישראלי #gaza #jewblr #gazaunderattack #gaza genocide #ceasefire #free palestine

[opencommunion]

"Everywhere around the world, the broad masses of the people, from the heart of the Global South to the center of the imperial core, are expressing a clear and thorough rejection of the ongoing genocide that has quickly accelerated to a firm revulsion to the Zionist ideology and Zionist project as a whole and to solidarity with and inspiration by the Palestinian people and their heroic resistance in all forms, particularly the armed resistance. The 'red triangle' over targets featured in the resistance videos of Al-Qassam Brigades, Saraya al-Quds and other resistance forces has become an online shorthand for the triumph of the people, their determination, their love for their land and their community over the automated, technologized forces of death and destruction represented by the Merkava tanks and military bases of the US/Israeli war machine.

The 'Dahiyeh doctrine' of mass destruction of civilian lives and infrastructure failed in Lebanon in 2006 because the people were a popular cradle, a source of nourishment, growth and sustenance, of the resistance, because the resistance was of, by and for the masses; today, it is failing once again in its full genocidal furor in Gaza for the same reason. This Resistance emerges from the very camps of refugees, denied their right to return home for the past 75 years, that the Zionists seek to destroy and drive into a new displacement today. Globalizing the intifada today means developing the international popular cradle of the resistance – the growing recognition that the Resistance of the Palestinian people, joined by their comrades, brothers and sisters in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and beyond, today represent the hope of humanity on our collective front lines.

Like the great popular Intifada of 1987, today’s Palestinian, Arab and international globalized intifada is an anti-imperialist cause. It is a movement against colonialism, imperialism, racism and oppression everywhere. The Palestinian flag is not only a symbol of Palestinian national liberation, but of a commitment to anti-colonial principles, to Indigenous sovereignty, to the fight against exploitation, to the fight to end the extraction of wealth, labour and resources by the United States and its imperialist cohort in Europe.

The anti-imperialist nature of the Palestinian cause has perhaps never been more clear than in the present day, where every imperialist power has clearly aligned itself with the Zionist regime with unparalleled fervor, sending billions of dollars in weaponry for genocidal aerial bombing of the Palestinian people in Gaza; banning demonstrations and Palestinian and Palestine solidarity organizations, including Samidoun in Germany; arresting and prosecuting demonstrators and organizers in France, the United States, Canada and elsewhere; setting up new parliamentary and congressional bodies meant to silence and suppress the growing movement and releasing a torrent of deceptive propaganda; and unleashing a wave of social terror in the academy. It is clear that the imperialist powers are doing this because they see the events of October 7 and the rising regional and global resistance as a threat to their continued domination and extraction of wealth from the region and view the Zionist regime as their mechanism to hold on to such power through genocidal violence.

The imperialist powers, led by the United States, have always viewed Zionism as a mechanism to extract wealth from the people of the region while denying the Arab nation sovereignty over its land, wealth and resources. From the Zionist colonization of Palestine, directed by Britain, through the Nakba, the 1967 occupation, the Intifada to the Zionist genocide today, the imperialist powers have always been the central enemy of the Palestinian people, and every rock, every bullet and every strike that confronts 'Israel' also confronts imperialism.

Today’s international popular cradle of the resistance, this globalized intifada, stretches from Gaza, Sanaa, Beirut, Baghdad and Damascus to the streets of Havana, Caracas, Sao Paulo and Johannesburg to the heart of the imperial core, raising a collective voice and developing an international struggle against imperialism and its murderous wars, sanctions and siege, with Palestine at the center.

Also like the great Intifada of 1987, we are in a clear era of unity of the Palestinian cause despite the lingering near-afterlife of the collaborationist Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. The Palestinian people throughout occupied Palestine and everywhere in exile and diaspora are united to bring an end to the genocide, unified behind the Resistance, forming a global resistance front that also embraces popular mobilization, arts, culture, political engagement and grassroots organizing as central to the liberation struggle. On this 36th anniversary, we recall that the siege of the camps in Lebanon was finally broken by the eruption of the Intifada inside occupied Palestine in 1987. Today, we look forward to breaking the siege on Gaza, not only through the strength and resilience of the Palestinian people in Gaza, but through the uprising elsewhere and everywhere.

... From members of U.S. Congress, to university officials, to German security services, to British police, to the French interior ministry, imperialist forces are attempting to criminalize, suppress and silence clear speech for Palestine. They seek to turn reality inside out, whereby 'intifada' – the term reflecting resistance to genocide and oppression – is redefined as itself 'genocidal.' These propaganda campaigns aim to empty the term 'genocide' of meaning and legal weight and to attempt to reclaim control over the discussion of the Palestinian cause, a control that has been swept away by decades of struggle, and has been rendered unrecoverable after October 7. They also seek to target the growing role and organization of Palestinians in exile and diaspora, reclaiming their role in their national liberation movement stripped from them through the years of the Oslo liquidation process.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Long live the Intifada. Victory to the Palestinian Resistance. Stand with the Palestinian armed struggle. Zionism is racism. Imperialism will be defeated. These slogans are ringing out everywhere around the world, and now is the time to declare them, more loudly and clearly than ever. There are no slogans or statements that will satisfy Zionism and imperialism – on the contrary, they wish to strip our movement of our most effective advocacy and our most unifying vision, the vision and promise that enables people to continue to fight, to resist, and to move toward victory in the most extreme conditions of genocide and deprivation."

Samidoun Network, Globalize the Intifada: Regional resistance, international struggle and Palestinian liberation on the 36th anniversary of the great Intifada

#palestine #zionism

[probablyasocialecologist]

Hamas appears to have three goals corresponding to the short, medium and long term. In the short term, Hamas appears to have taken over 150 Israelis captive, and reports suggest around three quarters of those are military or security personnel. These hostages, Hamas hopes, will act as a shield against Israeli counterattacks and a bargaining chip to be traded for some of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails and in the ongoing neverending negotiations over the blockade on Gaza. In the medium term Hamas hopes to intervene politically in Israel, both domestically and within its surrounding network of relations with Arab states. Netanyahu’s bluster has correctly been judged to be lying on shaky foundations – his civil power grab has deeply polarised Zionist opinion both within Israel and internationally, and his alliance with far right provocateurs has not been universally welcomed. In fact that alliance may well become untenable now that Israel has suffered serious military losses while its troops were off chaperoning a bunch of fascist goons. There are echoes here of the 2006 attack on Lebanon when Israel found to its cost that soldiers accustomed to brutalising teenagers in the West Bank were less impressive when up against a rooted, disciplined and equipped resistance militia. Moreover, part of Netanyahu’s domestic political appeal within Israel is the promise of the so-called Abraham Accords, treaties normalising diplomatic and trade relations with the Israeli state signed so far by UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – but not, as yet, Saudi Arabia. This process had already been overshadowed by China’s surprise intervention earlier this year in brokering a treaty between Saudi and Iran to end the war in Yemen. And the reactions of the Gulf states have been noticeably cooler towards Israel than one might have expected. These peace treaties, for what they are worth, now seem dead in the water. But it’s the third long-term goal of Hamas’s intervention that is the most important. The ongoing and seemingly neverending humiliation of the Palestinians at the hands of Israel has been responded to. Hamas statements at the outset of the conflict, relayed on Al-Jazeera English (which has been invaluable – no wonder Israeli snipers murdered Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh last year), emphasised that this was a general call for Palestinian resistance, and invited other groups and factions to join. This echoes Hamas’s earlier, much smaller, rocket attack on Israel in May 2021, which came in response to Israeli police outrages at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. As with this time, Israel was caught off guard when Hamas retaliated: its assumption had been that al-Aqsa was not in Gaza, therefore Hamas would not strike back. What we saw that year, flickering briefly, was a three-pronged Palestinian resistance movement comprising Hamas in Gaza (which has an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population), assorted militant groups in the West Bank, as well as Palestinians within Israel’s borders itself, who organised and delivered a one-day general strike. These glimmers of a new Palestinian resistance movement come as the old order, represented by Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas are despised, discredited and in their senescence. They have at best proved impotent at protecting Palestinians in the West Bank and at worst actively collaborated with the Israeli occupation. A new Palestinian resistance movement will need a new leadership, and Hamas are positioning themselves at the head of that.

#israel #palestine #gaza #west bank #hamas

[justsomeunsurefancat]

Israeli soldiers threw detonators disguised as canned food. Displaced children opened them thinking it was actual food and these exploded, killing them instantly.

In 2007, a 17-year-old girl had her leg tore off by a cluster bomblet that looked like a toy.

The bomblet was one of the estimated 1 million unexploded sub-munitions scattered across the valleys and hills of south Lebanon during 2006's Israel-Hezbollah war.

#palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #israel #palestinians #gaza strip #palestinian genocide #ceasefire #ceasefire now #ceasefire in gaza #strike for gaza #strike for palestine

[sayruq]

This is all due to Hezbollah's operations at the border which they've helpfully summarised for us

According to the group, they've barely used 5% of their capabilities but it's still proving to be too much for Israel. The northern settlements have evacuated. They have lost billions of dollars in military equipment, installations, and bases (Hezbollah even destroyed an entire base before the temporary truce). Every attempt to try and rebuild its security along the border always ends the same way for Israel, ie a precision guided missile.

If war does break out, it wouldn't be surprising at all to Hezbollah. According to Nasrallah, the general secretary, they're engaging in a strategy called escalation ladder where one end of the ladder is peace and the other end is open war. Every day, Hezbollah's operations increase in intensity. The same goes for Israel who recently destroyed an entire southern Lebanese village, killing countless of civilians. Netanyahu has been publicly threatening war for a while now but that was just him bluffing. His war cabinet, as well as his coalition, seem far more eager. To put it simply, each side will escalate until they're truly at war.

Most of Israel's Brigades are in Gaza right now, 22 of them to be exact. It will be very difficult and costly to bring some of them to the border for war. It might be possible that Israel intends to end the war on Gaza to focus on Hezbollah. They've been forced back to the negotiating table after storming off on the 2nd. Hamas has made it clear that they won't exchange any prisoners without a comprehensive ceasefire, aka no more temporary truces.

A war with Lebanon will be disastrous for Israel. They lost the 2000 and 2006 wars against a much weaker, less armed Hezbollah. Hell, they didn't even win against the Resistance in Gaza in 2014 and they're actively losing today. It's clear that the army of conscripts are under trained and not battle ready. Besides desertion, the Israeli army has to deal with soldiers that flee from the fighters instead of holding their positions and fighting back (Here's a Al Qassam Brigades video where the Palestinians ambush a tent full of Israel soldiers, only for 9 out of the 10 to flee).

If 500,000 Israelis fled the country because of Oct 7th and the war in Gaza, how many more would flee if war breaks out between Hezbollah and Israel? Not to mention, how many more would be internally displaced? This is a war that might end up lasting years. Even 6 months of war might prove too much for a country that is more fragile than we realised before Oct 7th.

Oh and this is Israel's FDI in the first quarter of 2023

It has definitely tanked even lower since then. That's just one aspect of the economy, imagine all the others especially with hundreds of thousands of workers conscripted, displaced, or have fled the country.

A war with Hezbollah will effectively bring about Israel's collapse. It will no longer be happening 'within our lifetime,' it will be happening within the next ten years.

#yemen #jerusalem #tel aviv #current events #palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #news on gaza #palestine news #news update #war news #war on gaza #lebanon

[zvaigzdelasas]

[TimesOfIsrael is Private Israeli Media]

A Lebanese newspaper linked to the Hezbollah terror group claims that Israel has set a March 15 deadline for a diplomatic deal pushing the Iran-backed terror group’s forces from southern Lebanon, after which it is prepared to escalate the ongoing border skirmishes into a war.

Yesterday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US special envoy to the region Amos Hochstein that Hezbollah’s continued attacks on Israel are bringing the country closer to a decision regarding military action in Lebanon.

Al-Akhbar quotes Western officials saying that Hochstein does not believe the fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border can be halted before a deal is reached for a truce in Gaza. The paper also claims Americans think a diplomatic settlement between Beirut and Jerusalem will have to include a solution to the border disputes, in particular the Mount Dov area, known in Lebanon as the Shebaa farms, and a deployment of the Lebanese army in the south.

[Al Mayadeen is Private Lebanese Media]

Following multiple reports on a presumed deadline for a political agreement that would see a cessation of operation from Lebanon, military affairs analyst to Israeli Channel 13, Or Heller, said that the deadline has been "completely refuted" by Israeli authorities.

Heller explained that dates such as the alleged March 15 deadline "do not exist," adding that there are no final deadlines, as had been previously reported.

However, the analyst said that Israelis "are [experiencing] complete ambiguity about" what will happen on the northern front. He also said that the greatest achievement that has come out from confrontations on the front with Lebanon goes to the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was able to push out "around a hundred thousand Israelis from their" colonial outposts.

At an earlier time on Thursday, the Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, took special notice of the deadline and other Israeli threats, saying that Israelis "should stop the threats," as they have culminated in "shame" rather than "productive action".

"Recently it was spread in the media that the threat [will be executed on] March 15, meaning that Israel is likely to attack!"

"If [Israel] attacks, we will break its legs and the legs of those who come with it," Sheikh Qaseem underlined during his address at the memorial of martyr Mustafa Salman in Beirut.

"Are you threatening us with Israel?," the Hezbollah official said in reference to Western diplomats that have demanded Hezbollah cease its operations in support of Palestine.

"For us, Israel has become weaker than a spider's web, and we see it nearing its end. If it attacks, we will respond, and if it fights, we will fight it. If it wants to threaten, we do not threaten in media outlets. Rather, we are preparing for any day when Israel chooses to expand its battle. We are waiting for it, God willing, and we will be victorious with God's help as we were victorious in July 2006," Qassem concluded on Thursday.

7 Mar 24