English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 11/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance
Luke/01/01-07: “All the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him.And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’So he told them this parable: ‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 10-11/2024
Text & Video: The Treason of Esmail Qaani & His Secretary Exposes the Iranian Regime as the True Enemy of the Lebanese, Arabs, and Global Peace—Not Israel/Elias Bejjani/October 10/2024
Elias Bejjani /Text and Video: Analysis of Naïm Qassem’s Illusions, Delusions, Denial and Treacherous Speech/October 08/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text & Video: The End of Iran’s Reign of Terror and Hezbollah's Demise/October 06/2024
At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Wafiq Safa reportedly targeted
Lebanon says 22 dead in Israeli strikes on central Beirut
UN accuses Israel of firing on Lebanon peacekeepers
Irish troops in Lebanon ‘all accounted for’ – Taoiseach
Israeli forces fire at UN peacekeeper positions in south Lebanon, peacekeepers say
AMCD & Fakoury Foundation Demand LAF Implement UNSC 1559
Safe places needed for those displaced in Lebanon, official says
Can Lebanon finally free itself from Hezbollah's grip?/Brent Sadler, former Middle East Correspondent, ITN, former Beirut Bureau Chief, CNNEuronews/October 10, 2024
Iran at a crossroads over support for Hezbollah/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/October 10, 2024
Naim Qassem: Hezbollah’s New and Subdued Voice/David Daoud/FDD's Long War Journal/October 10/2024

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 10-11/2024
Israel’s Security Cabinet Meets on Iran as Biden Urges Caution
Report: Qaani under guard and questioned as Iran probes Nasrallah killing
UN inquiry accuses Israel of crime of ‘extermination’ in destruction of Gaza health system
Israeli strike on school-turned-shelter in Gaza kills 27
France, Britain grant Palestinian Authority cash lifeline
Saudi's MbS will not attend Russia's BRICS summit
Dutch state sued over alleged failure to stop Israel's violations of international law
Stop Israel from bombing Iran's oil sites, Gulf states urge US
Oil Gains as Traders Monitor Israeli Response to Iranian Attack
Suspected attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels target ship in Red Sea
Ukraine Comes Up With Bold Prediction About When Putin's War Could End
Russia's mass advantage against Ukraine should start declining by 2025, war expert says
Blinken at ASEAN meet condemns China’s ‘increasingly dangerous’ sea moves

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on October 10-11/2024
Today in History: Christians ‘Manfully Resist’ Muslims Full of ‘Wrath and Pride’ at Tours/Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/October 10, 2024
Why Achieving ‘Peace’ with Islam Is Impossible/Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/October 10, 2024
Iran Between War and Accumulating Crises/Jebril Elabidi/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 10/2024
The Potential Annihilation of Politics/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 10/2024

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 10-11/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/10/135526/
Text & Video: The Treason of Esmail Qaani & His Secretary Exposes the Iranian Regime as the True Enemy of the Lebanese, Arabs, and Global Peace—Not Israel
Elias Bejjani/October 10/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/10/135526/
Canadian Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre: Israel hit on Iran nuclear sites would be ‘gift’ to humanity
The recent revelation by Sky News about the treason of Esmail Qaani, leader of Iran’s Quds Force, and his secretary, who secretly provided Israeli Mossad with crucial intelligence leading to the assassination of Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and the obliteration of Hezbollah’s leadership, is a striking blow against Iran’s ambitions. The subsequent destruction of Shiite residential areas in South Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Dahiyeh of Beirut, displacing over one and a half million Lebanese Shiites, exposes a devastating truth: the Iranian regime, under its ruthless mullahs, has long manipulated and sacrificed its followers for its imperialist agenda. The Shiites of Lebanon and the Arab world must wake up to this bitter reality—the regime in Tehran has been exploiting their faith, their identity, and their future as cannon fodder for its expansionist dreams.
Iran, through the tool of Hezbollah, has systematically brainwashed generations of Shiites with fanaticism, using the delusional rhetoric of "destroying Israel" and "liberating Palestine" as a cover for its own designs of regional dominance. This revelation—that Iran’s own top commanders betrayed Hezbollah and led to its downfall—should shatter the illusion that Tehran cares about the Lebanese people, especially its Shiite followers. It does not. The regime’s interest is solely in power, no matter the cost, even if it means delivering its loyal allies to their graves.
The exposure of Qaani’s treason may very well be a deliberate Israeli move to weaken Iran's false aura of invincibility and to alert the Arab Shiites that their true enemy is not Israel but the regime in Tehran. It is Iran that has made their lands battlegrounds and their futures uncertain. The question now for the Lebanese Shiites and the broader Arab Shiite community is whether they will continue to be pawns in Iran’s deadly game, or whether they will rise to reclaim their dignity, peace, and homeland.
The winds of change are sweeping across the region, as Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, (MBS) recently stated that Israel is a “potential ally.” This declaration is more than a policy shift—it is an invitation to the Middle East to move beyond the politics of hatred and war. We in the Middle East must seize this opportunity to foster peace, stability, and cooperation. The Iranian regime, along with its Sunni and Shiites Islamist proxies and the radical leftist forces that seek to destabilize, are obstacles to this future.
The time has come for the Arab Shiites to break free from the Iranian regime’s chains of manipulation, reject its agenda of death and destruction, and embrace the path of peace. The real enemy is not Israel, but those who use religion to blind and control, those who value power over the well-being of their own people. Iran is that enemy. Let us stand united for a future of peace and prosperity in the Middle East, free from the poisonous grip of the Iranian mullahs.

Elias Bejjani / Text and Video: Analysis of Naïm Qassem’s Illusions, Delusions, Denial and Treacherous Speech
October 08/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/10/135390/
Sheikh Naïm Qassem’s speech today was a blatant display of mental and psychological denial regarding the state of Lebanon and Hezbollah. It was, first and foremost, a clear and documented affirmation that Hezbollah is entirely an Iranian proxy, with no connection whatsoever to Lebanon, the Arab world, or humanity. Sheikh Qassem, “God save us from harm,” is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Iranian regime.
Secondly, his reckless, jihadist rhetoric acts as a “carte blanche” (license) for Israel, the free world, and moderate Arab states to strengthen their support for Netanyahu, continue funding him, and back his efforts to eliminate Hamas and Hezbollah. This would also result in the displacement of our Lebanese Shiites brothers and the destruction of their regions along with all of Lebanon.
In his speech, Qassem boasted about the supposed fear, displacement of its northern residents, economic loses and the fear, anxiety that Israelis are experiencing, based on his delusional interpretations. However, he willfully ignored the suffering of the Lebanese Shiites, in particular, and the Lebanese people as a whole. With foolishness and denial, he claimed that displacement of the Lebanese in their own country is a form of resistance. Similarly, Sheikh Sadiq al-Nabulsi has echoed the absurd notion that drug trafficking and smuggling are tools of Hezbollah’s so-called resistance.
This madman and Iranian puppet declared, “In war, it’s the first to scream who loses, and we will not scream.” This bizarre detachment from reality is alarming, especially considering the tragedies that have befallen the Shiites and Lebanon as a whole. His speech was nothing but empty rhetoric, fantasies, delusions, and a call suicidal of the Lebanese people.
Qassem’s treacherous speech showed no regard for Lebanon, or the Lebanese people, nor did it acknowledge the catastrophic consequences of the war on the Lebanese Shiites, all caused by Hezbollah’s loyalty to Iran and its criminal actions.
Qassem divided his miserable speech into three main points:
*He thanked Iran and its leaders, glorifying their support, as if Iran had not already abandoned Hezbollah, either willingly or by force, allowing Israel to assassinate its leaders, displace the Shiites, and destroy their regions.
*He refused to separate Hezbollah’s war in Lebanon from the conflict in Gaza.
*He confirmed that the war would continue and that Hezbollah would ultimately claim victory.
Foolishly, he boasted about national unity and the supposed solidarity of the Lebanese people behind Hezbollah. He ignored the fact that the Lebanese welcomed the displaced Shiites out of humanity, not in support of Hezbollah, a criminal and Persian-backed entity. Most Shiites and all free Lebanese see Hezbollah as nothing but demons, murderers, and enemies.
In conclusion, Israel who is facing an existential threat, along with the Arab world, the West, and the USA, will not stop the war until Hezbollah, the party of Satan, is completely uprooted from Lebanon. Hezbollah, along with Iran, Hamas, and their criminal network, must surrender.
In wars, there must be a victor and a defeated, and without any doubt, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and their terrorist jihadist allies are on the losing side of the conflict with Israel.
From a Lebanese perspective, there is no resistance—only Iranian and Brotherhood-affiliated terrorists, blood merchants, and mafia-like criminals from top to bottom.
In regards to Lebanon’s bright future after the Hezbollah’s era is over, the next president must renounce all ties to this so-called resistance and after bringing Hezbollah’s leaders to justice for their countless crimes, they must be deported to Iran.
God curse this fraudulent resistance and its leaders Iranian masters. Without any doubt, the mullahs are leading to death everyone connected to Hezbollah, down to the last one of them.
Lebanon has long been under Hezbollah’s mere control, now is the time to reclaim the state, restore its sovereignty, and eliminate Hezbollah’s grip.
As for the silence of certain Christian leaders, like the pharaonic “Abu al-Hul,” it is disgraceful and a complete betrayal. Silence, in this case, is the behavior of the dead.
*The author, Elias Bejjani, is a Lebanese expatriate activist
Author’s Email: Phoenicia@hotmail.com
Author’s Website: http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com

Elias Bejjani/Text & Video: The End of Iran’s Reign of Terror and Hezbollah's Demise
Elias Bejjani/October 06/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/10/135390/I strongly recommend watching the five enclosed interviews posted on my website, https://eliasbejjaninews.com/. These interviews are crucial as they reveal the trajectory of the region, culminating in the conclusion that the mission of the criminal, repressive Iranian Mullah regime is nearing its end. This regime, having served its role as the Western alliance’s boogeyman, has frightened the Sunni Arab world into accepting Israel. Every Arab nation has now recognized Israel, viewing Iran as the true existential threat. Even Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince has publicly acknowledged that Israel could be a potential ally.
The anticipated event, either today or tomorrow, will be a massive Israeli military strike against Iran, backed by international Western (NATO) forces and with Arab blessings under the table. This attack will mark the first anniversary of Hamas's barbaric jihadist invasion on October 7 last year, restoring Israel’s deterrence and balance of power, as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu promised. Netanyahu declared just yesterday that Israel will strike Iran, shift the regional balance, and obliterate Hezbollah by force, stripping it of its weapons once and for all.
Lebanon’s Political Puppetry
Anyone counting on Nabih Berri, the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, to lead the efforts aiming to restore Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence is as deluded as someone hoping a wolf will guard sheep. Berri is nothing more than a polished puppet of Hezbollah—a terrorist entity at its core and a servant of Iran, disguised with a necktie to further deceive the people. Berri, along with his Amal Movement and all other Shiite authorities, was militarily defeated and eliminated during the "Iqlim al-Tuffah" battle (March 1988) under Iranian orders, with Syrian backing and Israeli assistance.
As for Najib Mikati, Lebanon's current PM, he’s nothing but a hypocritical merchant whose shameful history and betrayal exposes his consistent service to the Assad and Mullah regimes at Lebanon’s expense.
Regarding our Christian Maronite leaders in particular, and Christians in general, it’s tragic that they have become nothing more than spineless, politically and nationally emasculated traders, much like the traitorous disciple who sold Christ to be crucified for 30 pieces of silver. These are the worst leaders we’ve seen in 1,400 years of our history, with no exceptions, whether civilians or clergy. Among the worst is Samir Geagea, whose  shameful silence throughout the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah war has been deafening, even as he prevents his supporters from expressing their views and concerns. Sadly, his supporters are stupidly accepting the role of sheep.
In regards to former President Michel Aoun and his corrupt son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, they are both a disgrace, and their pitiful status reflects that of the rest of the politicians and the heads of the commercial, narcissistic political parties. Sadly, our beloved Lebanon today is devoid of any national leadership, both religious and political, which is unsurprising given that the Palestinian, Syrian, and Iranian occupations since the 1970s have neutered the political and religious class and molded them to serve their interests.
The Path to Lebanon's Liberation
The salvation of Lebanon will not come from the hands of the current leaders, parties, or politicians who handed it over to foreign occupations, betrayed its people, conspired against it, robbed its bank deposits, displaced and humiliated its citizens, and reduced themselves to tools and empty puppets.
Lebanon’s solution lies in placing it under the guardianship of the United Nations Security Council, enforcing international resolutions—namely the Armistice Agreement, Resolution 1559, 1701, and 1680—by force under Chapter VII, with the aim of rehabilitating the Lebanese people to govern themselves.
In the same context, Former Minister Youssef Salameh’s predictions in an interview conducted with him yesterday are highly plausible in light of the ongoing war between Israel, Iran, Hezbollah, and their other terrorist proxies: He loudly with confidence and proves said:
The world western powers dealt with Hassan Nasrallah the same way they did with Bashir Gemayel, Rafic Hariri, and Kamal Jumblatt—the four were assassinated after their roles were finished. This historical reality supports the reasoning behind Nasrallah’s eventual elimination.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard was created by NATO to divide Sunnis and Shiites, forcing the Sunnis to recognize Israel, which is precisely what happened. Hezbollah’s role has ended, and Nasrallah has been eliminated as a result.
Iran is not a strong state and does not wield significant influence on the international stage, not even in determining Nasrallah’s fate. Its regime’s collapse is inevitable now that its purpose has been exhausted.
Militarily unbalanced wars, such as the one Hezbollah and Hamas are waging against Israel, are suicidal endeavors, which is the current reality.
What protects Lebanon from Israel is the international system, not Hezbollah’s so-called resistance lie and heresy.
Lebanon must move toward peace with Israel, just like every other Arab nation.
There will be no compromise on Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence. The concept of "resistance" is obsolete, and no state can exist within the shadow of a militia.
Walid Jumblatt’s daily bizarre stances are circumstantial, and his support for Hezbollah does not reflect the Druze community’s stance, which opposes Hezbollah.
Hassan Nasrallah has always been alienated from Lebanon’s national entity, calling for an Islamic state and proudly declaring himself a soldier of Iran’s Supreme Leader, loyal to the Iranian regime.
The assassination of Nasrallah signifies the end of a regional era—the Mullah regime and its tentacles, including Hezbollah.
The era of Shiites political dominance in Lebanon is over, and Lebanon is on the path to sovereignty, freedom, and independence.

At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Wafiq Safa reportedly targeted
Agence France Presse/October 10, 2024
Two Israeli strikes hit the central area of Lebanon’s capital on Thursday, the third such attack on Beirut since Israel escalated its air campaign last month. Israel has repeatedly pounded southern Beirut suburbs for more than two weeks but strikes have rarely hit in the city’s center.
The strikes targeted residential neighborhoods in the area of Ras al-Nabaa-Nweiri and a large number of ambulances rushed to the targeted sites. Three loud explosions were heard. An Associated Press photographer who went to the scene of the strikes said the first one, in the area of Ras al-Nabaa, appeared to have hit the lower half of an eight-story apartment building, and that explosions were ongoing inside the building. A large number of ambulances arrived at the scene. The second strike, in the area of Burj Abi Haidar, collapsed an entire building, which was engulfed in flames. A security official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that the strikes hit two locations in the area of Nweiri. Israeli media said Head of Hezbollah's Liaison and Coordination Unit Wafiq Safa was targeted in the strikes. The health ministry said at least 11 people had been killed and 48 others injured in the strikes. "The Israeli enemy's attacks on the capital Beirut this evening killed, according to a preliminary toll, 11 people and injured 48 others," the ministry said in a statement. Last month, Israeli bombing killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in south Beirut. Soon after the strikes on central Beirut, the Israeli military called on residents in Haret Hreik in southern Beirut to evacuate ahead of a likely strike.

Lebanon says 22 dead in Israeli strikes on central Beirut
AFPظOctober 10, 2024
BEIRUT: At least 22 people were killed in Israeli strikes on a densely populated area of central Beirut on Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry said, with a security source saying a Hezbollah figure was the target.Israel has repeatedly pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs, the bastion of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, over the last two weeks but Thursday’s raid was only the third time the city center has been targeted. “The Israeli enemy’s attacks on the capital Beirut this evening resulted in a new toll of 22 people killed and 117 injured,” the ministry said in an updated toll statement.
A Lebanese security source, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that Israel had attempted to kill a Hezbollah official who often frequented the locations targeted. It was unclear if the official was among the dead. Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said the strikes hit the neighborhoods of Nweiri and Basta. “The first strike in Beirut targeted the third floor of an eight-story building” in the Nweiri area, and a second strike hit “a four-story building... in Al-Basta Al-Fouqa,” NNA reported. An AFP photographer at the site of the strike in the Basta area said two old buildings had collapsed, while the windows of surrounding homes had been blown out with the force of the explosion. Rescue services and local residents were attempting to pull survivors out of the mountain of rubble, with some of them carried away on stretchers.Firefighters worked to put out a blaze in a residential building hit in the Nweiri area, with residents being evacuated from the upper floors using a ladder, NNA reported. Immediately after the raids, AFP live footage showed two plumes of smoke billowing in between densely-packed buildings. Earlier this month, Israel carried out a deadly air raid in Beirut, hitting an emergency services rescue facility run by Hezbollah, killing seven workers, the service said. On September 30, an Israeli drone strike on a building in Beirut’s busy Cola district killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the leftist armed group said.Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement and its foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire for nearly a year in fallout from the Gaza war. But since September 23, Israel has escalated its air strikes on targets in Lebanon, killing more than 1,200 people and forcing more than one million to flee their homes, according to official figures.

UN accuses Israel of firing on Lebanon peacekeepers
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/October 10, 2024
BEIRUT: The UN accused Israel of targeting its peacekeeping force near the Lebanese border on Thursday after two soldiers were wounded by tank fire in Naqoura. Airstrikes on two residential buildings in the Al-Karak area of central Bekaa killed nine displaced people and injured 14 others as they were buried alive under rubble, initial reports said. UNIFIL announced that its Naqoura headquarters and nearby positions were hit for the first time since confrontations started between the Israeli army and Hezbollah. The force said: “Two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall. The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but the soldiers remain in hospital. “Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Security Council resolution 1701,” UNIFIL warned. In a statement, the peacekeeping force also addressed “incursions from Israel into Lebanon in Naqoura and other areas,” highlighting other attacks on its forces.
“IDF soldiers also fired on UN position 1-31 in Labouneh, hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system. An IDF drone was observed flying inside the UN position up to the bunker entrance. “Yesterday, IDF soldiers deliberately fired at and disabled the position’s perimeter-monitoring cameras. They also deliberately fired on position 1-32A in Naqoura, where regular tripartite meetings were held before the conflict began, damaging lighting and a relay station.” UNIFIL warned the warring sides of their “obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property, and to respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times.”
The force is “following up with the IDF” over the incident and is present in southern Lebanon to “support a return to stability,” the statement said. Over the past 24 hours, Israel also damaged Lebanese army sites as an Israeli bulldozer demolished an observation tower belonging to the fifth brigade at Naqoura. The tower was built about five years ago by the army as part of a series of sites along the border in the western sector. Two residential buildings containing a scientific library collapsed in the Haret Hreik area of Beirut’s southern suburb following a fire caused by airstrikes on Thursday. The Israeli army claimed to have targeted “depots and combat equipment in Beirut and the south.” It also claimed the killing of two Hezbollah commanders: Ahmed Mustafa Ali, charged with the militant group’s rocket operations; and Mohammad Ali, chief of Hezbollah’s anti-tank unit. Seven Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian border town of Hosh Al-Sayyed, near a Lebanese Army checkpoint, wounded several soldiers, with the injuries described as minor.
Airstrikes on the southern town of Mayfadoun caused casualties, while a strike on a home in the town of Mahrouna killed five people. On Thursday, civil defense teams from the Islamic Mission Scouts Association continued searching for missing people under the rubble of a church and a Lebanese Civil Defense Center. The two sites were targeted by the Israeli army on Wednesday in the town of Derdghaiya, killing five of the center’s personnel. Four people were killed after the Israeli army targeted a building in the Boudai valley, west Baalbek, while one critically injured person was transferred to Dar Al-Amal University Hospital. As Israeli forces continue to mobilize on the Lebanese border, Hezbollah has continuously targeted Kiryat Shmona and the surroundings of Haifa with rocket and missile fire.
The group also announced it had repelled several Israeli incursion attempts. Hezbollah fighters targeted “Israeli soldiers in Ma’ayan Baruch with rockets, a second soldier gathering in Beit Hillel in the Golan, and a third soldier gathering in Kfar Giladi,” a statement said. An Israeli tank advancing toward Naqoura was struck by an anti-tank missile, and a medical evacuation force was also targeted, the group said. Hezbollah also targeted northern Haifa with a large rocket salvo. Israeli media reported a “direct hit” on a building in the town of Margaliot ,while Kiryat Shmona faced “heavy shelling, and dozens of explosions were heard.” The Israeli army announced that Sgt. Maj. (res.) Ronny Ganizate, of the 5030th Battalion, 228th Brigade (Alon), was killed on Oct. 9, adding that another reserve soldier from the 5030th Battalion was seriously wounded.
Israeli media outlets reported that 38 Israeli soldiers were injured over the past 24 hours during confrontations with Hezbollah. Following an exceptional meeting of Lebanon’s Central Internal Security Council, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi discussed the status of displaced people in Beirut. He warned of “unacceptable attempts to erect tents and build concrete structures along Beirut’s seaside corniche. “For those claiming that security forces are absent in Beirut, we assure you that security forces are present and have been reinforced,” he added.
“However, managing the additional influx of displaced people is not an easy task.”He called for large shelters to be erected in the Lebanese capital, warning that the state “would not tolerate any violation of public property." He added: “Security forces will carry out their duties as required.”

Irish troops in Lebanon ‘all accounted for’ – Taoiseach
Rebecca Black, PA/ October 10, 2024
Taoiseach Simon Harris has said all Irish troops in the south of Lebanon are accounted for and continue to serve. It comes after reports that Israeli forces fired at three United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) positions, and that two peacekeepers have been injured.
The Irish Defence Forces are serving with Unifil amid heightened conflict in the region.
In a statement Unifil said Israeli forces have “repeatedly hit” UN positions in the last 24 hours.
“This morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at Unifil’s headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall. The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital,” they said. They added: “We remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times. “Unifil peacekeepers are present in south Lebanon to support a return to stability under Security Council mandate. Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Security Council resolution 1701.
“We are following up with the IDF on these matters.”
The Irish Defence Forces said they could confirm that all Irish personnel are safe and accounted for and their positions had not been subject to incoming fire. “All necessary force protection measures are being observed,” they said in a statement on the social media network X, formerly Twitter. “The Defence Forces can also confirm that Irish positions have not been subject to incoming fire.” The Irish premier urged that any firing in the vicinity of Unifil troops or facilities stop. He posted on X: “I have been briefed on the situation in Southern Lebanon.
“All Irish troops are accounted for and continue to do their duties with distinction.
“Any firing in the vicinity of Unifil troops or facilities is reckless and must stop.”
Irish deputy premier and Minister for Defence Micheal Martin said he “strongly condemns” the IDF targeting and firing on the Unifil positions. “It is reprehensible and unacceptable to injure peacekeepers and to put them in harm’s way,” he said in a statement.
“Israel has an obligation to protect peacekeepers and its actions are in breach of international humanitarian law. “There needs to be full accountability for these actions. No Irish troops were involved. All are safe and accounted for.” There are 364 Irish troops deployed in Unifil, with 353 with the Infantry Battalion. Two of the 25 outposts on the Blue Line come under Irish command in Unifil and approximately 30 Irish soldiers operate from one of these outposts.

Israeli forces fire at UN peacekeeper positions in south Lebanon, peacekeepers say
Reuters/Maya Gebeily and Alexander Cornwell/October 10, 2024
Israeli forces fired on two positions used by U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon on Thursday and at a third one on Wednesday, the U.N. force said, as Israel warned Lebanese civilians not to return to homes in the south and pressed on with its assault on Hezbollah. The UNIFIL force said two of its peacekeepers were injured in one of the incidents, when an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower at the force's main headquarters in Naqoura, hitting the tower and causing them to fall. There were no casualties in the other two incidents, a U.N. source said. "Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law," UNIFIL said in a statement, adding that it was following up with the Israeli military. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which is waging a widening offensive in Lebanon against the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah movement. The conflict erupted one year ago when Hezbollah opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war. It has escalated dramatically in recent weeks, with Israel using airstrikes to pound Beirut's southern suburbs, the south, and the Bekaa Valley, before sending in ground forces. Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said contacts were under way between the United States and France with the aim of reviving a ceasefire, an apparent reference to an effort to clinch a truce which Israel rejected last month. There was no immediate comment from Washington or Paris. The Middle East remained on high alert for further escalation in the region, awaiting Israel's response to an Iranian missile strike last week. Gulf states are lobbying Washington to stop Israel from attacking Iran's oil sites because they are concerned their own oil facilities could come under fire from Tehran's proxies if the conflict escalates, three Gulf sources told Reuters. U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday about potential Israeli retaliation against Iran, in a call both sides described as positive.
ISRAELI DRONE AT U.N. POSITION
Israel says its Lebanon offensive aims to secure the return home of tens of thousands of Israelis who evacuated northern Israel due to Hezbollah rocket fire. Israeli attacks have displaced more than 1 million people in Lebanon in the last few weeks.
UNIFIL said an Israeli Merkava tank fired at the observation post at Naqoura, a border town where it is headquartered. Israeli soldiers had also fired at a U.N. position in Ras Naqoura "hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system". "An IDF drone was observed flying inside the UN position up to the bunker entrance," UNIFIL said. The previous day, Israeli forces had "fired at and disabled the position’s perimeter-monitoring cameras", it added. They also deliberately fired at and damaged another position, it said. Hezbollah said it had attacked Israeli forces on Thursday with a missile salvo while they were trying to pull casualties out of the Ras al-Naqoura border area, and they were directly hit. The UNIFIL peacekeeping force was established in 1978 and expanded following a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Its major contributing nations include France, Italy, Indonesia, Malaysia and Ghana. The Israeli military said on Thursday that airstrikes overnight and the day before targeted weapons storage facilities in Beirut's southern suburbs and southern Lebanon, where it said Hezbollah infrastructure was struck. It also told residents of southern Lebanon they were "prohibited from returning to the homes they have evacuated in the villages and towns until further notice for their safety", in a post on X. Israeli strikes have killed more than 2,100 people in Lebanon over the last year, the vast majority of them in the last few weeks, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Hezbollah cross-border fire at Israel has killed 53 people over the same period, more than half of them civilians.
EMERGENCY WORKERS KILLED
The Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli strike overnight hit a civil defence centre in the village of Derdghaiya, some 10 km (6 miles) from the border, killing five paramedics and rescue workers.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has dealt Hezbollah stunning blows - including the assassination of its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. But Hezbollah has sustained its rocket attacks on Israel, and the Israeli military said around 40 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israel, some of which were intercepted, and several fell in the area of the upper Galilee. Conflict has spread around the region since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, drawing in Iraqi, Yemeni and Lebanese groups and fuelling fears of an even bigger war. Biden urged Netanyahu to minimise civilian harm in Lebanon, the White House said, in a "direct and very productive" 30-minute call on Wednesday about potential Israeli retaliation against Iran. Israel has promised that Iran will pay for last week's missile attack, which caused little damage. Tehran has said any retaliation would be met with vast destruction. Biden last week made comments discouraging Israel from striking Iranian oil fields and said he would not support Israel striking Iranian nuclear sites.

AMCD & Fakoury Foundation Demand LAF Implement UNSC 1559
October 10, 2024
Following the operation by the Israeli Defense Force in taking out the entire leadership of Hezbollah including Hasan Nasrallah, his replacement, and a second replacement, the people of Lebanon have a golden opportunity to take back their country from the terrorists who had had the country in a stranglehold for decades. The American Mideast Coalition for Democracy and the Amer Fakhoury Foundation jointly demand the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 which calls for the complete disarming and disbanding of all militia groups on the country. This should be done by the Lebanese Armed Forces under UN blue helmet supervision.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu issued a call to the Lebanese people to arise and return their country to the beautiful state it once was when it was called the “pearl of the Midde East.” Iran has turned Lebanon into a weapons stockpile for Hezbollah and a forward military base for itself. He points out that Hezbollah joined the Hamas attack the day after October 7, 2023, and has fired over 8,000 rockets into Israel over the last year, displacing Israel’s northern population and killing civilians indiscriminately.
In response Israel has directly targeted the leadership of Hezbollah and will likely invade southern Lebanon to finish off this threat to their people once and for all. Netanyahu urges the Lebanese people to take this opportunity to return their country to a place of tranquility and prosperity.
Hezbollah has continued to use the Lebanese civilian population as human shields and there are reports that Hezbollah fighters are even hiding among the civilian refugees fleeing South Lebanon.
After Hezbollah has been disarmed, pro-Iranian regime operatives must also be removed from positions of power. Parliament must convene to pass legislation to remove these Hezbollah sympathizers from the military, the judiciary, the legislature, and the executive branch and to prevent them from holding office in the future. Then can Lebanon begin to rebuild their defense structure, commerce, infrastructure, civic life, and so on. The Lebanese people have been suffering under the boot of Hezbollah for too long. The UN and other Western nations, notably France, must step in to help the Lebanese make this transition back to normalcy. Help the Lebanese people to arise and let Beirut become the “Paris of the Middle East” once more.

Safe places needed for those displaced in Lebanon, official says
Associated Press/October 10, 2024
The International Organization for Migration’s regional director said Thursday that the “support provided so far is minimal” for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the Israeli aerial and ground offensive in Lebanon. There is an “urgent need for help to identify safe places that are able to host people, because from our field visits, most of the places are overwhelmed,” Othman Belbeisi said during a visit to the country. The Lebanese government has said that some 1.2 million people have been displaced by the conflict, of which Belbeisi said the IOM has been able to verify 690,000, a number that is expected to grow. While hundreds of thousands have fled across the border into neighboring Syria, Belbeisi said that thus far the organization has not tracked a major surge in the number of people attempting to flee to other countries by sea, possibly because such journeys would involve a “very high risk with the current situation.”

Can Lebanon finally free itself from Hezbollah's grip?
Brent Sadler, former Middle East Correspondent, ITN, former Beirut Bureau Chief, CNNEuronews/October 10, 2024
Can Lebanon finally free itself from Hezbollah's grip?
If satellites are the new artillery of modern warfare, as articulated in the iconic 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a verbal bombshell in a video message broadcast worldwide. He characterised Hezbollah as a "gang of tyrants and terrorists," and urged the Lebanese people to set themselves free from the terror group. "You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering, as we see in Gaza," declared Netanyahu. "It doesn't have to be that way." While Netanyahu has made similar statements in the past, this moment feels markedly different—and far more toxic. By urging the Lebanese to break away from Hezbollah, a group better equipped than Lebanon’s armed forces, he risks igniting existing tensions in a nation already grappling with deep-seated sectarian divisions and political instability.Any grassroots uprising could quickly spiral into violent chaos, drawing various factions into the fray, intensifying long-standing rivalries, and further destabilising the country. Since the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah nearly two weeks ago, Hezbollah’s leadership has suffered significant losses due to Israeli airstrikes. However, the group is far from rudderless. Rocket fire continues to rain down on Israel, targeting key locations such as the port city of Haifa, an essential economic gateway for the Jewish state. These ongoing attacks underscore Hezbollah's resilience and its ability to retaliate despite its leadership crisis.
Hezbollah remains resolute and undefeated
With a wealth of experience — including multiple interviews with Hezbollah’s assassinated leader — I can vividly envision the moment death came for Israel’s most formidable adversary.
In one of the largest airstrikes on an urban centre in recent history, Israel unleashed approximately 80 tonnes of explosives, using munitions meticulously designed to penetrate deep into fortified underground structures. This unprecedented assault not only marked a significant escalation in the conflict but also underscored the lengths to which Israel would go to neutralise a persistent threat. The scale and precision of the attack were a stark reminder of the evolving nature of warfare in the region. Reaching the terror chief was always a perilous endeavour, shrouded in extreme secrecy and fraught with tension. The journey resembled an elaborate game of shadows, meticulously crafted to obscure his precise whereabouts.
Journalists, blindfolded and flanked by devoted, obsessively protective gunmen, navigated a labyrinth of twisting alleyways and narrow streets, transported to undisclosed destinations, whether above or below ground. Once enveloped in darkness, sensory deprivation became a constant companion until the blinding return to daylight, offering those who persevered a fleeting, rare audience with Nasrallah himself.
This hidden world, shrouded in secrecy and fortified beneath the surface, is what Israel is methodically dismantling, piece by piece. Each strike reveals the intricate web of power and fear that Hezbollah has woven, exposing vulnerabilities in a structure that once seemed impenetrable.
If half the country was left shocked, saddened, and enraged by Nasrallah’s demise, the other half harboured little regret. As grief consumed one faction, another seethed with frustration, the inevitable result of a leader whose actions repeatedly pushed the nation to the brink of destruction.
Hussein, brother of Hezbollah fighter Ali Hassan al-Atat, lies on top of his brother's coffin during his funeral procession in southern Beirut, December 2023
Hussein, brother of Hezbollah fighter Ali Hassan al-Atat, lies on top of his brother's coffin during his funeral procession in southern Beirut, December 2023 - AP Photo/Bilal Hussein
The unfolding conflict not only targets the leadership but also aims to disrupt the very foundations of this shadowy realm.
Hezbollah’s creators in Tehran may be planning one final orchestrated display for Nasrallah — the Sayeed, a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. Reports indicate that his body, if it indeed exists, has been temporarily buried, awaiting a grand relocation to Iran.
This move could serve as a potent symbol: despite its current setbacks and losses, Hezbollah remains resolute and undefeated. Such a gesture would not only honour Nasrallah's legacy but also reinforce the narrative of resistance, rallying supporters and asserting that the group continues unbowed.
If half the country was left shocked, saddened, and enraged by Nasrallah’s demise, the other half harboured little regret. As grief consumed one faction, another seethed with frustration, the inevitable result of a leader whose actions repeatedly pushed the nation to the brink of destruction.
This deep societal divide mirrors the broader fractures within Lebanon — a nation caught between steadfast loyalty to resistance and an urgent longing for peace.
The self-styled 'Party of God'
Hezbollah’s early years during the 1980s were marked by a brutal and effective campaign of suicide bombings, targeting American and European interests in Lebanon with devastating consequences. These attacks, which inflicted heavy casualties, became a signature tactic.
The violence was relentless, turning Lebanon into a theatre of fear, where death could strike indiscriminately and without warning, whether in embassies, military installations, or civilian areas.
This climate of pervasive turmoil destabilised the region and cemented Hezbollah’s reputation as a formidable and ruthless force. At the core of the long-running conflict, however, remains a common goal: the struggle to liberate Palestine and the eradication of the "Zionist entity".
Hezbollah supporters shout slogans as others wave flags during a "victory over Israel" rally, in Beirut's bombed-out suburbs, September 2006
Hezbollah supporters shout slogans as others wave flags during a "victory over Israel" rally, in Beirut's bombed-out suburbs, September 2006 - AP Photo/Petros Karadjias
Evolving in the slums of South Beirut, the self-styled "Party of God" found its footing as Iran seized the moment to advance its long-term ambitions. This marked the dawn of a new era, with Tehran leveraging Hezbollah to spearhead a regional strategy aimed at extending its power and influence in the region. At the core of the long-running conflict, however, remains a common goal: the struggle to liberate Palestine and the eradication of the "Zionist entity".
Of all the Lebanese funerals I attended, none had a more consequential impact on the future of Lebanon than that of the Saudi-backed Sunnite Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. His assassination in 2005 by members of Hezbollah sent shockwaves through the nation.
Yet, the bloodletting was far from over.
Lebanon's civilian population is on the brink of collapse
A wave of targeted attacks soon followed during a so-called "Arab Spring" as Lebanon suffered more car bombs and the deaths of yet more political figures, many of whom were outspoken advocates for independence from Syrian control and Iran’s growing stranglehold.
The previous time Israeli soldiers entered southern Lebanon was back in 2006, when the terror group successfully resisted a previous ground invasion, leading to a military stalemate.
In that conflict, I witnessed Israel targeting Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure in a failed attempt to sow division between Hezbollah’s supporters and its detractors. This time, Israel seems to have adjusted its strategy, focusing more narrowly on Hezbollah’s leadership and military capabilities.
Lebanon is without an elected president, its power grid is virtually non-existent, the main airport is near closure, and its army stands largely powerless against Israel's relentless bombardments and air strikes. Like Gaza, the country might soon be cut off from the rest of the world.
Yet, Lebanon’s civilian population is already on the brink of collapse. With more than a million people displaced, the potential for internal strife will be exacerbated even as international aid comes to their rescue.
Since their financial system’s meltdown in 2019, most of the country was plunged into poverty. Lebanon is without an elected president, its power grid is virtually non-existent, the main airport is near closure, and its army stands largely powerless against Israel's relentless bombardments and air strikes. Like Gaza, the country might soon be cut off from the rest of the world.
Despite over 40 years of sustained efforts, Israel has been unable to decisively weaken Hezbollah’s military capabilities, including its long-range weaponry, or significantly curtail Iran’s growing influence in the region. Likewise, Hezbollah's political influence within Lebanon has only deepened over time, despite intermittent conflicts and Israeli military campaigns. However, Hezbollah’s grip on Lebanon is now facing unprecedented challenges as the country grapples with economic collapse, political paralysis, and growing dissatisfaction from within its own population.
Lebanon's toughest test yet
The challenge ahead for Lebanon — and for external actors — lies in demonstrating to the Lebanese people that there is an alternative to the terror group. This requires not only addressing immediate governance and security concerns but also offering a vision of stability and progress that doesn’t hinge on Hezbollah’s military or political dominance. Israel’s ultimate goal is nothing less than Hezbollah’s withdrawal from the border area and, ideally, its disarmament. Achieving this would not only neutralise Hezbollah as a military threat but also strip Iran of its key defensive shield, which currently helps deter Israel from striking Tehran’s nuclear capabilities. Without Hezbollah’s presence along the border, Iran’s strategic depth in Lebanon would be severely compromised, potentially altering the balance of power in the region.
The renewed war on Lebanon's well-trodden battlefront could escalate far beyond what we are witnessing now. Yet, even one decisive blow after another will not bridge the deep ideological chasm and decades of enmity that fuel this conflict.
If these implacable foes follow through on their threats, Lebanon faces the grim possibility of more intense bombings, the return of an all-out Israeli invasion, or a drawn-out, protracted war that could drag the country back to the nightmare years of its civil war.
Can Lebanon chart a different course, one that prioritises national interests, sovereignty, and prosperity over the sectarian and geopolitical forces that Hezbollah embodies thanks to their slain leader? This is Lebanon’s toughest test yet, and it remains unclear who can rise to meet it, either inside or outside the country.
**Brent Sadler served as ITN’s Middle East Correspondent and later CNN’s Beirut Bureau Chief for nearly four decades on the frontlines of the Israeli-Lebanese conflict.
*At Euronews, we believe all views matter. Contact us at view@euronews.com to send pitches or submissions and be part of the conversation.
https://ca.yahoo.com/news/lebanon-finally-free-itself-hezbollahs-110232888.html

Iran at a crossroads over support for Hezbollah
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/October 10, 2024
As Israel continues its military campaign in Lebanon, specifically targeting Hezbollah, the Iranian government faces a complex set of challenges. The ongoing conflict places Tehran in a situation in which its strategic options appear limited, forcing its leaders to weigh them up carefully.
The problem lies in a fundamental shift in the strategic equation. Hezbollah, which has long been regarded as a proxy force of Iran, traditionally serves the purpose of advancing Iranian interests by exerting pressure on regional adversaries such as Israel. However, recent events have reversed this dynamic. The Islamic Republic now finds itself in a position whereby it must actively protect Hezbollah to ensure the survival of its ally and the preservation of its regional strategy. This reversal represents a significant shift in Iran’s strategic calculus. There is little doubt that Iran will continue attempting to safeguard Hezbollah, as the group represents a cornerstone of Iran’s regional influence. Several key factors underpin Tehran’s commitment. First and foremost, it has cultivated a deep, multilevel relationship with Hezbollah that spans more than four decades. This enduring partnership encompasses financial, military and ideological investments, making Hezbollah not just an ally but an essential component of Iran’s broader strategy to project power in the Levant. Hezbollah’s role in advancing Iranian interests cannot be overstated, while Tehran’s commitment to the group is rooted in decades of collaboration and mutual benefit.
Additionally, Hezbollah holds immense strategic value for the Iranian government. From a military standpoint, the group is viewed as a formidable force capable of engaging Israel and other adversaries in the region. The strategic importance of Hezbollah lies in its ability to wage asymmetric warfare, which allows Iran to challenge its enemies indirectly while avoiding the consequences of direct military engagement. For Iran, Hezbollah represents a crucial tool for maintaining its influence and shaping regional outcomes in a manner that serves its interests.
Hezbollah is not just an ally but an essential component of Iran’s broader strategy to project power in the Levant
From a geopolitical perspective, Hezbollah is considered to play a critical role in shifting the balance of power in the region in favor of Iran. The group’s presence and military capabilities provide Iran with a significant advantage, allowing it to extend its reach and counter the influence of rival states such as Israel. Hezbollah’s alignment with Tehran also strengthens the so-called Axis of Resistance, a coalition of state and non-state actors opposed to Western and Israeli policies in the Middle East. Through Hezbollah, Iran can project its power far beyond its borders, complicating the efforts of its adversaries to contain its influence. Hezbollah’s importance to Iran is further underscored by its role in countering Israel, Tehran’s primary regional adversary. In the broader regional rivalry, Hezbollah is considered a vital counterbalance to Israel’s military superiority. By supporting Hezbollah, Iran effectively maintains a forward defense posture, allowing it to challenge Israel without engaging in direct confrontation.
Despite these considerations, Iran finds itself in an extremely delicate situation. Nevertheless, while this current geopolitical situation is tense, it is not unprecedented for Tehran. Over the decades, Iran has mastered the art of maneuvering through complex regional conflicts, particularly when its key ally, Hezbollah, has come under threat. Iran’s historical precedence in handling such crises offers valuable insight into how it may continue to react. The 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war serves as a prominent example of Tehran’s calculated diplomacy and indirect involvement in military confrontations. During that period, Iran provided Hezbollah with significant logistical, financial and military aid, but it carefully avoided direct military engagement, ensuring that the conflict did not escalate into a full-blown war between Iran and Israel.Over the decades, Iran has mastered the art of maneuvering through complex regional conflicts
During the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, beyond military aid, Iran also provided Hezbollah with intelligence and strategic guidance, enhancing the group’s ability to engage Israeli forces effectively. In addition, financial support flowed from Tehran to Beirut, enabling Hezbollah to sustain its war efforts without exhausting its resources. This combination of military, logistical and financial support allowed Hezbollah to mount a robust defense against Israel, prolonging the conflict and eventually leading to a ceasefire. Iran’s involvement in the 2006 war demonstrated its capacity to influence regional conflicts from behind the scenes, projecting power through proxy forces without facing the diplomatic and military fallout that would accompany direct intervention. Similarly, between 1985 and 2000, during the south Lebanon conflict, Iran played a critical yet behind-the-scenes role in shaping the outcome of the protracted war between Hezbollah and Israel. Throughout this 15-year period, Israel maintained a military presence in southern Lebanon, aimed at combating Hezbollah and other factions. Iran, seeing an opportunity to expand its influence and undermine Israeli control in the region, began supporting Hezbollah in various ways. Iran provided Hezbollah with arms, training and financial backing, transforming the group into a formidable resistance force. Iranian Revolutionary Guards were reportedly stationed in Lebanon to offer tactical training and operational guidance to Hezbollah fighters, which significantly enhanced their effectiveness on the battlefield. Over the years, Hezbollah’s increasing military prowess, bolstered by Iran’s ongoing assistance, culminated in the eventual withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in 2000. In conclusion, the Iranian government is once again at a critical juncture, facing the challenge of protecting its non-state ally, Hezbollah. Drawing on its past experiences, Iran is likely to pursue a similar approach to the one it adopted during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war and the south Lebanon conflict. This strategy allows Iran to maintain its influence in the region, while avoiding the disastrous consequences of a direct conflict with Israel and its Western allies.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian American political scientist. X: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Naim Qassem: Hezbollah’s New and Subdued Voice
David Daoud/FDD's Long War Journal/October 10/2024
With Israel’s September 27 assassination of Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s voice has been subdued. But it has not, unfortunately, been entirely silenced. The mantle of Hezbollah’s spokesman is a heavy one to take up, made all the more difficult by Israel’s continued elimination of the group’s top leadership cadre. For now, however, Hezbollah seems to have settled on Nasrallah’s deputy, the soft-spoken philosopher idealogue Naim Qassem. An intellectual, Qassem lacks any of the charisma or presence around which Nasrallah’s hold over Hezbollah’s flock and cult of personality were built, and therefore his ability to inspire and rouse the base remains in question. But for lack of any other options, he now appears to be Hezbollah’s placeholder voice.
To date, Naim Qassem has given two speeches in this capacity with nearly identical themes: the first on September 30, two days after Nasrallah’s assassination, and the second on the October 8 anniversary of Hezbollah opening its “support front” for its allies in the Gaza Strip. Appearing in a dark room, curtains drawn, bathed in an eery light to obscure his location which at once looks like an underground bunker lit by a lamp or an above-ground apartment with limited sun breaking through the curtains, Qassem began his speech by eulogizing Nasrallah and saying he did more to terrify Israel in his death than in his life.
Qassem then turned to recapping the events of the past year in a framework that, typical of Hezbollah, heightened the alleged successes of the “Resistance” and dismissed Israel’s accomplishments while concentrating on how the war has demonstrated Israel’s bloodlust. Here, there was nothing new to Hezbollah’s narrative, except the backdrop of Israel’s rapid decimation of much of Hezbollah’s leadership and the fact that Nasrallah, the master of spinning failure into success, was substituted with his lackluster deputy.
‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ was an “extraordinary event,” he said and “the beginning of the change of the face of the Middle East.” He alleged that it would increase the “presence and influence of the Resistance,” despite the decimation of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and Hezbollah’s drubbing in Lebanon over the past three weeks.
Then he moved to another mainstay Hezbollah theme, that of Israel’s murderous nature. To set that up, he defended the legality of the October 7 assault as Palestinian self-defense against a 75-year occupation. He claimed that Israel’s reaction, however, was not just to the assault itself but aimed to liquidate the Resistance and exterminate the entire Palestinian people. To that end, he said that the murderousness and crimes Israel was employing to achieve these goals have been “unparalleled in all of history.” Rather than being engaged in fighting, he said, Israel was engaged in murder, “the murder of humanity and free peoples.” “This Israeli entity,” he later returned to the theme, “has thus proven it is a danger to humankind and humanity, and to Lebanon and the region…they want to exterminate anyone who stands in their way and says ‘we have rights.’”
This claim had a double-purpose. First was reinforcing the image of Israel promoted by Hezbollah. The second was to devalue Israel’s military accomplishments, to frame them as having been achieved through sheer and wanton brutality, rather than military prowess. This dual purpose was repeated in his claim that Israel’s objectives inside Lebanon were to hurt civilians in an effort to induce them to turn against Hezbollah, but that in ground clashes, which had begun seven days ago, Israel had failed to advance. “The Zionists shocked at their army’s inability to advance at all confronting the resistance,” he claimed, despite the fact that Israeli forces had succeeded in planting their country’s flag in the Iranian Garden of Maroun al-Ras, a Hezbollah stronghold village in south Lebanon. “This is proof of the resistance’s endurance and capabilities. I tell you now, there’s no value to the mere meters they will gain.” Even at the frontlines, he claimed, Israel has “failed to accomplish anything.”
He then added that anything Israel had achieved, it didn’t achieve alone but only due to open-ended American support. Here, too, this element of the narrative had a dual purpose. It first reinforces the view promoted by Hezbollah that the United States, not Israel, is the group’s primary enemy and should be considered as such by its support base and all Lebanese. Qassem subsequently said, “We consider the United States a primary partner in all of the crimes.” But it also serves to detract from Israel’s own accomplishments and strength, which he articulated explicitly by saying “had it not been for this American-Western support, this war would have stopped within a month, because Israel isn’t capable of facing this resistance. But now, it is not confronting – it is killing. And this killing isn’t considered confrontation.”
He then sought to counter critics of Iran’s meager intervention by first contrasting Iran with the United States. Khomeini’s Tehran, he said, “had directed for the removal of this cancerous bacteria [i.e. Israel]” while keeping alive the Palestinian Resistance and highlighted the Islamic Republic’s missile attacks on Israel as proof that “Iran is determined to be present in the way that it sees appropriate.” Iran “gives what it gives,” he said with contentment, before redirecting the question to his patron’s detractors. “what have you doubters and naysayers given?” he asked.
Turning to Gaza, he described its “resistance” as “legendary.” “They endured for a year, and are capable of enduring for longer, and longer, and longer,” he said even though they were confronting “human monsters working towards genocide.” This too was meant to deny Israel any accomplishment over the course of a year, to give the impression it has only been slaughtering innocents mindlessly while the collective Resistance Axis had denied it victory over Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He finished this theme of his speech by reframing the regional battle: it wasn’t again Iran’s influence over the region, but for the liberation of Palestine, “and Iran, Hezbollah, and others are helping the Palestinians to liberate their land. This is the battle and the measuring stick.”
He then turned to the “Lebanon Support Front,” to play up Hezbollah’s successes. “We declared the opening of the support front,” he reminded his audience with two goals in mind: to alleviate Gaza’s burden and aid its victory in this battle and “defend Lebanon and its people,” – ignoring the inherent contradiction between “opening” a front to support others and engaging in defense of Lebanon. To smooth out the discrepancy, he pointed to alleged statements by Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant that could only have been made after Hezbollah had started attacking on October 8 and Israel’s current assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon, which began after enduring months of unceasing attacks by the group, as proof that the Israelis had designs on Lebanon all along.
Hezbollah, he said, had “bled the enemy for 11 months,” “expelled the settlers by the tens of thousands from their settlements, making them a burden on the Israeli Entity…in addition to hundreds of thousands who live in anxiety and insecurity throughout northern Palestine,” and had dented Israel’s economy and fractured its society. He also claimed that the IDF had suffered huge losses at Hezbollah’s hands “but is strictly censoring” that information – even though Hezbollah has imposed a total media blackout on certain areas of south Lebanon with the exception of its Al-Manar and Al-Mayadeen. “We are hurting and hitting them and expanding the footprint of our rockets and loitering munitions,” he continued, before later trying to frame Hezbollah’s underwhelming responses to Israel’s post-September 16 escalation as demonstrating the group’s discipline – rather than its weakness. “We will reach the place [we want], at the time we decide, per our battlefield military plan to achieve our goals,” he said.
Meanwhile, though, he alleged that Hezbollah’s “daily accomplishments are huge,” while Israel – which he falsely claimed “opened the war with Lebanon – “has not impacted and will not impact our will and our insistence on resistance and confrontation,” despite enjoying unlimited American support for its Lebanon war effort.
Building off this theme, he alleged that Hezbollah was intact, and that Israel was lying about damaging Hezbollah’s arsenal or making any battlefield gains. The IDF’s incursions, he alleged, had been limited and repelled by Hezbollah’s strength – and not, as is actually the case, due to U.S. pressure. Qassem also claimed that Hezbollah’s political and military leadership positions – made vacant by Israeli assassinations – had been filled per Hezbollah’s chain of succession and organizational structure and were functioning at full readiness. “We have overcome the painful blows, and many have been replaced without exception,” he said, claiming that in in many cases this was with veterans from the first generation of Hezbollah cadres, or with people close to them. “So Hezbollah is operating at complete readiness and orderliness,” he alleged. As proof, pointed to Hezbollah’s “noticeable” escalation against Israel – ignoring the fact that the Israeli escalation post- September 16 has been exponentially larger.
The only vacancy that remained was the position of Secretary-General, which he claimed the group will fill in time per its own internal procedures – while ignoring the fact that Nasrallah’s successor, Hashem Saffieddine, is likely dead and the latter’s own successor Nabil Qaouq has been eliminated.
Channeling Nasrallah, he then framed Israeli operations as a total failure, attributing a proof quote to IDF Chief of Staff Herzi HaLevy – which he mispronounces as “Helfi” – that the Israeli military has failed for a year in protecting its citizens. “Helfi,” he said, “you will fail even more and more so long as you continue.” The Israelis, he scoffed, were seeking to establish a New Middle East when “they can’t even take off in Gaza or Lebanon. Let them try to rescue their situation, but they won’t be able.” In fact, insisted Qassem, the more Netanyahu pushed to return Israeli citizens to the north through military means the more “exponentially larger numbers will be displaced,” and the deeper Israel’s crises will be come. So long as Israel was hurting as much as Lebanon, Qassem said, then the situation was acceptable.
Hezbollah, he therefore insisted, has no intention of ceasing its fight. The group’s support base remained steadfast, he said, and understood that the current hardships were only part of the battle and necessary sacrifice. “We heard your calls…expressing your readiness to endure and continue, on the condition of perseverance and victory. We are persevering, and we will be victorious, God willing.”
Which brings to the theme of Qassem’s speech which has attracted much undue media attention: Hezbollah’s allegedly new acceptance of a ceasefire. This was refers to Naim Qassem’s expression of support for the ceasefire initiative announced by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that decoupled a Lebanon ceasefire from a prior cessation of hostilities in Gaza. However, Hezbollah has favored a ceasefire for months, and his words on Berri’s initiative were slightly more nuanced than the headlines are making out. Starting off by saying “Hezbollah and Amal are one,” and both children of Imam Musa al-Sadr, aligned to “deal the enemy a huge blow to prevent them from accomplishing anything,” he said Hezbollah put complete trust in its “elder brother” Nabih Berri. He continued:
We support the
basic formulation
[emphasis own] of the political initiative undertaken by Parliament Speaker Berri, which is a ceasefire.” After that takes hold, “all other details will be discussed, and appropriate decisions will be taken through cooperation. Do not rush to details when the principle has yet to be accomplished. And before a ceasefire, there is no place for any other discussion for us. If the enemy continues their war, then the battlefield will decide, and we are the people of the battlefield. We will not beg for a solution. This is a war of who screams out in pain first. We will not yell out in pain. We will continue, we will sacrifice, and God willing you will hear the screams of the Israeli enemy…our only solution is resistance, endurance, our people embracing us. This is our option to achieve victory. We will defeat Israel, God willing. [Israel] will not accomplish its goals. Did not our martyred commander sayyed Hassan Nasrallah say ‘the era of defeats has past, and the era of victories has dawned?’ Do you not believe him? He was an inspired person, and this will happen, God willing. Just as you proved during July 2006 to be people of endurance, and as you have proven over a year to be a people of endurance and patience. O people, we trust in victory, through the endurance of the resistance and the patience of our supporters and their backing. The prophet Mohammad says that victory comes through patience, and salvation through anguish, and through hardship emerges ease…we want direct clashes to occur with the Israeli enemy – at the frontline or further…through direct clashes, we will prove on the battlefield that the Israeli army will suffer heavy losses, and they may be the preface to ending the war. The ground will quake, God willing, under their feet….Through hardship comes ease. We must endure in the battlefield, we are the people of endurance, and no one should think we will leave our positions or our rifles. And Israel will fall.
This, therefore, was not the ode to pacifism some had made it out to be. Nor did Qassem explicitly say Hezbollah was now accepting the decoupling Gaza from Lebanon – only the principle of a ceasefire, which has been the group’s position for a year.
**David Daoud is Senior Fellow at at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies where he focuses on Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon affairs.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 10-11/2024
Israel’s Security Cabinet Meets on Iran as Biden Urges Caution
Henry Meyer and Dan Williams/(Bloomberg)/October 10, 2024
Israel’s security cabinet met Thursday night to discuss how to retaliate against Iran for its missile attack last week, as US efforts to influence the decision remained in question. A final decision on the timing of the strike was to be made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, public broadcaster Kan said. On Wednesday, Joe Biden’s first call with Netanyahu since August threw into focus the American president’s limited ability to have a say in the nature of what could be an imminent strike against Iran. Biden has warned Israel against attacking Iran’s nuclear sites, which Tehran would view as especially provocative. US officials also worry that hits on Iranian oil infrastructure would push up energy prices and hurt the global economy. Science Minister Gila Gamliel, a member of the security cabinet, said it would “make the right decision” to prevent repeat salvos from Iran. Israel may act imminently, she told Kan. An aide to another security cabinet minister said he believed there would be a vote to authorize Israel’s retaliation. He requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue. The US is pressing Israel to limit its response against Iran to military targets. It is also proposing a fresh round of economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic, according to people familiar with the matter. A White House account of the Wednesday phone conversation made no mention of a likely Israeli strike against Iran. Instead, it said that Biden “affirmed his ironclad commitment to Israel’s security” and “condemned unequivocally Iran’s ballistic missile attack” against Israel on Oct. 1. The Israeli side didn’t release any readout, a possible sign of the tensions between Israel and the US, its major ally. Still, a senior Israeli official insisted the country was coordinating with the US over the planned retaliation against Iran.
GLOBAL INSIGHT: Understanding the Israel-Iran Escalation Ladder
“Our attack on Iran will be deadly, precise and above all surprising,” Gallant, the defense minister, said on Wednesday. “They will not understand what happened and how it happened. They will see the results.” Washington is aiming to give Netanyahu an off-ramp that allows him to resist calls for severe retribution from hard-line nationalists in his coalition, as well as some opposition leaders. There’s no guarantee he’ll take it, especially given that the Biden administration is reluctant to cut weapons supplies to Israel or take other measures that might force Netanyahu’s hand.
Iran’s attack was largely foiled, though one person in the West Bank was killed and millions of Israelis had to go to shelters. Some military bases were also hit. There are political concerns for the US. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, is anxious to keep the conflict from draining support in battleground states ahead before the Nov. 5 election. Netanyahu, who has openly touted his close relationship with Republican candidate Donald Trump, has shown little interest in helping her, though he says he’s neutral. “Escalation in the region helps Trump, which is also good for Bibi because it means not just four more weeks of unrestrained behavior, but four years of no American pressure,” Ali Vaez, Iran Project Director at the International Crisis Group, said, using Netanyahu’s nickname. Ties between the US and Israel have grown more strained over the past year. Netanyahu has disregarded US advice time and again in charting Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 Israelis and saw about 250 taken hostage. The Biden administration has been frustrated at the extent of Israel’s subsequent offensive on Gaza, which has killed about 42,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. The US has also criticized Israel for not letting enough aid into Gaza and tried, unsuccessfully, to dissuade Netanyahu from sending ground troops into southern Lebanon. Israel started its ground incursion into Lebanon last week in a bid to degrade Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group that’s been firing rockets and drones on Israeli territory in solidarity with Hamas. This week, Netanyahu called on the Lebanese people to “take your country back” from Hezbollah and said that if they didn’t, Lebanon could experience “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.” On Wednesday, when asked about those comments, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “We cannot and must not see the situation in Lebanon turn into anything like the situation in Gaza. That would, of course, not be acceptable.”
Peacekeepers Injured
The United Nations said Thursday that two of its peacekeepers were lightly injured when an Israeli tank fired toward an observation post in southern Lebanon. France, Italy and Ireland, all of which have peacekeepers in Lebanon, criticized the incident. “Firing on peacekeepers can never be tolerated or acceptable,” Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said. “The Blue Helmet worn by UN peacekeepers must be sacrosanct.”Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, advised the peacekeepers to relocate 5 kilometers (3 miles) to the north “to avoid danger as fighting intensifies” and the situation “remains volatile as a result of Hezbollah’s aggression.” The Israel Defense Forces said Hezbollah had fired about 190 projectiles into Israel on Thursday. Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes on Beirut left 18 dead and 92 wounded.
‘Bad Guy’
Biden and Netanyahu spoke after claims in a new book by journalist Bob Woodward that the US president used expletives to describe the Israeli premier. “That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy,” Biden reportedly said to one of his associates in comments that the White House didn’t deny, CNN said. For all Netanyahu’s disregard of the US, he did heed American warnings after a similar Iran attack in April. He retaliated with a single, limited strike against an air-defense facility in Isfahan, Iran. That was after Biden had urged him to avoid a bigger assault. “They’ll probably go against the military-industrial complex in Iran, probably not against the nuclear power complex, and probably not against energy,” retired US Navy Admiral James Stavridis, who is now a Bloomberg opinion columnist, told Bloomberg Radio on Wednesday. “I think there’s about a one-in-four chance of a broader war in the Middle East that drags the US in. That’s uncomfortably high, but I’d still bet against a big sweeping war in the Middle East.”
--With assistance from Courtney McBride, Sherif Tarek and Augusta Saraiva.

Report: Qaani under guard and questioned as Iran probes Nasrallah killing
Associated Press/October 10, 2024
Esmail Qaani, the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, is alive and unhurt but under guard and being questioned as Iran investigates major security breaches, multiple sources have told the Middle East Eye news portal. Qaani has not been seen in public since Israel killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a massive air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 27. Since then, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has opened investigations into how Israel was able penetrate the Lebanese group’s most senior leadership and identify where and when Nasrallah would be found, Middle East Eye said. Ten sources in Tehran, Beirut and Baghdad, including senior Shiite figures and sources close to Hezbollah and in the IRGC, told MEE that even Qaani, one of Iran’s most senior generals, and his team are under lockdown as investigators seek answers. Qaani became head of the Quds Force, the IRGC’s overseas unit, after the U.S. killing of its previous leader, Qassem Soleimani, in January 2020. Over the past two months, Israel has killed several top leaders in the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance, including the majority of Hezbollah’s military leadership.
Suspicions that senior Iranian commanders may have been compromised were compounded when Nasrallah’s presumed successor, Hashem Safieddine, was apparently killed in another powerful Israeli strike on a secret subterranean Hezbollah base on October 4. Safieddine is believed to have been killed at a meeting of Hezbollah’s Shoura Council, which includes the party’s most senior leaders, sources said. Within minutes of arriving, he was hit by a strike so powerful that it demolished four large residential buildings. The fate of Safieddine and his companions is still unconfirmed, as Israeli aircraft shoot at any rescue workers or Hezbollah members that try to reach the site. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Safieddine had been "taken out," but an Israeli military spokesperson later said he could not confirm that he had been killed. Qaani arrived in Lebanon two days after the killing of Nasrallah, accompanied by several IRGC commanders and other figures “to assess the situation on the ground,” according to MEE's sources. But after the attack on Safieddine all contact was lost with him for two days, they added. Speculation has mounted online and in the media that Qaani was wounded or killed in Israel’s continuous bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs.
But a source in the IRGC and senior Iraqi officials told MEE that the Quds Force leader was not wounded and was not with Safieddine at the Shoura Council meeting. On Tuesday, Iraj Masjedi, deputy commander of the Quds Force and former Iranian ambassador to Baghdad, told reporters that Qaani is “in good health and is carrying out his daily duties.” However, eight sources from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon said he is being detained while investigations continue. “The Iranians have serious suspicions that the Israelis have infiltrated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, especially those working in the Lebanese arena, so everyone is currently under investigation,” the commander of an armed faction close to Iran told MEE. “Nothing is certain at the moment. The investigations are still ongoing and all possibilities are open.” Iran's investigations into the circumstances surrounding Nasrallah's death have also focused on the final movements of Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, a Quds Force commander who was killed alongside the Hezbollah leader. Nilforoushan began overseeing operations in Syria and Lebanon after his predecessor, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was killed in an Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate building in Damascus in April.
Two sources close to Hezbollah and Iraqi sources familiar with events told MEE that Nasrallah had been outside Beirut’s southern suburbs the night before his killing, but returned to the area to meet with Nilforoushan and several of the party’s leaders in their usual fortified operations room.
Nilforoushan, who had flown into Beirut that evening from Tehran, was taken directly from the plane to the operations room beneath the residential neighborhood of Haret Hreik, the sources said. He arrived there before Nasrallah. The strike that targeted the meeting took place shortly after Nasrallah entered the room, the sources said. “The breach was 100 percent Iranian and there is no question about this part,” a source close to Hezbollah told MEE. Iranian state media announced Nilforoushan’s death as a “martyr” who died alongside Nasrallah. Sources close to Hezbollah told MEE that Qaani was in Lebanon and had been expected to attend the Shoura Council meeting at Safieddine's invitation on the day of the air strike. But Qaani apologized and backed out of the meeting shortly before it began, they said. “Israel targeted the venue of this meeting with a raid that was bigger and harsher than the raid that targeted Nasrallah. Safieddine’s head was what was wanted, and no one else,” said a source close to Hezbollah. “Qaani was invited to this meeting and under the current circumstances he should have been present.”It is not clear where Qaani is now. Eight sources say he is in Tehran but another said he is still in Beirut. Lebanese and Iraqi sources have described Qaani as being “under house arrest” and said he is currently being questioned by figures under the direct supervision of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The commander of an Iranian-backed armed faction told MEE that the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political leader, in Tehran in July had heightened suspicions that Iran's security forces had been badly penetrated. Haniyeh was killed in an explosion at a guest house secured by the IRGC during a visit to Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. “The Iranians are now trying to determine the extent of the breach and its source. The signs indicate that the source is the Revolutionary Guard, but it is not possible to be certain at this stage,” the commander said. “All that can be said now is that the breach is very large and the losses it caused are much greater than anyone could have expected.”

UN inquiry accuses Israel of crime of ‘extermination’ in destruction of Gaza health system
REUTERS/October 10, 2024
GENEVA: A United Nations inquiry said on Thursday it found that Israel carried out a concerted policy of destroying Gaza’s health care system in the Gaza war, actions amounting to both war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination.
A statement by ex-UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay released ahead of a full report accused Israel of “relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities” in the war, triggered by Hamas militants’ deadly cross-border attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. “Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system,” said Pillay, whose report will be presented to the UN General Assembly on Oct. 30. Israel says that Gaza’s militants operate from the cover of built-up populated areas including private homes, schools and hospitals and that it will strike them wherever they emerge, while also trying to avoid harming civilians. Hamas denies hiding militants, weapons and command posts among civilians. The UN inquiry’s statement also accused Israeli forces of deliberately killing and torturing medical personnel, targeting medical vehicles and restricting permits for patients to leave the besieged Gaza Strip. As an example, it cited the death of a Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, in February along with family members and two medics who came to rescue her from under Israeli fire. The World Health Organization says over 10,000 patients requiring urgent medical evacuation have been prevented from leaving Gaza since the Rafah border crossing with Egypt was shut in May. The Palestinian health ministry says nearly 1,000 medics have been killed in Gaza in the past year in what the WHO called “an irreplaceable loss and a massive blow to the health system.” The statement said the treatment of both Palestinian detainees in Israel and hostages seized by Hamas fighters in the Oct. 7 attack had been investigated and it accused both sides of involvement in torture and sexual violence. The Commission of Inquiry has a broad mandate to collect evidence and identify suspected perpetrators of international crimes committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. It bases its findings on a range of sources including interviews with victims and witnesses, submissions and satellite imagery. The COI has previously alleged that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, and that Israel’s actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses. The term is reserved for the most serious international crimes knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians. Israel has not cooperated with the inquiry, which it says has an anti-Israel bias. The COI has accused Israel of obstructing its work and preventing investigators from accessing both Israel and the Palestinian territories. Sometimes, the evidence gathered by such UN-mandated bodies has formed the basis for war crimes prosecutions and could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court.

Israeli strike on school-turned-shelter in Gaza kills 27
The Associated Press/DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP)/October 10, 2024
An Israeli strike on a school sheltering the displaced in the Gaza Strip killed at least 27 people on Thursday, Palestinian medical officials said. The Israeli military said it targeted militants hiding among civilians, without providing evidence. Israel has continued to strike at what it says are militant targets across the Palestinian enclave even as attention has shifted to its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran. The military launched a large-scale air and ground operation against Hamas in northern Gaza earlier this week. In a separate development, the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said an Israeli tank fired on its headquarters in the town of Naqoura, hitting an observation tower and wounding two peacekeepers, who were hospitalized. The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident. UNIFIL said in a statement that its headquarters and nearby positions “have been repeatedly hit.” It said the army also fired on a nearby bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system. It said an Israeli drone was seen flying to the bunker's entrance. Strike on shelter appears to have targeted Hamas-run police The strike in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah killed 27 people, including a child and seven women, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were brought. It said several other people were wounded. An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances streaming into the hospital and counted the bodies, many of which arrived in pieces.
“We appeal to the world. We are dying!” one man screamed. The Israeli military said it carried out a precise strike targeting a militant command and control center inside the school. Israel has repeatedly attacked schools that were turned into shelters in Gaza, accusing militants of hiding out in them.
Witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons said the strike occurred while school managers were meeting with representatives of an aid group in a room normally used by Hamas-run police who provide security. They said there were no police in the room at the time.
The Hamas-run government operated a civilian police force numbering in the tens of thousands. They largely vanished from the streets after the start of the war as Israel targeted them with airstrikes, but plainclothes Hamas security personnel still exert control over most areas.
Hamas has continued to launch attacks on Israeli forces and fire occasional rockets into Israel more than a year after its Oct. 7 attack ignited the war. Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and rampaged through army bases and farming communities in that attack, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel’s offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
UN peacekeepers caught in intensified fighting in Lebanon
UNIFIL, which has more than 10,000 peacekeepers from dozens of countries, was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. The U.N. expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to patrol a buffer zone set up along the border. Israel accuses Hezbollah of establishing militant infrastructure right along the border in violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. It has warned people to evacuate from dozens of communities in southern Lebanon, many of which are outside the buffer zone. The U.N. peacekeeping chief, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, said last week that U.N. peacekeepers were staying in their positions on Lebanon’s southern border despite Israel’s request to vacate some areas before it launched its ground operation against Hezbollah.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in support of Hamas and the Palestinians, drawing Israeli airstrikes in retaliation. The fighting steadily escalated, and eventually boiled over into all-out war in recent weeks, with Israel carrying out waves of heavy strikes across Lebanon and launching the ground invasion. Hezbollah has expanded its rocket fire to more populated areas deeper inside Israel, causing few casualties but disrupting daily life. Israel says the ground invasion, which has so far focused on a narrow strip along the border, is aimed at pushing the militants back so that tens of thousands of Israelis can return to their homes in the north. The fighting has displaced over a million people in Lebanon. Iran supports Hamas, Hezbollah and other armed groups across the region that refer to themselves as the Axis of Resistance against Israel. Iran launched some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel last week in retaliation for the killing of top Hamas and Hezbollah militants. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that its response to the Iranian missile attack will be “lethal” and “surprising,” without providing further details, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden.

UN inquiry accuses Israel of crime of 'extermination' in destruction of Gaza health system
Reuters/Emma Farge/October 10, 2024
A United Nations inquiry said on Thursday it found that Israel carried out a concerted policy of destroying Gaza's healthcare system in the Gaza war, actions amounting to both war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination. A statement by ex-U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay released ahead of a full report accused Israel of "relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities" in the war, triggered by Hamas militants' deadly cross-border attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. "Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system," said Pillay, whose report will be presented to the U.N. General Assembly on Oct. 30. Israel says that Gaza's militants operate from the cover of built-up populated areas including private homes, schools and hospitals and that it will strike them wherever they emerge, while also trying to avoid harming civilians. Hamas denies hiding militants, weapons and command posts among civilians. The U.N. inquiry's statement also accused Israeli forces of deliberately killing and torturing medical personnel, targeting medical vehicles and restricting permits for patients to leave the besieged Gaza Strip. As an example, it cited the death of a Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, in February along with family members and two medics who came to rescue her from under Israeli fire. The World Health Organization says over 10,000 patients requiring urgent medical evacuation have been prevented from leaving Gaza since the Rafah border crossing with Egypt was shut in May. The Palestinian health ministry says nearly 1,000 medics have been killed in Gaza in the past year in what the WHO called "an irreplaceable loss and a massive blow to the health system".
The statement said the treatment of both Palestinian detainees in Israel and hostages seized by Hamas fighters in the Oct. 7 attack had been investigated and it accused both sides of involvement in torture and sexual violence. The Commission of Inquiry has a broad mandate to collect evidence and identify suspected perpetrators of international crimes committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. It bases its findings on a range of sources including interviews with victims and witnesses, submissions and satellite imagery. The COI has previously alleged that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, and that Israel's actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses. The term is reserved for the most serious international crimes knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians. Israel has not cooperated with the inquiry, which it says has an anti-Israel bias. The COI has accused Israel of obstructing its work and preventing investigators from accessing both Israel and the Palestinian territories. Sometimes, the evidence gathered by such U.N.-mandated bodies has formed the basis for war crimes prosecutions and could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court.

France, Britain grant Palestinian Authority cash lifeline
AFP/October 10, 2024
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: France and Britain granted 19.7 million dollars (18 million euros) in emergency aid to the Palestinian Authority on Thursday to help fund health and education services in the occupied West Bank, officials said. The Palestinian Authority (PA) faces “persistent challenges” due to the war in Gaza, violence in the West Bank, and the Israeli government’s withholding of customs revenue, Palestinian Planning and International Cooperation Minister Wael Zaqout said. “This financing is part of the emergency fund framework to guarantee the continuity of vital services in education and health,” he told a press conference in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. The aid will be channeled to the Palestinian Authority via an emergency fund created in 2021 by the World Bank to keep the Palestinian economy afloat. The PA has faced a serious budget crisis in recent years that has made it unable to pay salaries in full to public sector employees. The problems worsened after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 last year, which led Israel to invade the territory. In recent months, several senior Palestinian officials including the minister of the economy have warned about the risk of the West Bank economy collapsing. “France remains committed to help build a viable Palestinian state, able to exercise its sovereignty over all its territories, including Gaza,” France’s consul-general in Jerusalem, Nicolas Kassianides, said in a statement. The funds would “address the most essential and urgent needs of the Palestinian people,” he added. British Consul-General Diane Corner said that her country’s contribution aimed to “support the salaries of 8,200 doctors, nurses and other employees in the health sector.”The financial help “comes at a critical time and advances mutual priorities,” said Stefan Emblad, World Bank director in the Palestinian territories. He added that the aid came on top of a recent $30 million grant from the World Bank, also to the emergency fund.

Saudi's MbS will not attend Russia's BRICS summit
Reuters/October 10, 2024
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is not expected to attend the Russian-hosted BRICS summit later this month, according to the Kremlin, which said the world's biggest oil exporter would be represented by the Kingdom's foreign minister. BRICS, originally Brazil, Russia, India and China, has expanded in recent years to include South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said that nine of the 10 BRICS member states would send their leaders, though Saudi Arabia would send its foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, to the summit in the Russian city of Kazan. He did not give a reason for the expected absence of the crown prince, known as MbS. Ushakov said "BRICS is a structure that cannot be ignored". He said BRICS members accounted for 45% of the world's population, about 40% of oil production and about a quarter of global goods exports. The term BRIC was coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill in 2003 to describe how the four rising economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China are likely to rival and overtake many of the West's leading economies over the next half century. In the two decades since then, the group has formed into an official structure though its economic weight is largely made up by China, the world's second largest economy, and critics say the major members of the grouping have contradictory aims.

Dutch state sued over alleged failure to stop Israel's violations of international law
Reuters/October 10, 2024
Palestinian and Dutch organisations on Thursday filed a legal complaint against the state of the Netherlands over its alleged failure to prevent Israel from committing possible genocide in Gaza and other violations of international law. The case argues that the Netherlands has a legal obligation to do everything in its power to stop alleged violations of international law and the 1948 Genocide Convention by Israel. It is backed by Palestinian human rights organisations, Dutch social justice NGOs and Jewish organisations, who do not support the Israeli government. Israel denies committing war crimes or acts of genocide in its war in the Palestinian territory, which was triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas strikes on southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were killed in the attacks and more than 250 taken hostage back to Gaza, Israel says. The organisations seek a ban on all Dutch exports to Israel of weapons and goods that could have a military use, but also want judges to order the country to halt all business with Israel related to its presence in the occupied Palestinian territories, the NGOs' lawyer Wout Albers told Reuters. The case is expected to be heard in November. Health authorities in Gaza say nearly 42,000 people have been killed so far during Israel's retaliation in Gaza. Gaza's Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatants in its casualty reports. Health officials say most of the dead are civilians. Israel, which says at least a third are fighters, says it makes efforts to reduce harm to civilians as it battles militants, who it says operate from schools and hospitals. It is unclear how far the case will go, as the Dutch supreme court has dismissed several earlier attempts to hold the Netherlands to its obligations to prevent alleged violations of the Genocide Convention. The Netherlands has historically been a close political ally of Israel. The legal case builds on the outcome of an earlier case against the Dutch state where a court in February ordered the government to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel over concerns they were being used to violate international law.

Stop Israel from bombing Iran's oil sites, Gulf states urge US
Samia Nakhoul, Parisa Hafezi and Pesha Magid/Reuters/October 10, 2024
DUBAI (Reuters) - Gulf states are lobbying Washington to stop Israel from attacking Iran's oil sites because they are concerned their own oil facilities could come under fire from Tehran's proxies if the conflict escalates, three Gulf sources told Reuters. As part of their attempts to avoid being caught in the crossfire, Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are also refusing to let Israel fly over their airspace for any attack on Iran and have conveyed this to Washington, the three sources close to government circles said. Israel has promised Iran will pay for its missile attack last week while Tehran has said any retaliation would be met with vast destruction, raising fears of a wider war in the region that could suck in the United States. The moves by the Gulf states come after a diplomatic push by non-Arab Shi'ite Iran to persuade its Sunni Gulf neighbours to use their influence with Washington amid rising concerns Israel could target Iran's oil production facilities. During meetings this week, Iran warned Saudi Arabia it could not guarantee the safety of the Gulf kingdom's oil facilities if Israel were given any assistance in carrying out an attack, a senior Iranian official and an Iranian diplomat told Reuters.
Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst close to the Saudi royal court, said: "The Iranians have stated: 'If the Gulf states open up their airspace to Israel, that would be an act of war'." The diplomat said Tehran had sent a clear message to Riyadh that its allies in countries such as Iraq or Yemen might respond if there was any regional support for Israel against Iran. A potential Israeli strike was the focus of talks on Wednesday between Saudi de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who was on a Gulf tour to rally support, Gulf and Iranian sources said.
The Iranian minister's visit, along with Saudi-American communications at defence ministry level, are part of a coordinated effort to address the crisis, a Gulf source close to government circles told Reuters. A person in Washington familiar with the discussions confirmed that Gulf officials had been in touch with U.S. counterparts to express concern about the potential scope of Israel's expected retaliation. The White House declined comment when asked whether Gulf governments had asked Washington to ensure Israel's response was measured. U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday about the Israeli retaliation in a call both sides described as positive. Jonathan Panikoff, former deputy U.S. national intelligence officer on the Middle East and now at the Atlantic Council think-tank in Washington said: "Gulf states' anxiety is likely to be a key talking point with Israeli counterparts in trying to convince Israel to undertake a carefully calibrated response."
OIL AT RISK?
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, which is de-facto led by Saudi Arabia, has enough spare oil capacity to make up for any loss of Iranian supply if an Israeli retaliation knocked out some of the country's facilities. But much of that spare capacity is in the Gulf region so if oil facilities in Saudi Arabia or the UAE, for example, were targeted too, the world could face an oil supply problem. Saudi Arabia has been wary of an Iranian strike on its oil plants since a 2019 attack on its Aramco oilfield shut down over 5% of global oil supply. Iran denied involvement. Riyadh has had a rapprochement with Tehran in recent years, but trust remains an issue. Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE all host U.S. military facilities or troops. Concerns over oil facilities and the potential for a wider regional conflict were also central to talks between Emirati officials and their U.S. counterparts, said another Gulf source. In 2022, the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen fired missiles and drones at oil refuelling trucks near an oil refinery owned by UAE's state oil firm ADNOC and claimed the attack. "The Gulf states aren't letting Israel use their airspace. They won't allow Israeli missiles to pass through, and there's also a hope that they won't strike the oil facilities," the Gulf source said. The three Gulf sources emphasized that Israel could route strikes through Jordan or Iraq, but using Saudi, UAE, or Qatari airspace was off the table and strategically unnecessary. Analysts also pointed out that Israel has other options, including mid-air refuelling capabilities that would enable its jets to fly down the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean, proceed to the Gulf and then fly back.
'MIDDLE OF A MISSILE WAR'
According to two senior Israeli officials, Israel is going to calibrate its response and, as of Wednesday, it had not yet decided whether it would strike Iran's oilfields. The option was one of a number presented by the defence establishment to Israeli leaders, according to the officials.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday: "Our strike will be lethal, precise, and above all - surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened. They will see the results."The three Gulf sources stated that Saudi Arabia, as a leading oil exporter along with oil-producing neighbours - the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain - had keen a interest in de-escalating the situation. "We will be in the middle of a missile war. There is serious concern, especially if the Israeli strike targets Iran's oil installations," a second Gulf source said.
The three Gulf sources said an Israeli strike on Iran's oil infrastructure would have a global impact, particularly for China - Iran's top oil customer - as well as for Kamala Harris ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election in which she is running against Donald Trump. "If oil prices surge to $120 per barrel, it would harm both the U.S. economy and Harris' chances in the election. So they (Americans) won't allow the oil war to expand," the first Gulf source said. Gulf sources said safeguarding all oil installations remained a challenge, despite having advanced missile and Patriot defence systems, so the primary approach remained diplomatic: signalling to Iran that Gulf states pose no threat. Bernard Haykel, professor of Near East Studies at Princeton University, noted that Riyadh was vulnerable "because the Iranians can swarm those installations given the short distance from the mainland". (Additional reporting by Maha El Dahan and Hadeel Al Sayegh in Dubai; Humeyra Pamuk, Matt Spetalnick and Jonathan Landay in Washington and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Reporting and writing by Samia Nakhoul; Editing by David Clarke)

Oil Gains as Traders Monitor Israeli Response to Iranian Attack
Bloomberg/Alex Longley and Weilun Soon/October 10, 2024
Oil rose after a two-day decline as traders watched for an Israeli response to Iran’s missile attack early last week, while US crude stockpiles expanded the most since April. Brent rose above $77 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate was close to $74. The market remains on edge after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday the response “will be deadly, precise and above all surprising,” while Iran has warned it’s ready to launch thousands of missiles if needed. Markets were relatively steady after US consumer price data came in slightly hotter than expected. Traders have been looking for signs that inflation and growth may stay high, leaving less room for interest-rate cuts. Oil has been jolted by the hostilities in the Middle East, with volatility soaring and hedge funds adding more net-long positions. President Joe Biden has discouraged an attack on Iranian oil infrastructure, and spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday for the first time in over a month. But the call threw into focus the US leader’s limited ability to influence Israel’s prime minister. “The market remains in a ‘wait and see’ mode, with considerable upside risks if the conflict escalates further and impacts energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf,” SEB analyst Ole Hvalbye wrote in a note. “The potential for upside risks outweighs the downside in the current volatile environment.”Still, concerns over China’s economy continue to linger, and the lack of fresh major stimulus from Beijing this week prompted a broad market selloff on Tuesday, including in oil. The central government said it would hold a new briefing on fiscal policy on Saturday. In the US, meanwhile, crude stockpiles swelled by 5.8 million barrels last week, the biggest increase since late April, according to government data released on Wednesday. Gasoline inventories dropped.

Suspected attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels target ship in Red Sea
JON GAMBRELL/DUBAI, United Arab Emirates/AP/October 10, 2024
A series of suspected attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted a ship on Thursday in the Red Sea, authorities said. The attack comes as the rebels continue to threaten ships moving through the Red Sea, a waterway that once saw $1 trillion in goods move through it a year, over the ongoing conflicts in the Mideast stemming from the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. A ship in the Red Sea skirting the coast of the East Africa found itself struck first by a projectile that damaged the vessel, but sparked no fire and caused no injuries, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The private security firm Ambrey identified the ship as a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker. At least two more projectiles later fell in the waters around the vessel, which was a distance away from Hodeida, the Houthi-controlled port from which many of the rebels' attacks have been launched. The rebels did not immediately claim the attack. However, it can take them hours or even days to acknowledge their assaults. The Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well. The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the U.K. to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran. In Thursday's attack, Ambrey said it “assessed the vessel to have a strong affiliation with the Houthi targeting profile,” without elaborating.

Ukraine Comes Up With Bold Prediction About When Putin's War Could End
Kate Nicholson/HuffPost UK/October 10, 2024
Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that Ukraine could beat Russia in the ongoing war by the end of 2025. The Ukrainian president made the bold claim while in Croatia on Wednesday, while addressing the Ukraine-South East Europe summit. He told those present: “In October, November and December, we have a real chance to move the situation towards peace and long-term stability. “The situation on the battlefield creates an opportunity to make this choice – a choice in favour of decisive action to end the war no later than 2025.”However, he did not explain how Kyiv intends to beat Vladimir Putin, or what makes him think there is such a definite end to the conflict just around the corner. His remarks come as the West weigh up whether to allow Ukraine to fire long-range missiles – which allies have already supplied to the beleaguered country – into Russia, as a form of attack rather than defence.
While Putin reportedly expected to conquer Kyiv and seize the whole of Ukraine in a matter of days when he first invaded in February 2022, the Russian president has since hinted that he is ready to wait it out until his opponent exhausts their resources. In December 2022, he admitted it could turn into a “long-term process” while his ally, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, said in May 2023 that the war could last for decades. The US-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, claimed in July that Putin was even preparing Russians for at least 10 years of conflict. Peace efforts between the warring countries have been particularly unsuccessful over the last two and half years, because Putin has demanded Zelenskyy concede some of the Ukrainian land he is occupying to Russia. But Zelenskyy has made it clear that is a red line, and that he will only consider the war with Russia to be officially “over” once Moscow’s troops have left all of Ukraine’s territory – including the land Putin annexed in 2014, the peninsula of Crimea. The Kremlin also claims that since Ukraine turned the tables and invaded the Russian region of Kursk in August, any chance of peace is not on the table. Kyiv’s troops have been occupying the Russian area for more than two months now, and Putin’s army have been able to remove them. Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has explained that the incursion is part of Ukraine’s “victory plan” which he is presenting to Western leaders. On Thursday, he touched down in London to meet the new Nato secretary general Mark Rutte and UK PM Keir Starmer. Speaking after his talks with Starmer, Zelensky said: “The victory plan aims to create the right conditions for a just end to the war. “I thank the United Kingdom for its continued defence support of our country, including with long-range weapons.”He is set to meet Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Friday, and to meet Pope Francis on Friday, too. A meeting of about 20 world leaders in Germany over the ongoing war is also set to be rescheduled, after US president Joe Biden had to hastily pull out to deal with the Hurricane Milton hitting Florida.

Russia's mass advantage against Ukraine should start declining by 2025, war expert says
Matthew Loh/Business Insider/October 10, 2024
Russia is flooding Ukraine with men and equipment, but that should soon slow, analyst Michael Kofman said. Its high losses indicate its military is strained under its current level of aggression, he told the Intelligencer. While Kofman doesn't think Russia will run out of steam, he said the Kremlin will be forced to recalibrate. Russia's numbers advantage against Ukraine is likely to start diminishing as soon as the end of this year, said US-based military analyst Michael Kofman. Speaking to Intelligencer's Benjamin Hart in an interview published on Tuesday, Kofman said that while the Kremlin has sustained pressure on Ukraine while suffering high levels of attrition, it's now starting to struggle under "very significant constraints." "And if anything, its advantage on the battlefield is likely to decline as we get into this winter and look further ahead into 2025," said Kofman, a Kyiv-born senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace whose work focuses on Russia. Kofman was careful to tell Hart that he didn't think Russia would soon run out of equipment or men. But he believes that Moscow can't keep up its offensive pace for long. Such a development could be a ray of hope for Ukraine, which faces a slow yet brutal Russian advance in the east, largely attributed to Moscow expending vastly more manpower and military hardware.
Russia's equipment can't last forever
Kofman's first explanation is that Moscow has been replacing high equipment losses with Soviet-era weaponry, but even these reserve stocks can't last forever. "Russia is eating through its Soviet legacy, and its rate of equipment production is quite low relative to the numbers being lost on the battlefield," he said. "What it does mean is that the Russian military has increasingly been forced to adjust tactics to minimize their losses," he added. "And that also reduces their ability to achieve any operationally meaningful breakthroughs."
High payouts show recruitment is under strain
Kofman also believes that the Russian government can't sustain the surge in bonuses and benefits it's offering en masse to new recruits. As it continues trying to overwhelm Ukraine by flooding the battlefield with troops, Russia has been offering abnormally high payouts for new soldiers, such as when Moscow touted sign-up bonuses on par with the US military's in July. And that's for a city where the average wage is less than a fifth of the median wage in the US. "It's clear that at this rate of loss, the Russian contract recruitment campaign is unable to keep up," Kofman said. "This, too, does not mean that Russia is going to run out of manpower, but it's clear that they're struggling."The UK Defense Ministry posted an update on Monday saying it's likely that Russia has suffered its highest daily casualty rate since the war began, with the average scale of losses rising significantly with every passing year. British officials estimated that the Kremlin stands to steadily lose 1,000 troops a day throughout the coming winter, after already sustaining record daily losses in May and September. That's happening as Russia pushes intensely on the eastern front, besieging the key towns of Vuhledar and Pokrovsk in Donetsk while attempting to retake Russian land seized by Ukraine in Kursk.
Putin's long-term strategy in question
The battles in the Donbas have been a slog, taking more than a year in the case of Vuhledar. While Russian forces have advanced to the limits of Pokrovsk, Kofman told Hart it should take them more than just a few weeks of fighting to conquer the town. His analysis of Russia's pace of fighting presents implications not only for the frontline in Ukraine but also for Russia's wartime economy, which Russian leader Vladimir Putin has refocused to rely heavily on defense manufacturing after the war began. Draft policy documents reported by Russian media in September indicate that authorities plan to continue spending about 40% of the nation's overall budget on its military and national security. Russia posted GDP growth of 3.6% in 2023 after the pivot, despite international sanctions that the West hoped would scupper its economy. Putin and his administration largely took those numbers as a triumphant sign of Russian resilience. But it's unclear how long Moscow can maintain that strategy. Some economists say that if the war disappears or production slows down, the defense sector will no longer be able to prop up the Russian economy, allowing it to slide into a recession. Ukraine's supply of equipment and manpower is also far from assured, with a dependence on the West to send vital weapons and a lagging mobilization program that rushed to send reinforcements to the front lines after being enacted years after the war began. Kyiv has, in the meantime, sought to develop its own formidable defense industry and has been manufacturing missiles, artillery systems, and an array of land, sea, and air drones.

Blinken at ASEAN meet condemns China’s ‘increasingly dangerous’ sea moves
AFP/October 11, 2024
VIENTIANE, Laos: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Beijing’s “increasingly dangerous” actions in the South China Sea and voiced support for freedom of navigation as he met leaders of the ASEAN bloc on Friday. “We remain concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful actions on the South and East China Seas, which have injured people, harmed vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolution of disputes,” Blinken told Southeast Asian leaders gathered in Laos. “The United States will continue to support freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight in the Indo-Pacific,” he said. Blinken said that the United States also hoped to work with ASEAN leaders to “protect stability across the Taiwan Strait,” where tension has risen again as China this week denounced remarks by the self-governing democracy’s president. Blinken is representing the United States at the annual Southeast Asian meeting, where China has heard directly from leaders of concern about the dispute-rife South China Sea. The Philippines has been alarmed by violent incidents as Beijing exerts its claims in the strategic waterway. Another prominent theme at the summit is Myanmar, whose military junta sent a representative to the ASEAN meeting for the first time in more than three years. Myanmar’s delegation joined the meeting with Blinken but it was unclear if there was any direct interaction. Blinken said he wanted to discuss the “deepening crisis in Myanmar” — a rare US usage of the country’s official name and not the former Burma. Blinken also urged firmness against Russia’s “war of aggression” in Ukraine, ahead of a full East Asia Summit in which Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will participate.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on October 10-11/2024
Today in History: Christians ‘Manfully Resist’ Muslims Full of ‘Wrath and Pride’ at Tours
Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/October 10, 2024
On October 10, 732, one of history’s most epic battles between Christians and Muslims took place and saved Europe from becoming Islamic over a millennium ago. Precisely one century after the death of Islam’s prophet Muhammad in 632 — a century which had seen the conquest of thousands of square miles of formerly Christian lands, including Syria, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain — the scimitar of Islam found itself in the heart of Europe in 732, facing that continent’s chief military power, the Franks. After the Muslim hordes, which reportedly numbered 80,000 men, had ravaged most of southwestern France, slaughtering and enslaving countless victims and desecrating and plundering countless churches, they met and clashed with 30,000 Frankish infantrymen under the leadership of Charles Martel, somewhere between Poitiers and Tours, on today’s date. An anonymous medieval Arab chronicler describes the battle as follows: Near the river Owar [Loire], the two great hosts of the two languages [Arabic and Latin] and the two creeds [Islam and Christianity] were set in array against each other. The hearts of Abd al-Rahman [the Muslim leader], his captains and his men were filled with wrath and pride, and they were the first to begin to fight. The Muslim horsemen dashed fierce and frequent forward against the battalions of the Franks, who manfully resisted, and many fell dead on either side, until the going down of the sun.
Entirely consisting of wild headlong charges, the Muslim attack proved ineffective, for “the men of the north stood as motionless as a wall, they were like a belt of ice frozen together, and not to be dissolved, as they slew the Arab with the sword,” writes one chronicler. “The Austrasians [eastern Franks], vast of limb, and iron of hand, hewed on bravely in the thick of the fight.” The Franks refused to break ranks and allow successive horsemen to gallop through the gaps, which Arab cavalry tactics relied on. Instead, they tightened their ranks and, “drawn up in a band around their chief [Charles], the people of the Austrasians carried all before them. Their tireless hands drove their swords down to the breasts [of the foe].”
According to military historian Victor Davis Hanson,
When the sources speak of “a wall,” “a mass of ice,” and “immovable lines” of infantrymen, we should imagine a literal human rampart, nearly invulnerable, with locked shields in front of armored bodies, weapons extended to catch the underbellies of any Islamic horsemen foolish enough to hit the Franks at a gallop. As expected, the battle was a wondrous mess: “Muslims would ride up in large bodies, slash at the clumsier Franks, shoot arrows, and then ride away as the enemy line advanced.” In response, “each Frankish soldier, with shield upraised, would lodge his spear into either the horsemen’s legs or the face and flanks of his mount, then slash and stab with his sword to cut the rider down, all the while smashing his shield — the heavy iron boss in the center was a formidable weapon in itself — against exposed flesh. Gradually advancing en masse, the Franks would then continue to trample and stab fallen riders at their feet — careful to keep close contact with each other at all times.”At one point, Allah’s warriors surrounded and trapped Charles, but “he fought as fiercely as the hungry wolf falls upon the stag. By the grace of Our Lord, he wrought a great slaughter upon the enemies of Christian faith,” writes Denis the chronicler. “Then was he first called ‘Martel,’ for as a hammer of iron, of steel, and of every other metal, even so he dashed and smote in the battle all his enemies.”
As night descended on the field of carnage, the two bloodied armies disengaged and withdrew to their camps. At the crack of dawn, the Franks prepared to resume battle, only to discover that the Muslims had all fled under the cover of darkness. Their master, Abdul, had been killed in fighting the day before, and the Berbers who formed most of the Muslim army — freed of his whip and having tasted Frankish mettle — apparently preferred life and some plunder over martyrdom. They all fled back south — still looting, burning, and enslaving all and sundry as they went. Aware that his strength lay in his “wall of ice,” Charles did not give chase.
The aftermath “was, as all cavalry battles, a gory mess, strewn with thousands of wounded or dying horses, abandoned plunder, and dead and wounded Arabs. Few of the wounded were taken prisoner — given their previous record of murder and pillage.” The oldest sources give astronomical numbers of slain Muslims, with only a small fraction of slain Franks. Whatever the true numbers, significantly fewer numbers of Franks than Muslims fell on that day. Even Arab chronicles refer to the engagement as the “Pavement of Martyrs,” suggesting that the earth was littered with Muslim corpses.
The surviving chronicles of the day — including that of the aforesaid and anonymous Arab — portray this victory in epic if not apocalyptic terms. Indeed, of all the many battles between Islam and Christendom, Tours has, beginning with the contemporary chronicles up until the modern era, been one of if not the most celebrated in the West. For although the Mediterranean was lost, and although raids on the European coastline became a permanent feature, Islam was confined to Spain, south of the Pyrenees Mountains, leaving the rest of Western Europe to develop organically.
It is for this reason that, well into the twentieth century, leading Western historians, such as Godefroid Kurth (d. 1916), still saw Tours as “one of the great events in the history of the world, as upon its issue depended whether Christian Civilization should continue or Islam prevail throughout Europe.”
In more recent times—and indicative of our times, which are dedicated to whitewashing Islam and demonizing Europe—contemporary academics have dramatically downgraded the importance of Tours. Thus, after announcing that “the old drums-and-bugles approach will no longer do,” the authors of The Reader’s Companion to Military History (2001) say that other factors, such as economics … [and] changing attitudes … have altered our views of what once seemed to matter most… [T]he confrontation between Muslims and Christians at Poitiers-Tours in 732, once considered a watershed event, has been downgraded to a raid in force. Such willful amnesia and denial is, as recently demonstrated, fundamental to the Fake History that has dominated the West’s understanding of Islam, to its own detriment.
Portions of this article were excerpted from and are documented in his book, Sword and Scimitar.

Why Achieving ‘Peace’ with Islam Is Impossible
Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/October 10, 2024
Just when the world had accepted the notion that Israel’s war on Palestinians and their supporters was wholly unjust, a Muslim scholar has — like so many before him — announced that it is Muslims who thrive on and must always wage unjust wars on Israel and everyone else.
During a Sept. 11 speech, Muhammad al-Dadow al-Shantiqi, former vice president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, declared that the current conflict “is another chapter in the war that is ongoing since 1948 [the creation of modern Israel] and to this day. This is not a war against the Zionist entity, but against the infidel world in its entirety.” [emphasis added]
In other words, Muslims are not limited to fighting what is widely seen as a defensive war against an aggressive Israel — which many around the world might understand — but are in a de facto war against the entire non-Muslim world.
Surely this is an odd assertion? After all, many non-Muslim nations around the world are sympathetic to the Palestinians and highly critical of Israel. So why does this Muslim scholar see them also as enemies to be fought?
Here we come to the crux of the problem with Islam: Unlike all other major religions, it has a political mandate to conquer the entire non-Muslim world — which by default is its mortal enemy — through jihad.
A Religious Duty
The entry for “jihad” in the Encyclopaedia of Islam states that the “spread of Islam by arms is a religious duty upon Muslims in general … Jihad must continue to be done until the whole world is under the rule of Islam … Islam must completely be made over before the doctrine of jihad can be eliminated.”
Scholar Majid Khadurri (1909-2007), after defining jihad as warfare, writes that jihad “is regarded by all jurists, with almost no exception, as a collective obligation of the whole Muslim community.”
As such, it should be no surprise that wherever and whenever Muslims live alongside non-Muslims, conflict, violence, and outright wars tend to be the norm — or, as political scientist Samuel Huntington memorably put it in Clash of Civilizations, “Islam’s borders are bloody.” He continued:
Wherever one looks along the perimeter of Islam, Muslims have problems living peaceably with their neighbors. The question naturally rises as to whether this pattern of late twentieth century conflict between Muslim and non-Muslim groups is equally true of relations between groups from other civilizations. In fact, it is not. Muslims make up about one-fifth of the world’s population but in the 1990s they have been far more involved in intergroup violence than the people of any other civilization. The evidence is overwhelming. [p. 256]
Bad Neighbors
Indeed, matters have only gotten worse since Huntington’s book came out nearly 30 years ago. Whether one looks in Africa, where Muslims everywhere are slaughtering their Christian neighbors — going so far as to commit a genocide in Nigeria — or in Europe, where crimes and other “anti-infidel” forms of violence have spiked in direct proportion to Muslim migration, Huntington’s words remain true: “Muslims have problems living peaceably with their neighbors.”
This is why prudent Westerners have for centuries been finding the question of achieving permanent peace with the Islamic world a vexatious problem. Law professor James Lorimer (1818-1890) succinctly stated this problem well over a century ago:
So long as Islam endures, the reconciliation of its adherents, even with Jews and Christians, and still more with the rest of mankind, must continue to be an insoluble problem. … For an indefinite future, however reluctantly, we must confine our political recognition to the professors of those religions which … preach the doctrine of “live and let live.” (The Institutes of the Law of Nations, p. 124)
In other words, political recognition — with all the attendant negotiations and diplomacy that come with it — should be granted to all major religions and civilizations except Islam, which does not recognize the notion of “live and let live,” and therefore must always and everywhere be suppressed by those who would have peace.
Obligated to Be Terrorists?
Surely in this context, Israel’s war becomes more logical. If it is going to extreme and uncompromising lengths, that is because Islam makes its adherents go to extreme and uncompromising lengths.
As if any more proof was needed, just a few days ago, İsmet Özel, a well-known “poet” from Turkey, boasted during a televised conference that
Muslims are terrorists. The first duty of Muslims is to be terrorists. Kafirs [infidels] should be afraid of Muslims. If they are not afraid, then a Muslim is not a Muslim.
In light of all this, it is for the reader to decide whether a variation of an old adage (once attributed to “Huns”) is valid: “The Muslim is always either at your throat or at your foot.”
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West and Sword and Scimitar, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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The Potential Annihilation of Politics…
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 10/2024
A year has gone by since the two damned days, but we have yet to hear a single serious and profound reassessment of what happened. Where did the men behind the two operations go wrong? Could they both have been averted? What is to be done now after the fact? Is a retreat that allows us to avoid incurring more losses than we already have as a result of this catastrophe? This is the silence of corpses.
Worse still, even worse than our intellectuals, Hamas and Hezbollah continue to insist that they are winning and to boast that they will keep fighting. When the latter seemed somewhat ready to face the tragic truth, Iran’s foreign minister came to visit and proclaimed that things could not have gone better.
In fact, politics, which the Palestinians and Lebanese desperately need, is among the most prominent casualties of the past year.
Israel, in its response, chose to follow the doctrine of raw force or the religion of force, which shuns politics, killing, destroying, and displacing indiscriminately. Under Netanyahu's leadership and amid partnership with the religious parties, "the day after" has become taboo, much like the "Palestinian state." Meanwhile, the Israeli public, whose sense of security was shaken by the operations, supports this course of action and calls for more of the same.
We thus saw the culmination of the march backward that had begun in the mid-1990s, with the two opposing sides- the nationalistic and religious right in Israel and the police state and Islamist regimes in the Arab Levant and Iran- opposing the project for peace that had begun in Oslo and agreeing to kill it.
On top of that, Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Jerusalem has become a manifestation of the violent Israeli excesses that negate politics. Until the foreseeable future, Netanyahu's leadership, which has been given a new lease on life, and settlement projects (both those that have been realized and those that could be implemented in the coming days) will continue to weigh heavily on the chest of politics, to say nothing about the repercussions of the ongoing war situation and its psychological ramifications on both sides of the conflict. Moreover, we could see the emergence of a new status quo in Gaza and South Lebanon that is unlikely to inspire confidence among those betting on politics or alleviate their fears.
As for us, particularly in Gaza and Lebanon, our immense pain is accompanied by opportunities, but it is unclear how these opportunities will be managed, while historical precedents encourage caution. It is true that the Iranian empire recommending that we all die has suffered fractures that are now public. And since the blows dealt to Resistance Axis forces, theories advocating violence as a solution to the conflicts- whether through resistance or otherwise- have been standing on shaky ground. However, regimes and militant groups that rejected political solutions and embraced (whether sincerely or not) calls for "total liberation" have consistently been on the receiving end of such blows since 1967, the year Nasserism and Baathism’s “Naksa” (setback). In 1973, the idea that warfare, rather than politics, would lead to "total liberation" was dealt another blow. While Anwar Sadat chose politics, Hafez al-Assad chose to rhetorically champion "total liberation," turning the Levant into a breeding ground for civil war and the dominance of militias. Later on, in 1982, the idea of armed resistance from outside Palestine was defeated, and in 2003, with the fall of Saddam Hussein, the police states and military regimes, as well as their exploitation of calls for "total liberation" and similar slogans, began to be defied.
Meanwhile, however, Iran’s effort to inherit the dead and kill the living was gaining steam. Iran invested in the collapse of the Saddam regime as it had in the failures of the PLO, and it turned one country in the region after another into a militia state. It was only natural that this project, which Iran pursued in partnership with the Syrian regime, would coincide with the thwarting of every attempt at reaching a peace deal, whether by Palestinians, Jordanians, or Lebanese, and with the persistent demonization of the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement that allowed Egypt to take back its occupied land.
But Iran seems to have bitten off more than it can chew, and we now find Iran vomiting it all out as it all vomits out its regime, making the transition to a new era- one in which we put the various forms of unbridled radicalism behind us- theoretically possible.
Nonetheless, there are reasons to doubt that this opportunity will be seized, turning theory into reality, especially if Netanyahu maintains his obstinate opposition to the emergence of a Palestinian state, continues to facilitate settlement, and sticks to rhetoric that presents "changing the region" as a punitive measure. All of this fuel illusions about the need for more violence and conflict, though it is suicidal.
Even if we do find ourselves in a situation where Iran is incapable of dragging us back into disaster, the omens of destruction remain vigorous and dynamic in several levels of our lives. Rotten communal relations throughout the Levant have been aggravated further by militias, meaning that internal implosions are much more likely than reinforcing cohesion and solidarity. An implosion is made even more likely by the mass displacement resulting from the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and before them, the war in Syria. Such a development not only changes demographics and redraws geographic lines; it also has repercussions for national affiliation as such, and for the political tools needed for that end. In light of an economic scarcity that exacerbates the suffering of victims and lowers their horizons, there is reason to fear that civil strife could sharpen. Indeed, tattered militia-like and mafia-like organizations grow on the margins of displacement, especially if it is prolonged.
But first and foremost, capable states, whether in Lebanon or Palestine, remain elusive. No party can take the reins and make decisions, ward off Iranian influence, unify the people behind it, and negotiate with the world on their behalf. Politics, under these circumstances, seems to be lying on the ground waiting for someone to pick it up, as a late Russian politician famously once put it.

Iran Between War and Accumulating Crises
Jebril Elabidi/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 10/2024
Iran finds itself between the anvil of war and the hammer of its accumulating crises. The nation's internal challenges are mounting, and if Iranian politicians fail to wake from their negligent slumber, the consequences will be catastrophic—not only for the regime but for the entire region.
The notion that war or retaliation, such as responding to Israeli provocations, can bring peace and stability is a dangerous fallacy. No matter the justification for Iran’s actions, the result will remain the same: regional devastation.
Recently, Iran launched hundreds of missiles at Israel, many of which were intercepted, and those that did land caused minimal damage. This marked the second such attack by Iran this year, following a similar barrage of missiles and drones in April. These attacks have exposed the military ineffectiveness of Iran's strikes, with most proving to be futile.
Externally, Iran faces numerous challenges, including the infiltration of its security apparatus at the highest levels and the loss of key leaders within its regional proxies. The assassination of figures like Hassan Nasrallah and his successor, Hashem Safieddine, along with speculation regarding the death of Ismail Haniyeh, all highlight the ease with which Israel is able to achieve its objectives. This raises serious questions about the extent of Iran's internal security breach—if not outright “treason” among the senior Iranian command, which has often been touted for its obedience and loyalty to Wali al-Faqih.
The killings of Haniyeh, Nasrallah, Safieddine, and other senior leaders like Fuad Shukr and Imad Mughniyeh have been described as an effortless “hunt” for Israel. This has fueled conspiracy theories suggesting that Iran is abandoning its regional arms and proxies in exchange for concessions on other fronts. However, these theories remain speculative, as there is no solid evidence to support them. In the absence of credible sources, the reasons behind these high-profile assassinations of leaders, nuclear scientists, and key figures like Qassem Soleimani, remain shrouded in mystery.
Iran’s Arab proxies have not received any meaningful protection or deterrence against Israeli attacks. On the contrary, Israel has openly and aggressively targeted Iran’s Arab proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen—namely Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis—without facing any tangible response from Iran. These groups, operating within Iran's orbit, were used by Tehran to confront Israel and other perceived enemies, all in the interest of safeguarding the Iranian regime. Yet, despite their role in defending Iran's interests, they have been left exposed to Israeli aggression, which Israel has even publicly boasted about.
For some time, Iran has been navigating a dual crisis: one that is both internal and external. The regime’s strategy has been to act as though these crises either no longer exist or can be bypassed. Iran also behaves as if it can resolve these issues alongside other regional challenges, which it tries to control through its proxies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iraq, or the Houthis in Yemen. These groups are often used as bargaining chips in regional conflicts or to manage threats to the Iranian regime itself.
However, the Iranian regime now faces growing unrest not just from abroad, but from within the very countries where its militias operate, such as Lebanon and Iraq. This unrest is not the result of external conspiracies but stems from deep-seated internal dissatisfaction. In these countries, people are waking up from the coma induced by the rhetoric of "resistance." The underlying fuel for their anger is poverty, hunger, unemployment, and rising living costs—not infiltrators, foreign agents, or the so-called "Great Satan." These terms are frequently used by Iranian authorities to explain away their crises, but the reality is that the root of the problem is internal, despite the ongoing wars and missile exchanges with Israel.
The Iranian people have long been suffering under repressed and suppressed crises since the regime of the "Wilayat al-Faqih" came to power, using heavy-handed tactics to crush dissent at home through the Basij security forces and the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Currently, Iran is grappling with an inflation rate exceeding 40%, stagnant economic growth, rising unemployment, and suffocating economic sanctions—all of which have left the government’s treasury nearly empty. The country is drowning in a quagmire of disease, ignorance, and unemployment, which has soared past 15%, while inflation continues to spiral in a nation that, ironically, is a major oil producer.
These crises are not solely the result of external factors, such as the so-called "maximum pressure" campaign against the regime. Rather, they stem from years of economic mismanagement, with Iran’s resources drained by costly ventures beyond its borders. The regime has prioritized funding its proxies and militant arms abroad, generously covering their expenses at the expense of the Iranian people's living standards. This has fueled an unprecedented level of internal dissatisfaction, threatening to erupt from within before any external forces have a chance to destabilize the country.

Selective Tweets/Below For /October 10, 2024
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Dear pundits: In a world where might is right -- especially so in the Middle East -- if you think #Israel has lost to Islamist #Iran, #Hezbollah or #Hamas, you have no idea how the world works. Israel's impressive military performance has already sealed the deal for many post-war potential allies. When the war stops, Israel will hold election and continue its life, safer, and resume growth.Meanwhile, the populations of Gaza and #Lebanon will dig out to find nothing, will be angry at Hamas and Hezbollah, and will take decades to rebuild, if they do at all. (Other than Iran and Qatar, no one will invest a penny in Hamas and Hezbollah land, and therefore, there won't be enough money to erase war effects). Stop buying Islamist Iran nonsense propaganda, that its axis is winning and that Israel's collapse is certain. What's certain, judging by unfolding events, is the exact opposite.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
NY Times offers #Hezbollah free publicity, pretends that it had free access when in fact its visit to southern suburb of Beirut was carefully planned by the Iran-backed militia. End result: NYT declared Hezbollah to be prevailing over #Israel.
"Last week, Hezbollah gave news organizations including The New York Times a tour of three buildings in the Dahiya area that were hit in recent airstrikes. Hezbollah members were not near reporters as they interviewed residents and had no say over what would be published.
The journalists, wearing blue body armor and helmets marked “Press,” were escorted through the streets, passing downed power lines and rubble."
https://nytimes.com/2024/10/10/world/europe/lebanon-hezbollah-israel.html?smid=tw-share