Situation in Middle East spiralling out of control

Hezbollah and Little Satan trade fire across the border between Lebanon and Israel, while the latter plans the possible completion of genocide in Gaza and Turkey calls for urgent sanctions at UNGA.

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From Al Mayadeen.

Yesterday (Monday 23rd September 2024) Little Satan, also known as Israel, started responding to Hezbollah’s rocket barrage on Sunday with airstrikes across Lebanon (still ongoing today and also hitting Beirut), with Al Mayadeen and Lebanon’s official news agency initially reporting “over 80 Israeli airstrikes targeted areas in southern Lebanon in the span of just 30 minutes”, totalling 1100 airstrikes in one day (as per Al Mayadeen) and resulting in 558 killed and 1835 wounded (as of today - source: Al Mayadeen), which prompted Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, to say:

The expanding Israeli aggression on Lebanon is a genocide in every sense of the word, the goal of which is to destroy Lebanese villages.

as reported by Al Mayadeen in this article.

Hezbollah, though, was not sitting idle taking punches, but yesterday it delivered counter-strikes hitting Israeli “northern corps’ reserve headquarters, the logistical storage sites of the al-Jalil Division at the Ammiad base, and the Rafael arms production facilities in Zevulun, north of occupied Haifa […] in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza and as a response to recent Israeli aggression against southern Lebanon and the Bekaa region”, as reported by Al Mayadeen. In another article Al Mayadeen reported about multiple Hezbollah’s attacks overnight targeting Megiddo military airport west of Afula, Ramat David airbase, Amos base, the main logistical support and transportation hub for the northern region, and an explosives factory in the Zakhroun area. Also the Islamic Resistance in Iraq targeted Israel overnight and, in particular, a location in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights using its Al-Arfad drone, as mentioned here.

The successful attacks by Hezbollah were confirmed also by the Israeli i24NEWS channel quoted by Al Mayadeen as saying that “a very large weapons depot and a logistical center belonging to the [Israeli] army” was hit and “noting ongoing efforts to extinguish the fires around the targeted site”.

Today Hezbollah has deployed its Fadi-3 rockets for the first time in the ongoing war, targeting the Israeli “Samson Remote Controlled Weapon Station (RCWS) near the Golani Junction, west of occupied Lake Tabarayya”, ~35 kilometers from the Lebanese border, as reported in this Al Mayadeen article.

And earlier tonight Hezbollah has launched a drone attack targeting Israel’s Atlit Navy Base, just south of Haifa, “the deepest they have reached since the beginning of the war”, as reported by Al Mayadeen in its Short News and as confirmed also by other sources (e.g. The Guardian, citing Reuters and OSINTdefender). [EDIT: See also this Al Mayadeen article with further details].

From Al Mayadeen.

The difference between Hezbollah’s rocket barrages and Israeli airstrikes is that the former ones hit legitimate targets, such as military bases and weapon/munition factories, with minimum civilian casualties reported even by Israeli and Western media, whereas the latter ones are indiscriminate attacks against villages and their civilian population, with the excuse of killing high-profile Hezbollah commanders or saying that Hezbollah hides its caches of weapons and ammunition in residential areas, though little evidence of this has been provided by Little Satan (this article by the Times of Israel includes a few videos of secondary blasts and/or rockets flying out of buildings following an airstrike, but this does not allow/justify the indiscriminate bombing of villages, town and cities, causing thousands of wounded!). “Funny” how we are not hearing about the same casualty numbers in Israel…

However, as reported in two different articles by Al Mayadeen (1 and 2), the cross-border fire exchange between Hezbollah and Little Satan is causing evacuations on both sides, but the targeting of the major port city of Haifa by Hezbollah (see also this other article) will severely impact the Israeli economy, which has already been crippled by the Houthis’ Red Sea blockade, with the other major Israeli port of Eliat bankrupt since July 2024, as reported by Middle East Monitor. In short, Netanyahu’s decision of escalating the fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon may accelerate his own and Israel’s demise instead of Hezbollah’s, as hinted by Alastair Crooke in his article on Strategic Culture (a recommended reading), citing this opinion piece by Yitzhak Brik on Haaretz.

From Al Mayadeen.

Israeli actions in Lebanon are attracting words of condemnation not only from the Axis of Resistance (Iran, Yemen and Palestinian factions, as summarized here by Al Mayadeen), but also from UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon), expressing its “grave concern for the safety of civilians in southern Lebanon amid the most intense Israeli bombing campaign since last October” and stating that Israeli attacks are “not only violations of international law but could amount to war crimes” (source: Al Mayadeen). Neighbouring countries and Arab states (e.g. Syria, Jordan, Saudia Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar), as well as Venezuela and China are also condemning Israel for its blatant aggression on Lebanon - see this overview of international reactions from Al Mayadeen. In two separate articles (1 and 2) Al Mayadeen has reported about Iraqi and Turkish reactions: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Iraqi Prime Minister, has called for an emergency meeting of Arab leaders on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), whereas the Turkish Foreign Ministry released the following statements yesterday (emphasis mine):

Israel's attacks on Lebanon mark a new phase in its efforts to drag the entire region into chaos.

It is imperative that all institutions responsible for maintaining international peace and security, especially the United Nations Security Council, as well as the international community, take the necessary measures without delay.

The countries that unconditionally support Israel are helping (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu shed blood for his political interests.

And yesterday Al Mayadeen also reported the following words pronounced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a New York event hosted by the Turkish-American National Steering Committee (TASC):

The recent attacks against Lebanon and the recent statements made by Israel are a clear manifestation of the efforts to spread the war to the region.

Global institutions and organizations have taken no effective steps to end the oppression in Gaza or prevent Israel's massacre.

The massacre that has been going on in Gaza for 352 days has shown this once again.

We have not remained silent and will not remain silent against any attack on the sanctity and historical status of Al-Aqsa Mosque, our first qibla [direction that should be faced when a Muslim prays].

It is extremely important that the genocide case against Israel at the ICC [International Criminal Court] must be concluded.

Speaking of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, the Israeli political and military leadership, taking advantage of the fact that the world attention is turned to Lebanon, is planning the possible completion of genocide in the Gaza Strip. As reported yesterday by the Times of Israel, Retired Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland has provided the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee with a plan that envisages ordering all residents of northern Gaza to evacuate within a week, and then imposing a total siege on the region, including a blockade of water, food and fuel supplies, until those left behind surrender or starve to death; after the week's warning, northern Gaza will become a closed military zone: anyone still inside it will become a target and nothing will enter this area.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi - from Al Mayadeen.

It is also worth reporting that yesterday Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi refuted a Bloomberg report stating that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was “prepared to ease tensions with Israel”. Al Mayadeen quoted Araghchi as saying:

These [Israeli] crimes, including the assassination of Martyr Haniyeh in Tehran, will not go unanswered, and this answer will be implemented in due time.

[Tehran] will certainly not be indifferent to the Zionist regime's recent aggression against Lebanon and will defend and support Lebanon.

Speaking of disinformation and such, Meta has decided to unpublish Al Mayadeen English from Facebook, as reported by the news media outlet itself here, while international protests in support of Palestine and Lebanon across the globe go unreported on Western mainstream media, but not on Eastern and alternative news media outlets, such as Al Mayadeen.

Meanwhile, former Israeli commanders are launching warnings to Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, as reported by Israeli media quoted by Al Mayadeen in three different articles (1, 2 and 3) today:

1. Reserve Major General Yaakov Amidror, former Security Advisor and head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate's Research Department, released the following statements to Israeli Channel 14:

   If we hit 30,000 [rockets], they still have 70,000, which is seven times what Hamas had.

   [Israel] is very far from defeating or stripping Hezbollah of its capabilities.

   [Hezbollah] is capable of striking Tel Aviv and paralyzing Israeli airspace and power stations, as well as Air Force bases, despite military operations.

   The targets will eventually run out, and a war of attrition will begin; we know this from the past.

2. Former commander of the Israeli army's air defense, Brigadier General Zvika Haimovich stated that Hezbollah launched over 180 missiles yesterday and emphasized that “the group can fire that number within just one hour”. He also “disagrees with the Israeli army's assessment that 50% of Hezbollah's missile stockpile has been destroyed”, adding that “Hezbollah's launch capabilities are nearly limitless, essentially inexhaustible” and highlighting that “what ‘Israel’ has witnessed in the past two days is only a fraction of Hezbollah's actual capabilities and what it is capable of doing”.

3. In an editorial on Israel Hayom, “Israeli Reserves General Gershon Hacohen stressed that the occupation [i.e. Israel] was ‘operating with no strategy’ against Hezbollah”.

But Yoav Gallant, the Israeli Defense Minister, is undeterred and yesterday he discussed the regional situation and the ongoing operations against Hezbollah with his US counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, whose boss, US President Joe Biden, during a meeting with the President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the White House, stated that the Outlaw US Empire is attempting to calm the situation in Lebanon, as reported by Al Mayadeen. And again today, addressing the UNGA, Biden has said that the US is working to bring a “greater measure of peace and stability” in the Middle East (source: The Guardian). Yet he is sending additional forces to the Middle East, according to The Guardian, which cites Pentagon spokesperson and US Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder as saying:

Out of an abundance of caution, we are sending a small number of additional US military personnel forward to augment our forces that are already in the region.

We have more capability in the region today than we did on April 14th when Iran conducted its drone and missile attack against Israel.

So all of those forces combined provide us with the options to be able to protect our forces should they be attacked.

It makes sense, right? Instead of de-escalating the situation in the Middle East by removing their troops from the region, they add more and they discuss ongoing military operations with Israel. They are bonkers!

A US State Department official was quoted by Al Mayadeen saying:

We've got some concrete ideas we're going to be discussing with allies and partners this week to try to figure out the way forward on this

…but he stopped short of providing any detail, allegedly because of ongoing “sensitive conversations”, as reported by The Guardian, citing White House’s Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer. In practice, they take us for a ride!

The situation in the Middle East is spiralling out of control because the people in power in the Outlaw US Empire (not Joe Biden, who cannot even remember whom he is introducing next after a speech) do not want to stop the flow of weapons and ammunition to Israel. That’s all it would take to halt the genocide of Palestinian and now of the Lebanese people.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan - From The Guardian.

Finally, at the UNGA today the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, criticized the UN for its inaction in Gaza, claiming that it has become “the world's largest children's and women's cemetery” and stating (source: Al Mayadeen - emphasis mine):

Not only children but also the UN system is dying in Gaza.

The truth, the values that the West claims to defend are dying […] I ask openly: Hey human rights organizations, aren't those in Gaza and West Bank human beings?

Erdogan also “called for coercive UN measures against Israel to be put on the agenda”, as reported by The Guardian, who quote him as saying:

Just as Hitler was stopped by an alliance of humanity so Netanyahu and his murder network must be stopped by an alliance of humanity.

…and then again, addressing the Outlaw US Empire, accused “of continuing to arm Israel so it can continue its massacres when in public it pretends it is looking for a ceasefire”, and its vassal states:

How long are you going to be able to carry the shame of witnessing this massacre? […]
Countries that have a say over Israel are openly complicit in this massacre.

Say whatever you want about Erdogan, but he is the only head of state of a NATO country who dares talking like that to the Outlaw US Empire in New York!

Let’s hope that the UNGA finally votes for sanctions against Israel soon!

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P.S.: Just before publishing, The Guardian has reported that the British Government is also “expected to announce that it will send 700 troops” to the Middle East and, in particular, to Cyprus, allegedly “to prepare for the possible evacuation of British nationals from Lebanon”. Why sending the military? And let’s not forget that the UK has two RAF (Royal Air Force) bases in Cyprus: Akrotiri and Dhekelia… plus two British warships already in the region, which “could be used to help evacuate people”, as mentioned by The Guardian. I am afraid that the movement of US and UK troops in the region may be in support of Little Satan against Hezbollah, if the latter gets the upper hand.

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UPDATE (24/09/2024 - 23:21 EEST): The Guardian has just reported about interception of “suspected Israeli missiles in Tartous” by Syrian air defences, “after reports of multiple explosions heard over the Mediterranean port city”, known for hosting the only Russian naval base in the East Med. If confirmed, this could mark a significant escalation: if Little Satan tried to hit Russian assets in Syria, it would mean that the Zionist have completely gone crazy and want to start World War 3.