Israel, Palestine & the Levant rolling events: Oct 23 on

You know what, I'm not even looking for an understanding though it would be nice. Silence is enough, thanks.

i phrased that question as directly and as fairly as i could and obviously you dont owe me any response at all but i also feel it was the only possible relevant question to ask anyone who posted what you posted up there.

i genuinely think it merited a direct response and not as callous a shrug as that

Israel probably just likes harming random Lebanese people for no reason.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Wednesday, 18 September 2024 bookmarkflaglink

Hilarious thing to post with a straight face. Got to applaud, in a way.

sealion alive, children unalive

fwiw I think israel enjoys (or at least tolerates as collateral damage) random civilians, AND I would like to see some serious, non-twitter person sourcing on the claim that non-hezbollah were carrying these pagers and direct victims of the attack

*killing* random civilians, that is

Its for the greater goal of 'defending itself', which much of the world nods along to, and does not agree when it comes to countries like Lebanon, which is always described as a Hezbollah stronghold.

It’s my feeling that Israel stopped “defending itself” when they started blowing up Gazan hospitals.

More justifications for terrorism.

In war it's impossible to fully prevent harm to civilians - especially when #Hezbollah operates in Beirut's densest civilian areas. Some impacted by this operation may be civilians due to #Hezbollah's use of civilians as human shields and their use of soldiers when age 18. (3/3)

— Congressman Brad Sherman (@BradSherman) September 18, 2024

Right everyone knows that hezbollah operatives walk around with a baby strapped to their backs at all times to deter remote detonation of their pagers

Two children dead according to the Lebanese health minister, but maybe they're lying too, you know what these Arab health ministries are like.

Even if these pagers all ended up with active Hezbollah operatives and none of them are lost or stolen or whatever, there’s still a scenario where one of them could have been on, say, a commercial plane when this happens.

What then?

Israel has done that calculation and obviously simply does not care

Sorry, let me rephrase: has come to the difficult but necessary decision that Hezbollah’s despicable tactics of blending in with the civilian population cannot and must not be allowed to succeed in hindering Israel from pursuing its legitimate military objectives in pursuit of self defence

Israel is an ethnofascist religious state hellbent on genocide and anyone who disagrees with that statement can fuck right off as far as I am concerned.

I suspect there is a psychological effect of this attack that Israel values beyond its military efficacy, which was negligible (11 killed? out of how many pagers?) to throw Hezbollah and its supporters off balance, to make them fearful that an attack could be visited on them at any time and at any place. You could give this psychological effect a name, even, you could call it something like “terrorism”

yeah, I was thinking this morning about the airplane shoe bomber episode. and when I first saw the news I also thought about the explosion in Beirut in 2020 and how horrifying watching and hearing this unfold must have been.

gyac otm. I haven't seen any confirmed reports of teachers, etc. wearing these pagers, but I have seen AP reporting on people being in cafes, shopping for groceries, and driving in traffic when it happened. planting explosives on your enemies and then detonating them when you have no way of knowing where the explosive is at the time is...idk what to say really

Well it’s absolutely of a piece with how they’ve conducted their war in Gaza. It’s indiscriminate and seems almost designed to create civilian casualties

I imagine it helps Netanyahu stay out of jail for a while longer too.

it's... terrorism

yeah I'm just struck by the spectacular and grotesque quality of this particular "operation." Not to trivialize things, but it literally sounds like something the Joker would do

completely fucked up

Apartment buildings and vehicles on fire in southern Beirut after Israel apparently detonated bombs packed into walkie talkies. God. pic.twitter.com/d55njlVFko

— Séamus Malekafzali (@Seamus_Malek) September 18, 2024

Israel knows they can do whatever the fuck they want it’s not like the US or anyone is going to do shit about it

solar panels in Lebanon now exploding as well?

Seen reports of that as well

At this point the world is truly only held together by the moral clarity of people like Comrade Abu Sitta. https://t.co/vdwkjgLP7l

— روني الدنماركي (@Aldanmarki) September 17, 2024

https://apnews.com/article/lebanon-israel-exploding-pagers-hezbollah-syria-ce6af3c2e6de0a0dddfae48634278288

The Lebanese security source said the pagers were from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, but the company said in a statement it did not manufacture the devices.

It said they were made by a company called BAC - based in the Hungarian capital - which has a licence to use its brand.

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, whose military declined to comment on the blasts. The two sides have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the Gaza conflict erupted last October.

Several blasts were heard at the funeral in Beirut for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by exploding pagers the day before

Looks like an invasion of Lebanon is on the cards.

The death toll in Israel’s terror attack in Lebanon rises to 12, including an eight-year-old girl, 11-year-old boy, and four medical staff pic.twitter.com/QWKYTE6KWD

— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) September 18, 2024

Christ, a friend of mine lives in Beirut. She's constantly updating everyone on FB that they're ok, but this must be rattling for them. And theyre used to constant power outages, currency issues, explosions etc.

Looks like an invasion of Lebanon is on the cards

yeah, just heard about Israeli troops being moved north towards the border

gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/world/middleeast/israel-exploding-pagers-hezbollah.html?unlocked_article_code=1.L04.sgr0.TPJngJwl7Vs0&smid=url-share

By all appearances, B.A.C. Consulting was a Hungary-based company that was under contract to produce the devices on behalf of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. In fact, it was part of an Israeli front, according to three intelligence officers briefed on the operation. They said at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers.

B.A.C. did take on ordinary clients, for which it produced a range of ordinary pagers. But the only client that really mattered was Hezbollah, and its pagers were far from ordinary. Produced separately, they contained batteries laced with the explosive PETN, according to the three intelligence officers.

The pagers began shipping to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small numbers, but production was quickly ramped up after Mr. Nasrallah denounced cellphones.

I don't really stand by my posts earlier, everything is just a lot to take, sorry guys

I have to say: no fan of Hezbollah, but the exploding pagers was a serious dick move... blinding people, blowing their hands off, not to mention those who died, including children... that's a fucking low blow

as was mentioned before, imagine if one of these things was on a passenger plane...

I don't really stand by my posts earlier, everything is just a lot to take, sorry guys

appreciate that

at some point someone must have suggested having the pagers deactivate instead of explode. I don't see the point in harming people unless something big is happening soon.

a new definition of naivete, thank you

Lebanese National News Agency is reporting that five children are among the dead, appears to be a residential apartment block which has been hit

— Alex Crawford (@AlexCrawfordSky) September 20, 2024

BREAKING - Eight killed, 59 wounded in Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs

— Health ministry

— Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) September 20, 2024

#Lebanon Minister of Education Abbas Al-Halabi: Closure of all public and private schools, high schools, technical institutes, the Lebanese University, and all private higher education institutions next week

— Zeina Khodr (@ZeinakhodrAljaz) September 20, 2024

Israeli soldiers are storming the office of Aljazeera in Ramallah in the West Bank and ordering it closed for 45 days.

The order is signed by an Israeli military commander.

For those still wondering, the Israeli army is doing its best to ensure you see apartheid live on TV. https://t.co/pGDd3VBpOu

— Jehad Affoneh (@jaffoneh) September 22, 2024

Al Jazeera bureau chief Walid al-Omari says Israeli soldiers are confiscating and destroying equipment in their Ramallah office, even as court order only calls for shutting down the office.

Below, Israeli forces tear down pictures of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu… https://t.co/4pZZvHgTYz

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) September 22, 2024

Several children were killed in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon.

Over 20 people were wounded in the ongoing attacks, including a number in critical condition.

A medical center in the Harisa village was bombed.

Israeli bombs are targeting homes and in some cases roads.

— Hussein (@EyesOnSouth1) September 23, 2024

I’m seeing 180+ deaths reported

much talk from Israeli officials of human shields and civilians being responsible for not living next to Hezbollah military "infrastructure"

meanwhile 24 killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours as well

jesus christ