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

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

they say people dont vote on foreign policy

Trump docket, from detention memo on who left a note offering a $150,000 bounty, wrote that Trump "ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled." Iran meeting today with UNSG @AntonioGuterres - who bans Press https://t.co/lYAb5gjKeG https://t.co/JCzbS0wNv7 pic.twitter.com/deAMn7CZJA

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) September 23, 2024

oh yeah this is happening too:

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-examining-siege-plan-hamas-north-gaza-israeli-media-report-2024-09-22/

Israel is examining a plan to use siege tactics against Hamas in northern Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted by several Israeli media outlets as saying on Sunday. Netanyahu's office did not respond to a request for comment. The reports cited unnamed sources at a closed parliament committee meeting.

The plan, published by retired military commanders and floated by some parliament members this month, suggests Palestinian civilians would be instructed to evacuate northern Gaza, which would then be declared a closed military zone.

For the first time, sirens sounding to the east of Tel Aviv pic.twitter.com/iygSzDGtwL

— Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@alihashem_tv) September 23, 2024

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/23/get-away-from-hezbollah-has-israel-hacked-lebanons-telecoms-networks

At least 274 dead in Lebanon. Israel are just running amok now with absolutely no consequences.

492 killed and 1645 wounded in one day in Lebanon. Killed by Israel

— Ghassan Abu Sitta (@GhassanAbuSitt1) September 23, 2024

what the fuck

high explosives in large quantities + densely populated target area + dgif

It's getting to be difficult for me to tamp down this animal revenge instinct where I wish somebody would just fuck Israel up beyond recognition so they can see how they like it. Not a feeling I'm very proud of. But I guess that's what trauma and violence do, they radicalize people. And I'm not even affected, I'm thousands of miles away.

what do we do, guys

Hope the "Axis of Resistance" can stop Israeli terrorism.

These are terrifying times...for Israel too, should the west ever wash it's hands off it.

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/rain-is-coming/

This is such a powerful piece ^

I shared it with a friend of mine, a Palestinian living in Tennessee, and it turns out he is a friend of the author's godfather.

I read that, in Gaza, they have opened a new kindergarten in the North, a phoenix of sorts, and I want to believe that there is already a clean scent of jasmine that follows the teachers as they go about their day — what, if not jasmine, can ease the nagging of children and the nagging of warplanes? I have been holding on to this piece of good news for the past couple of weeks, filling in the blanks with my own speculations. There is jasmine because seeds do not need permission, or a ceasefire, to germinate. Children nag because that is what children do. What do five-year-olds learn, besides the numbers and alphabet, in the time of genocide? What jokes do they tell to pass the time? Their vocabulary expands, naturally, to include words more brutal than “invasion,” “siege,” and “Nakba,” and their teachers, I imagine, tell them that the Nakba, the original Nakba (1947-49), pales in comparison to Gaza’s present. Even the rich — all of the rich — are in tents this time around.

https://www.propublica.org/article/gaza-palestine-israel-blocked-humanitarian-aid-blinken

this article should be widely read

Indeed, though ultimately we know there isn't any accountability.

Is there a sense as to whether Blinken would carry on if Harris wins?

I heard a while back that she was thinking of replacing him, but in retrospect it may have been more of a wishful rumor. otoh it would be a relatively easy, low-profile way to suggest that she's going to do things differently from Biden (without nec doing that) without having to take an actual stand

i think she's planning on replacing blinken and sullivan. even if she's planning on continuing similar policies, there is no upside in keeping them around

*from her political perspective, i should say. it most likely doesn't really matter who she chooses to replace them, they'll be from the blob

I’m staring to get tinfoily and just half think if a president said they would suspend aid to Israel they would probably be assassinated.

It's Been 11 Days Since Our Last Foreign Policy Related Assassination Attempt!

if a president said they would suspend aid to Israel they would be subjected to a massive onslaught of media outrage such as none of us have seen in our lifetimes, happily encouraged and abetted by the US national security establishment.

Wrong thread?

yes

More than 70 more killed by Israel overnight

was going to ask 'where' but what's the difference; they were all terrorists

Feel dread at what seems to be the inevitability of all-out warfare; while also trying to rationalise if we are not there yet surely it can be avoided?

this entire thing really reinforces the point that getting nukes is the only way to protect yourself. rip muammar and saddam; you lacked juche

I should have said, sorry, this is in Lebanon

In Gaza it was “only” a few I think, and in the West Bank there were some raids on refugee camps but there are always raids on those camps (most of which are more like permanent ghettoes than what the word “camp” implies obv)

So many terrorists, so little time.

Well and every child is a future terrorist obv

was going to ask 'where' but what's the difference; they were all terrorists

I've been thinking about this since the pagers incident. Whether its in Gaza or Lebanon doesn't seem to make much difference, but I don't know it would be that much different if it were Vienna either. India did it in Vancouver and there was a bit of noise about it but not much really in the big scheme of things.

Netanyahu not even bothering to respond to Biden and Macron's call for a ceasefire.

gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/25/world/middleeast/west-bank-raids.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Nk4.c4gC.3OPzDyd81jJz&smid=url-share

Israeli Bulldozers Flatten Mile After Mile in the West Bank

For months, Israeli raids destroyed roads and other infrastructure that local officials said they repeatedly fixed, only to see their work razed again in the next assault.

Muhanad Matar, the head of general relations for the municipality of Tulkarm, estimated that in the latest operations alone, more than 90 percent of water and sewage lines had been destroyed.

In Jenin, some 70 percent of roads have been damaged or destroyed by the recent raids, according to the mayor, Nidal Obeidi. Internet, electricity and phone lines were shut down in some areas. Sewage and water lines were also cut, leaving about 80 percent of Jenin without running water, local officials said, including the main hospital.

“The problem with trying to calculate the costs is that it doesn’t stop,” Mr. Matar said. “It’s an unending string of raids.”

there's a video clip in that article of a bulldozer swerving across a road to block an ambulance with its lights on

Netanyahu's declaration that Israel must defeat Hizbullah and that it can't accept a "terrorist army" on its doorstep is a declaration of forever war on Lebanon. Forever because that's how long it's going to take him to achieve this aim. His farcical accusation that Hizbullah…

— Amal Saad (@amalsaad_lb) September 27, 2024

Southern Beirut suburbs being carpet-bombed right now.

The UN's spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said the organisation is watching the Israeli strikes on a “densely populated” area in the southern suburbs of Beirut “with great alarm”.

There is intense focus on the fate of Nasrallah right now. These were massive American bombs Israel dropped on a densely populated residential area in Beirut and we still have no sense of how many people died. It’s going to be a very large number.

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) September 27, 2024

horrifying

I mean ofc it could be bullshit to justify those bombs.

In South Lebanon Israel has started bombing first-aid hospitals and Trauma Stabslisation Points. Today it killed a a doctor and 8 paramedics.

— Ghassan Abu Sitta (@GhassanAbuSitt1) September 27, 2024