On September 25, the third day of what Israel calls “Operation Northern Arrows”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched air strikes on 250 sites it says are alleged to be used by Hezbollah forces one way or another.
As is Israel’s pattern in all its recent combat in the Middle East, whether these airstrikes bring vast collateral damage which has nothing to do with the targets at hand is not relevant to the choice of targets. Israel says it warned people in Lebanon that if they happen to live in a neighborhood or building where Hezbollah might be present or might be harboring weapons, regardless of whether there is proof, anyone – men, women, and children – will be slaughtered along with the actual individuals or weapons.
Just as it justified killing sometimes hundreds at a time in Gaza when all that its Israeli Defense Forces were allegedly trying to do is to take out one Hamas person, Israel is following the same playbook in Lebanon. As they did with their Mossad and IDF coordinated attack which blew up pagers, electronic tablets, and other devices which were distributed in regions where Hezbollah forces were present, a multi-day covert operation which killed dozens and seriously injured thousands. the goal was to inflict mass injuries, death, and terror on entire societies which Israel perceives as guilty of the criminal act of collaborating with whoever Israel sees as its enemy.
The airstrikes on 250 alleged Hezbollah sites yesterday ended up killing 72 people and wounding 400. That data was provided by the Lebanese Health Ministry.
In the three days that Operation Northern Arrows has been running, Israeli forces are estimated to have killed over 600 people in attacks on close to 1800 target sites. Full accounts of who died are not available, but as of the second day of the attacks the Health Ministry says at least 50 children and over 90 women were murdered by Israeli forces.
The destruction has crippled local support services and pushed medical support facilities in southern Lebanon past their limits.
“We are delivering blows to Hezbollah that they could not have imagined,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the world via a recorded message yesterday.
“We are doing this with strength, we are doing this with cunning,” he added, showing off his pride over the horrific and indiscriminate carnage his forces have already caused.
“I can’t go into detail about everything we [are doing], but I can tell you one thing,” Netanyahu went on. “We are determined to return our residents in the north safely to their homes.”
In parallel with Netanyahu’s announcement, Lt. General Herzi Halevi, the leader of Israeli’s army forces, made clear the next phase of Israel’s deadly intentions for Lebanon.
“We are preparing … a maneuver,” Halevi said during a briefing for his troops positioned currently on the ground in northern Israel.
“You hear the jets overhead; we have been striking all day,” he continued. “This is both to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah.”
“Our military boots ... will enter enemy territory,” the army commander explained. “You will go in, destroy the enemy there, and decisively destroy their infrastructure.”
As the invasion begins, Halevi said, “You hear the jets overhead; we have been striking all day,” General Herzi Halevi told troops. “This is both to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degradin
Along with existing forces which were already brought together, Israel also mobilized two reserve brigades with an estimated several thousand additional troops to support the upcoming march into southern Lebanon.
Halevi said the invasion will make possible “the continuation of combat” which Israel deems necessary, especially after Hezbollah forces have begun successfully penetrating Israeli defenses through the mass firing of rockets, drones, and several missiles.
One such missile almost made it to a Mossad headquarters facility in central Tel Aviv yesterday, according to Hezbollah sources and confirmed in part by official Israeli sources. Nadav Shoshani, a spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said the latest missile was the first “long range” one launched by Hezbollah. Tel Aviv, the biggest city in Israel and the hub for business and many Israeli and foreign government offices, is approximately 70 miles away from the Lebanese border.
Hezbollah confirmed yesterday the missile aimed at the Tel Aviv Mossad office was a Qader 1 ballistic device.
Halevi said the land invasion was necessary to allow Israeli residents now displaced in northern Israel for months to move back “safely” to their homes again.
“Your entry will show Hezbollah what it’s like to meet a professional combat force,” Halevi added.
The mass attack will further tax the resources of refugee camps and food supplies located outside Beirut, where United Nations officials say already over 90,000 people have fled for shelter.
In a televised interview on ABC’s “The View” broadcast yesterday, Joe Biden pointed to the possibility that the next days could lead to a broader war than the already escalating conflicts Israel has launched throughout the Middle East with full U.S. backing.
“An all-out war is possible, but I think there's also the opportunity - we're still in play to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region," he said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also went to the airwaves yesterday with the claim that, “We’re working to prevent escalation, we’re working to make sure this doesn’t get into a full-scale war.”
Blinken, Biden, and the rest of the White House staff may be the only ones in the world who believe what they are saying. Even Netanyahu says a larger and broader war is coming and inevitable.
During his opening remarks at the United Nations General Assembly meetings this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded with the organization’s member states to do everything in their power to keep the war in Lebanon from growing far worse than it already has.
“The people of Lebanon – the people of Israel – and the people of the world - cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza,” he said.
Hezbollah has committed to continue its military strikes on Israel until the nation ceases its genocidal war in Gaza.