Jessica Corbett
Common Dreams / September 28, 2024
“Israel is committing crimes against humanity and waging regional war (while dragging international states to it) all in order to maintain its control of resources in the region,” said one West Bank journalist.
Further elevating fears of a full-scale regional war in the Middle East, Hezbollah on Saturday confirmed the death of Hassan Nasrallah, who led the political and paramilitary group, after Israel’s massive overnight assault on Lebanon.
Hezbollah did not say how Nasrallah was killed but said in a statement that “the leadership of Hezbollah vows to the highest, most sacred, and dearest martyr in our journey filled with sacrifices and martyrs to continue its struggle against the enemy, supporting Gaza and Palestine, and defending Lebanon and its steadfast, honourable people.”
The confirmation from the Iran-backed group came after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that it had killed Nasrallah—and multiple other members of Hezbollah leadership.
As of Saturday morning, at least 1,030 people in Lebanon are confirmed dead, and 6,352 people have been injured, though Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad highlighted that “there are still martyrs under the rubble, missing persons, and scattered remains.”
Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon this week after trading fire with Hezbollah for nearly a year over the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and left many more displaced and starving. This week’s death toll in Lebanon was over 700 even before the ” apocalyptic” bombing campaign that began Friday, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in New York City to address the United Nations General Assembly.
After levelling several residential buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, targeting Hezbollah’s headquarters in Dahiyeh, Israel continued “conducting strikes on strategic terrorist targets” around the Lebanese capital, the IDF said, including “weapons production facilities, buildings used to store advanced weapons, and key command centers.”
In response to the IDF’s description of the Friday attack as a “precise strike,” Adil Haque, a professor at Rutgers Law School in New Jersey, said, “Reminder that the location of military objectives in civilian areas, even when illegal, does not relieve the opposing party of its obligations under international humanitarian law.”
Fellow Rutgers professor and human rights attorney Noura Erakat stressed that “Israel transforms residential areas into targets by saying ’terrorist’ once [because] of work of racism and colonialism. These are attacks on civilians [without] regard to distinction [between] civilian and militants.”
Mariam Barghouti, a Palestinian American journalist and policy analyst based in the occupied West Bank, said on social media that “in a single night Israeli military carpet-bombed Lebanon, carpet-bombed Gaza, invaded Jenin and Tulkarem in the West Bank.”
“Israel is committing crimes against humanity and waging regional war (while dragging international states to it) all in order to maintain its control of resources in the region, while annexing Palestinian lands unabated,” Barghouti added. “Israel’s violence is in order to defend its ethno-religious supremacy.”
According to Reuters: “Residents have fled Dahiyeh, seeking shelter in downtown Beirut and other parts of the city.”
“Yesterday’s strikes were unbelievable. We had fled before and then went back to our homes, but then the bombing got more and more intense, so we came here, waiting for Netanyahu to stop the bombing,” said Dalal Daher, speaking near Beirut’s Martyrs Square, where some of the displaced were camping out.
The Associated Press reported that “on Saturday morning, the Israeli military carried out more than 140 airstrikes in southern Beirut and eastern Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley,” while “Hezbollah launched dozens of projectiles across northern and central Israel and deep into the Israel-occupied West Bank, damaging some buildings in the northern town of Safed.”
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a series of social media posts on Saturday that “all the Resistance forces in the region stand with and support Hezbollah.”
“The Resistance forces will determine the fate of this region with the honourable Hezbollah leading the way,” he continued. “The Lebanese haven’t forgotten there was a time when the soldiers of the occupying regime were advancing toward Beirut, and Hezbollah stopped them and made Lebanon proud. Today too, by the grace and power of God, Lebanon will make the transgressing, malicious enemy regret its actions.”
“It is an obligation for all Muslims to stand with the people of Lebanon and the honourable Hezbollah, offering their resources and assistance as Hezbollah confronts the usurping, cruel, malicious Zionist regime,” he added.
Greek economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis pointed out that the intense bombing by Israel—which receives billions of dollars in military support from the United States—came shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron “tabled a joint U.S.-French comprehensive cease-fire initiative to end the carnage” in Gaza and Lebanon.
“Today Israel killed Nasrallah,” he said. “Can there be a greater humiliation for Biden-Macron? Can’t they see they are a laughingstock?”
Just hours before Israel toppled residential buildings in Lebanon on Friday, Human Rights Watch director of crisis advocacy Akshaya Kumar wrote that her group “is calling on Israel’s key allies, including the United States, to suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel, given the real risk that they will be used to commit grave abuses.”
“Instead, the U.S. has done the opposite, and continues to approve weapons transfers and military aid without conditions,” she noted. “World leaders gathered in New York held an emergency meeting on Lebanon, but words alone will not be enough to shift the Israeli government’s plans. Leaders need to act.”
Early Saturday afternoon, Biden released a statement on Israel killing Nasrallah. In it, Biden “praises not just his killing but how it was done—calling Israel’s strike on an area full of civilians ‘a measure of justice,'” said HuffPost’s Akbar Shahid Ahmed. “Striking.”
Biden also said that “the United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups. Just yesterday, I directed my secretary of defense to further enhance the defense posture of U.S. military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war.”
“Ultimately, our aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means,” Biden claimed—though, as Ahmed emphasized, his call to reduce hostilities came “without changes to U.S. policy that’s battered both.”
Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams
