Democracy Now! / September 20, 2024
GUEST : Rania Abouzeid – Lebanese Australian journalist and author based in Beirut
Overnight, there were more than 50 Israeli attacks on southern Lebanese villages and an air attack on Beirut on Friday.
Right after we broadcast, Israel carried out “targeted strikes” in Beirut as it appears to be preparing for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon as an expansion of its war on Gaza.
Following deadly Israeli attacks that blew up walkie-talkies and pagers across Lebanon this week, killing at least 37 people and wounding around 3,000, Israeli officials have pledged to ramp up their campaign against Hezbollah. Hezbollah characterized the devastating pager explosions as a “declaration of war.” In Beirut, we hear from journalist Rania Abouzeid about the aftereffects of the attack and the prospects of war on the Lebanese front. “There is certainly a sense of heightened anxiety as people wonder what else, what other devices in their vicinity, may explode,” she says.
TRANSCRIPT
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Lebanon, where reports suggest Israel appears to be linking its southern Lebanon border to Gaza. As we broadcast, the Associated Press is reporting Hezbollah has launched 140 rockets into northern Israel in what is said is retaliation for Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon.
This comes as Al-Jazeera reports Israel’s reserve forces commander said earlier today, quote, “It is time for Lebanon to suffer as well, … the power plants, bridges, airports and seaports as well,” unquote. Al Jazeera has also reported on videos from Israeli government media sources that show Israel’s minefields on Lebanon’s border are being cleared to, quote, “make way for what most likely will be a movement of ground forces into southern Lebanon.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday Israel will keep up military action against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
YOAV GALLANT: [translated] Our goal is to ensure the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes. As time goes by, Hezbollah will pay an increasing price.
AMY GOODMAN: This all comes after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah denounced the deadly Israeli attacks that blew up walkie-talkies and pagers across Lebanon Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 37 people, including children, and wounding thousands more. As Nasrallah delivered a televised address Thursday, sonic booms from Israeli warplanes shook Beirut.
HASSAN NASRALLAH: [translated] We say to the enemy’s government, army and society that the Lebanese front will not stop before the aggression on Gaza stops. We have been saying this for 11 months now. It might sound repetitive now, but these words come after these two big blows, after all these martyrs, all these wounds, all this pain. I say clearly, whatever the sacrifices, whatever the consequences, whatever the possibilities, whatever the horizon to which the region heads, the resistance in Lebanon will not stop supporting the people of Gaza and the West Bank, who are oppressed in that Holy Land.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, the World Health Organization says the explosions in booby-trapped pagers and radios in Lebanon seriously disrupted Lebanon’s health sector. The WHO’s representative in Lebanon said a hundred hospitals were involved in responding to the crisis.
- ABDINASIR ABUBAKAR: You know, what happened for the last two days actually was an unprecedented incident, the explosion of different gadgets. And it’s been used not the normal explosion material. It’s been used a different. So, it’s sometimes — it’s very difficult actually to know exactly the short-term and the long-term impact of this substance that’s been used for the explosions. But I think the experts, and as well as in collaboration also with WHO now, we are trying to study more exactly what happened, how it happened, what kind of material is being used and how it’s affecting the people that have already been wounded, which is over 3,000 people. And also, 37 people have died so far.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go to Beirut, Lebanon, where we’re joined by Rania Abouzeid, Lebanese Australian journalist and author, who is based there.
Welcome to Democracy Now! First off, as you join us from Beirut, where there has been this wave of attacks, people are concerned about a second wave of explosions involving electronic devices. At this point, the figures are something like 3,500 people injured; 37, including children, are dead. Talk about the response on the ground, Rania.
RANIA ABOUZEID: Well, there’s certainly a sense of heightened anxiety as people wonder what else, what other devices in their vicinity, may explode. They wonder if anything that they’re holding in their hands or that might be in their homes could be weaponized, turned into an improvised explosive device to maim and kill either them or the people around them.
There is also anger about the attacks, the fact that people — you know, they didn’t target combatants in a battlefield, but, rather, people going about their everyday lives. These devices exploded in supermarkets. They exploded as people were driving their cars. They exploded in people’s homes.
The hospitals, as you mentioned in that report, were overwhelmed. More than a hundred hospitals rallied to try and help the thousands of wounded, as well as some of the dead that were coming into the hospitals.
So, it’s a — there’s also been an escalation on the southern Lebanese front with northern Israel. Overnight, there were more than 50 Israeli attacks on southern Lebanese villages. And as you mentioned in your report, more than a hundred Hezbollah rockets have been fired across the border today.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what Nasrallah said yesterday?
RANIA ABOUZEID: Well, it was a very wide-ranging speech. Part of it was he looked at these attacks and he said, “Let’s consider what Israel’s aims were in this attack.” And he pointed out three things. He said the first was to try and separate the Lebanese front from Gaza. And he said that won’t happen until the war in Gaza ends. The second was to splinter and to pressure Hezbollah’s support base to say, “Enough. We have had enough of this.” That aim also has failed. On the contrary, we have seen people who are wounded in the hospitals saying that this is a sacrifice that they are prepared to make. The third thing was to disrupt Hezbollah’s communications infrastructure. And Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that that didn’t happen.
He also turned to these growing Israeli calls for a ground invasion of Lebanon or to widen the war in Lebanon away from the southern Lebanese border region, but to engulf the whole country. And he said at one point that Hezbollah welcomes a ground invasion. It prefers to target Israeli soldiers on its home turf rather than in northern Israel. And he said that if Israeli soldiers cross that border, they will find themselves in hell. And he also said at one point they will also face, quote, “hundreds of those who were wounded in Tuesday and Wednesday’s attacks.”
AMY GOODMAN: So, what about the response to the reports from Reuters and The New York Times and other places that it was Israeli agents who were reportedly responsible, but wouldn’t quite say — accurate to say rigging devices, manufacturing these devices, not clear, debate over where exactly they were manufactured, but possibly a Budapest, Hungary-based company was involved? Your response to this and the U.N. Secretary-General Guterres saying that — decrying the use of everyday electronics as a weapon of war?
RANIA ABOUZEID: Well, there’s — speculation is rife about exactly how these devices exploded and at what point did they — were explosives placed in them, were they remotely hacked. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah yesterday in his speech said that Hezbollah has set up a number of committees to investigate this and that it would, you know, soon release the results.
As for the use, you know, turning everyday objects into IEDs, basically, there was a press release recently, just moments ago, before we went on air, where U.N. experts said that it was a terrifying violation of international law, that you can’t booby-trap devices that civilians might use or that may be in the vicinity of civilians. So, it is a, to use Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s word again, “unprecedented” tactic and one that is very grave, because it also — it didn’t — it attacked so many different people. It wasn’t an attack, a mass attack, on people in the same location, but it was in at least three places across Lebanon: in south Lebanon, in the Beqaa Valley and in Beirut.
AMY GOODMAN: As Guterres decries the weaponization of civilian objects, can you talk about, on the ground, in the hospitals, the kind of injuries that these hospitals, that are overwhelmed, are dealing with? Word is that somewhere over 3,500 people were injured.
RANIA ABOUZEID: Yes, and we have seen — on Lebanese TV, we have seen trauma surgeons break down and cry as they describe some of the cases that they are dealing with. Injuries are predominantly to the eyes, to the face, to the torso and to the hands. We have heard surgeons say that in the same operation, there are sometimes three or four specialists who are trying to save some of these wounded people. Each one is focused on a particular body part. So they are really quite, quite devastating injuries. Some of them — there was a trauma surgeon this morning who was talking about how some of these wounded people might need multiple surgeries over a very extended period of time.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to the Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh speaking Thursday.
SABRINA SINGH: Yesterday, Secretary Austin spoke by phone with his Israeli counterpart, Minister of Defense Gallant, to review regional security developments and reiterate unwavering U.S. support for Israel in the face of threats from Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran’s other regional partners. The secretary emphasized the U.S. commitment to deterring regional adversaries, deescalating tensions across the region, and reaffirmed the priority of reaching a ceasefire deal that will bring home hostages held by Hamas, and an enduring diplomatic resolution to the conflict on the Israel-Lebanon border that will allow civilians on both sides to return home.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the U.S. response so far to these explosions in Lebanon? Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, was in Paris. He cautioned against any further escalations that would make a Gaza ceasefire deal even more challenging, though it looks like that has fallen apart, Rania.
RANIA ABOUZEID: Well, I can’t speak to what the U.S. is — to the U.S.’s point of view, but I can certainly tell you that over here, people very intimately link this Israeli offensive with the U.S. People point out the double standards in terms of international law. They also point out how, you know, Blinken and other U.S. officials talk about deescalating the conflict, while continuing to arm Israel, not only in Gaza, but also, of course, with regard to its offensive here in Lebanon. So, you know, the mask has fallen on the doublespeak that is coming out of Washington.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the formation of Hezbollah, what its political aspirations are, and its relationship to the Lebanese government?
RANIA ABOUZEID: Well, it is part of the Lebanese government. Hezbollah has more than a dozen parliamentarians. It also has Cabinet ministers. And it has had people in government for many, many years. It has a political wing. It has a military wing. And it also runs a lot of charities and schools and hospitals. It formed in 1982 as a resistance group in response to Israel’s occupation, invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon. And it maintains its arms because part of Lebanon remains Israeli-occupied and has been for decades.
AMY GOODMAN: And what you see happening now with the Israeli government, the Defense Minister Yoav Gallant saying the war is widening, the reports of troops being used, Israeli troops being moved to the north from Gaza?
RANIA ABOUZEID: Well, that’s the big question. That’s the question that is on the minds of many Lebanese: What happens next? Will there be a ground invasion? Will there be airstrikes? We heard the Israeli official point out targets. He mentioned the airport. He mentioned the port, Beirut’s port. These are all civilian infrastructure. And let’s not forget that in 2006 war with Israel, the airport was hit on day one. Beirut airport was hit on day one, rendering it unusable. So, the idea that Israel would broaden its war not just to target Hezbollah, but to target Lebanese civilian infrastructure, is a very — is a grave concern over here.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to your New Yorker piece. You said, “Earlier this summer, I met with a Hezbollah military strategist in a small village in southern Lebanon, a few kilometres from the Israeli border. At one point during our off-the-record conversation, his pager beeped. He decrypted the message using a neatly folded piece of laminated paper. I hadn’t seen a sheet like that since the 2006 war with Israel, when another Hezbollah militant in another southern Lebanese village pulled one out of his pocket to relay a coded message over a walkie-talkie. The group has long used various low-tech methods, including pagers, as part of its strategy to avoid Israeli tracking and surveillance of cell phones. It also has its own landline network.” Take it from there, Rania.
RANIA ABOUZEID: Well, I mean, I’ll just go back to the 2006 incident. Not only did the — I saw two fighters in a southern Lebanese village, and they were using the walkie-talkies and this laminated piece of paper. But they told me about how they use coded messages. One man said, “If I tell my friend to meet me under the tree where he met his fiancée, I understand it, he understands it, but even if a message like that is intercepted by the Israelis, they will not understand it.” This is the advantage that Hezbollah has on its home turf. These are local men fighting in their villages. They are fighting in their towns. The are fighting in territory that they are very intimately familiar with. And they’re a very disciplined, very highly trained, very motivated fighting force.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about the sonic booms that you’re hearing and how that affects the Lebanese population?
RANIA ABOUZEID: Well, they’re terrifying, first of all. It’s just — you don’t know if it’s a sonic boom, and you wait to hear if there’s an explosion that follows the noise. Now, this is also — you know, let’s not forget that Beirut has long been terrorized by Israeli overflights by Israeli warplanes. All of these things, incidentally, are violations of sovereignty and acts of war. Every year, the United Nations tallies up these violations and presents a report about them. They’re usually in the hundreds, sometimes in the thousands, these cross-border violations.
So, they’re not a new development per se. But given the heightened tensions, they are certainly a terrifying sound to hear in the middle of the day, because you just don’t know if this is the opening salvo of an expanded war or if it is just the boom itself and not followed by an explosion.
AMY GOODMAN: Are people afraid to use pagers, walkie-talkies, even their cellphones?
RANIA ABOUZEID: Beyond that, people are wondering if perhaps — you know, there were reports that people were disconnecting the lithium batteries in their homes from the solar panels to provide electricity. People were wondering what other devices might explode, what electronics in their home might explode. Some people were telling each other not to use cellphones, but to go back to landlines to communicate. So, they’re really — you know, this is psychologically — it’s broken something, because this is a new sort of development, when an everyday object can be weaponized and it can be weaponized en masse.
AMY GOODMAN: Rania Abouzeid, we thank you for being with us, Lebanese Australian journalist and author based in Beirut.
RANIA ABOUZEID: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: We will link to your article in The New Yorker magazine, “Explosions Across Lebanon.”
RANIA ABOUZEID: Thank you.
