Lebanon
Starting with the pager attack on the 16th September, followed by the assassination of Nasrallah, Israel launched its ground invasion of southern Lebanon on September 27th. The main aim was to destroy Hezbollah and occupy the region up to the Litani River. The second aim is to draw in Iran to defend Hezbollah. In this manner, the 2 families will have the opportunity to attack Iran. But, Hezbollah informed Iran that it can manage the battlefield on its own.
To achieve success, the US has increased pressure on the Lebanese political system. US Ambassador in Lebanon Lisa Johnson has a draft proposal for a ceasefire to Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who in turn forwarded the proposal to Hezbollah. Yet Lebanese media describes the proposal as a form of “blackmail” against Lebanon. The draft is actually the result of a unilateral US-Israeli understanding regarding security arrangements requested by Israel, which the Americans conveyed to Lebanon in the form of a proposal. The wording of the proposal makes the offer blackmail and is being put forward on the basis of either accepting it, or continuing the war at a higher and more intense pace in the coming months. Israel is demanding international guarantees that Hezbollah will not rearm itself, as well as guarantees that the resistance group’s entire infrastructure above or below ground be dismantled. It also demands that Lebanese army forces and UNIFIL be deployed and supervise all land, air, and sea routes into Lebanon.
Israel and the US came up with a plan to defeat Hezbollah and advance 40 km into Lebanon’s Litani River. The aim behind this was to reduce the attacks on Israel from Lebanon. If this task is accomplished, then the 60-80,000 troops stationed in the north can be redirected back to Gaza. The two families are behind on the schedule to take over Northern Gaza, especially in the light of increasing international pressure and increasing losses on the battlefield. Israel will withdraw from territories it entered as part of the ground invasion, but Lebanon again if UNIFIL and the Lebanese army do not meet the requirements and stick to their roles. Tel Aviv has received “American guarantees that it will retain the right to act if the resolution is not implemented through the joint committee.” Meanwhile, no guarantees have been offered to Lebanon that Israel will hold up its end of Resolution 1701, which Tel Aviv has violated over 35,000 times since the end of the 2006 war. A separate document exists, which will ensure Israeli freedom of action if the implementation of the updated version of Resolution 1701 fails. The reports emerge as Israel both its ground operation and in Lebanon. Hezbollah has also intensified rocket, missile, and drone attacks against Israeli settlements and – namely in the Haifa and Tel Aviv areas. It also continues to deal heavy blows against the invading Israeli troops in south Lebanon.
The relentless Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon are not only destroying civilian infrastructure but also threatening two UNESCO World Heritage sites, Baalbek and Tyre, symbols of Lebanon’s millennia-old cultural identity. These strikes have put invaluable historical treasures at risk, with global heritage advocates sounding the alarm over the irreversible damage. Simply put, the Israeli occupation’s assault on Baalbek and Tyre is an evident attack on Lebanon’s cultural identity, heritage, legacy, and the world’s shared heritage. Israel wants to eliminate any cultural proof of any other group’s presence in southern Lebanon. At the same time, Zionists historians have been going into south Lebanon to “provide proof” of ancient Jewish ties to the land, thus justifying its takeover of the area, claiming that the Bible gas promised this land to them.
In the meantime, since the pager incidents of 17th September, the assassination of Nasrallah a few days later, and the Iranian Operation True Promise 2 on October 1, Hezbollah has increased its intensity of attacks on Israel. In a “like-for-like” paradigm, just as Israel is bombing Beirut, Tel Aviv is now under constant and daily bombings. Time and again, millions of settlers and thieves have to rush to bunkers. This has totally disrupted Tel Aviv, with even more of these thieves leaving Israel. Besides Tel Aviv, Ashkelon in the south has been hit several times. Haifa gets hit daily from Iraq and Lebanon. Normal activity has come to a standstill across various Israeli cities.
In the north, almost every hour, Hezbollah targets troop gatherings, attacks various bases, lures the IOF into well-planned ambushes, and so on. Drones and tanks keep on getting destroyed. The small hill-top village of Khaim has 30,000 IOF troops trying for the past 3 weeks to take control. They keep on getting defeated, and still they return to the village. Like Nasrallah said in September, these Israeli soldiers enter Lebanon “vertically but will leave horizontally”.
Official Israeli figures say that 1,000 soldiers are wounded and 100 KIA. As usual, the Empire of Lies is at work. To get closer to reality, multiply any official figure by 10- at the least. This does not include the casualties suffered when Hezbollah bombs bases, troop gatherings, settlements, etc. The casualties here since the start of the invasion also is high. Add these figures to the 10 months prior to the invasion.
Back in 1982, it took Israel six days to reach Beirut. Now, after 9 weeks, they have managed to occupy Lebanese land to depths of 1 to 4 kms. And are unable to move forward. In a first, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon – Hezbollah announced that its fighters launched Wednesday an aerial attack using a swarm of high-end one-way drones targeting the Israeli occupation’s Security Ministry in the city of Tel Aviv. it targeted the Kirya base, which houses the headquarters of “Israel’s” Ministry of Security, General Staff, War Management Room, and the Air Force’s war monitoring and control authority. The drones accurately hit their intended targets. This marks the first time that Hezbollah employed these types of drones in striking Israeli military targets.
It is noteworthy that since late September, Hezbollah’s high-end rockets, missiles, and one-way drones have reached the targeting Israeli military bases, intelligence headquarters, as well as industrial military companies specializing in the production and development of military equipment and systems used by the Israeli occupation forces in their aggression and violations of the sovereignty of numerous countries in the region. While the current phase of the war between Lebanon and the Zionist entity began with a series of Israeli tactical victories, it is clear that the tide has turned and the initiative is on the side of Hezbollah. The recent strikes on central Tel Aviv have demonstrated that if this conflict continues to escalate, the price will be heavy for the settler entity.
Although the Israeli pager attacks and string of assassinations against Hezbollah’s senior leadership in mid-September had achieved a series of tactical victories for the Zionist Entity, it now appears that they overplayed their hand. Lulled into a false state of comfort, Netanyahu not only opened up a new front to his war against Gaza, but has done so while draining his cabinet of any dissenting voices. What appeared to have been the Zionist regime’s first big break in the ongoing war, returning an image of power back to it in September, was quickly ruined on October 1, with Iran’s ballistic missile attack that shattered the idea of the Israeli regional dominance and seized back the strategic initiative for the Axis of Resistance.
Up until Bibi decided to transform the Lebanese front into an open war, it had remained only a support front that sought to pressure the Zionist regime and its US backers to secure a ceasefire, ending the slaughter in the Gaza Strip. However, the Zionists couldn’t help themselves and decided to raise the stakes regionally, forcing the regional resistance forces to escalate.
Suddenly, all that had been achieved by the Israelis over the course of 2 weeks was being undone and they had now decided to enter southern Lebanon on the ground. Despite the blows that were dealt against Hezbollah, the resistance proved its capacity to emerge from a decapitation strike against the majority of its senior leadership, and over a month later, it took the initiative in the ongoing war.
The Israeli ground invasion has achieved nothing of military value, failing to even secure any villages under its control and only succeeding at blowing up civilian infrastructure, as the situation allows for its troops to steal women’s underwear so that they can make perverted social media videos. The claims of defeating Hezbollah, clearing it from the south of Lebanon, and even wiping out up to 80% of its weapons reserves, are all contradicted by the events we see transpiring on the ground.
While the initial goals set forth by Netanyahu and his coalition were returning some 200,000 settlers to their settlements in the north of occupied Palestine, as they strived to simultaneously eliminate Hezbollah’s capacity to attack them from Lebanon, they now declare victories that not even their own brainwashed public believe. Instead of returning the settlers to northern Palestine, the very opposite has occurred, the settlements have been transformed into closed military zones and the scope of Hezbollah’s fire has expanded to include Tel Aviv and beyond. Haifa has become the subject of daily rocket bombardment, while suicide drones roamed the skies freely and hit their military targets with precision. Despite the evident power of Hezbollah’s rocket, missile, and drone capabilities, it is important to note that the use of such weapons has been primarily reserved for military targets that fall outside of populated areas. This has been the case in the face of Israeli indiscriminate attacks throughout Lebanese territory and the direct targeting of civilians inside their homes, as well as medical workers, Lebanese army soldiers, UNIFIL forces, journalists, and emergency crews.
However, the Hezbollah missile attack that struck central “Tel Aviv” last Monday night (Nov 28th) sent a very clear message to the Zionist Entity. Not only was a building struck directly and caused significant damage, along with casualties, but its timing was notable. As the US prepared to send its Israeli-American negotiator, Amos Hochstein, to mediate between Lebanon and the Zionists, this missile attack provided a glimpse into the future of the conflict 1.0- should it escalate. It also occurred not long after the Israelis had struck central Beirut, which indicates a tit-for-tat strategy being employed.
Therefore, the Israelis do not have many more options left in front of them. It appears that they have already played their biggest cards in Lebanon, but failed to execute a successful hit-and-run strategy that could have turned around public perception of their war efforts. In their ground war, it is clear that there is no way to victory and the further they commit to the offensive, the greater the soldier casualties will be.
On top of this, right now they are employing a similar kind of strategy as they did in their 2014 assault on the Gaza Strip, but have refrained from launching an all-out genocidal assault on Lebanese territory. Although the scale of the bombings in Lebanon is horrifying and is blatantly targeting civilians, the Israelis have not worked to bring the nation to its knees. The Israeli military’s current bombing campaign is one that is designed to work in limited wars, yet there is no ends in sight as things currently sit. Also, instead of Hezbollah slowing down in the pace and quality of its own missiles, rocket, and drone campaign, it is only escalating. This is not only embarrassing for the Zionist leadership, but requires some kind of distraction or solution. Therefore, the Zionist regime can choose from four potential options: It can launch an attack that potentially opens up a third war, launch genocide in Lebanon, find a distraction to buy some more time, or agree to a cessation of hostilities.
Then we come to the other two options, the first is expanding the war even further, which could be done through launching a ground invasion into southern Syria, but will then further imperil the Israelis as they step into the completely unknown. As for an attempt to drag the US into a war against Iran, this could have even more catastrophic consequences. A last ditch option that the Israelis could try to pursue is an all-out genocidal slaughter inside Lebanon, which would undoubtedly be catastrophic. Yet, Hezbollah has demonstrated that while using missiles that are not even of its newest stock, it can strike the center of Tel Aviv with a handful of these munitions. Understanding this, in the event that the Zionist regime chooses to switch up its tactics and attempt to turn Lebanon into Gaza, it could be met with a level of destruction that exceeds what it anticipates.
Any way you spin it, the Israelis are only going to suffer bigger blows as they continue to escalate. Without a US government that is willing to stop them, they are tiptoeing into what will be unprecedented destruction inflicted against them, the likes of which will only force even more of their population to flee to whatever country they hold foreign passports in.
Cease-Fire
The last war between Lebanon and Israel was the 34 day war in 2006. For the first half of the war, the US refused pleas for a cease fire from Lebanon. By the 28th day, Israel was suffering heavy losses. At this point, Israel begged America to agree to a ceasefire. This war was a humiliating defeat for Israel.
Likewise, the current war between the two lasted 2 months. Once again, Israel suffered very heavy losses, not only on the Lebanese border area, but as well within the depths of Israel. Looking at defeat if they did not stop, Bibi and his team, once again, reached out to the US and requested a ceasefire. Amos Hochstein was once again sent in. and a cease fire followed.Hezbollah has once again proven to be a handful for Israel, notwithstanding the hits that were dealt to the resistance movement in the latest round of hostilities. A deal that has come into effect after over two months of full-scale conflict on the Lebanese–Israeli front falls far short of what Israel had hoped to achieve in the earlier stages of this conflict when the momentum seemed to be on its side.
For its part, the Lebanese movement has managed to survive what was, without a doubt, the heaviest and most sophisticated onslaught ever launched in the history of warfare. The ceasefire, arranged largely by Amos Hochstein, an Israeli who served in the Israeli army and is now Biden’s roving negotiator, was agreed to on November 27th. Its written provisions include 60 days for Hezbollah to withdraw to the Litani River, 18 miles north of the border, while Israel withdraws from all of south Lebanon that it has occupied. The Lebanese army will occupy the area vacated by Hezbollah and will work with the UNIFIL soldiers to monitor the process and maintain the peace in what will be designated as a weapons free zone. Complicating the agreement, there is confirming American support for Israel to “act in self-defense,” a term that Israel can exploit to intervene again in Lebanon. In the letter, the US also commits itself to share with Israel intelligence on Iran providing any support for Hezbollah. Israel is to be permitted to act “in self-defense” if Hezbollah violates the ceasefire in the area south of the Litani and it is also allowed to conduct reconnaissance flights over Lebanon to monitor developments. As usual, claimed a “win,” he had reached an understanding with the US that Israel would “maintain full military freedom of action” in southern Lebanon. “If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack. If it tries to renew terrorist infrastructure near the border, we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck with missiles, we will attack.” As 35,000 Hezbollah militants actually live in the disarmed zone and presumably will try to return home, Israel will always have an excuse to resume its offensive.
To be sure, Lebanon was happy to accept any reprieve from the destruction wrought by Israeli bombs and artillery rounds, even if Israeli ground forces had been less than successful. Lebanon’s war losses have been calculated to be upwards of $8.5 billion dollars, together with thousands of civilians killed and injured. That includes Israel’s destruction of 100,000 homes and substantial impacts on health, education, and agriculture. While the ceasefire deal is composed of 13 provisions, it centers around UN Security Council (UNSC) which brought an end to the 2006 Israel war on Lebanon. This, in and of itself, points to a failure for Israel when viewed against its list of initial demands.
In line with the recent agreement, an international committee will be led by the US, with France also playing a key role. Importantly, however, its mandate does not include actual enforcement authority – that role will remain reserved mainly for the Lebanese army. The Lebanese army through its intelligence directorate and based on its own intelligence will proceed out of its own initiative to search for the possible whereabouts of weapons caches belonging to the resistance. But the Lebanese army and UNIFIL will be forced by this committee led by America to conduct searches of different locations.
Tel Aviv’s Unrealized Goals
Even if the new deal ends Hezbollah’s armed presence south of the Litani River, this would not necessarily mean that the balance of deterrence with Israel would be significantly altered. As Shehadeh explains:
“It is clear that in the south of the Litani, missiles were launched from the valleys in the Eastern, Central, and Western strips. It will impact the resistance operationally but not weaken it. Should the resistance be forced to, I believe it will move these weapons from the south to the north of the Litani.”
It is also the case that violations from the Israeli side will now be under closer scrutiny with the formation of the international committee. Israel has violated this resolution on a near-daily basis for years, mostly through illegal over flights into Lebanese airspace.
Meanwhile, other Israeli objectives also appear to have failed to materialize. This includes a domestic Lebanese uprising against Hezbollah, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explicitly for in an address to the Lebanese people. Tel Aviv also failed to return by force the tens of thousands of northern settlers who have been “displaced” by Hezbollah rocket fire, despite having publicly in September that this was a new goal in its war objectives.
Perhaps most importantly, Israel has not succeeded in severely undermining Hezbollah’s fighting capability. Last Sunday – just days before the ceasefire – the Lebanese resistance one of its heaviest, most potent missile attacks on Israel since the outbreak of the latest round of hostilities
Several military sites in Tel Aviv were targeted, in addition to the Ashdod naval base, which lies even further south. Video footage and data from Israelis also showed unprecedented damage to structures and vehicles in key northern and central cities, such as Petah Tikva, Haifa, Nahariya, and Tel Aviv – the state’s most important industrial, commercial, financial, and tech centers.
The Israeli military and media that air sirens went off in the suburbs of Tel Aviv and that around four million people – almost half of Israel’s total population – were forced into shelters that day.
Concurrently, in Lebanon’s south, Hezbollah soldiers were putting up a strong fight against invading Israeli ground forces, from infiltrating deep into Lebanese territory or holding any significant ground.
These realities stand out as a significant failure on the part of Israel and an important feat on the part of Hezbollah, precisely because the latter had accumulated unprecedented heavy losses: the assassination of its former secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah and several senior military commanders.
But that the Lebanese movement managed to survive a security-intelligence war the likes of which the world had never seen should not come as that much of a surprise, given its sheer size. Hezbollah has deep institutional and bureaucratic roots inside Lebanon that make targeted attacks and security operations – despite their level of sophistication – insufficient in bringing the resistance to its knees.
On the morning of November 27, 2024, the ceasefire agreement between “Israel” and Hezbollah came into effect, marking the conclusion of a protracted and devastating war that began in October 2023. This agreement, brokered by international powers such as the United States and France but ultimately shaped by the Resistance’s uncompromising demands, underscored a pivotal shift in the trajectory of the war, with terms decisively favoring Hezbollah’s strategic objectives.
The agreement symbolized the West’s capitulation to the Resistance, driven by its inability to sustain the crippling military and economic toll inflicted on its settler-colonial protégé—an entity whose very survival hinges on the violent dispossession and systematic extermination of indigenous Arabs. Yet, “Israel’s” ongoing breaches of the ceasefire have raised questions about the sustainability of the truce.
Hezbollah’s steadfast ability to endure and confront one of the most technologically advanced militaries on the planet illuminates its remarkable strategic accomplishments during the war. Over more than a year of relentless hostilities, the Resistance inflicted on “Israel,” demonstrating not only its advanced tactical acumen but also its capacity to reshape the contours of regional power dynamics.
Operational Setbacks: Hezbollah disrupted the Israeli occupation’s logistical chains and military convoys, compelling the constant redeployment of troops and resources to counter emerging threats. Strategic rocket and missile salvos reached deep into occupied territories, diverting Israeli resources to protect civilian infrastructure while further complicating its military calculations. Particularly notable were the , which employed advanced ballistic rockets, cruise missiles, and assault drones to target sensitive military and intelligence installations with precision.
Strategic Implications: These cumulative losses shattered the illusion of “Israel’s” regional military supremacy. Hezbollah’s ability to extract both direct and indirect costs from the occupation regime underscored the Resistance’s tactical evolution and operational depth. The relentless pressure imposed by Hezbollah forced “Israel” to curtail its ambitions, ultimately agreeing to a ceasefire whose terms heavily favored the Resistance. This result affirmed Hezbollah’s status as a formidable regional force and fortified its narrative of resilience and triumph against imperialist-backed aggression.
The economic toll of the war on the Israeli settler-colonial regime reverberated across critical sectors as it unmasked the fragility of its economic foundations and the cascading vulnerabilities of its occupation-driven model of accumulation. Infrastructure, key industries, fiscal stability, and financial markets all bore the brunt of Hezbollah’s sustained resistance.
Direct Costs: The Israeli regime allocated billions to military operations, covering troop mobilization, logistics, and equipment expenditures. Hezbollah’s precision rocket attacks inflicted widespread damage on residential buildings, commercial hubs, and public infrastructure, with property damage alone estimated at. In the northern settlements, damages exceeded five billion shekels ($1.3 billion), further exacerbated by widespread forest and land destruction. These financial hemorrhages underscore the inability of the occupation to shield its hinterlands from the Resistance’s strategic strikes.
Impact on Haifa Port: Hezbollah’s precision strikes on Haifa Port during the war further exposed the vulnerabilities of one of “Israel’s” most vital economic arteries, delivering a decisive blow to its maritime infrastructure. Haifa Port, a keystone of the Israeli settler-colonial economy, endured significant damage that disrupted trade routes and exposed the fragility of an entity reliant on global economic networks to sustain its occupation-driven model.
The first salvo of rockets targeting Haifa on October 6, 2024, marked a turning point in the war. Subsequent barrages, including a large-scale attack on November 24 involving caused extensive damage to port facilities and surrounding infrastructure. The strikes set cargo containers ablaze, crippled docking stations, and rendered several operational zones inoperative, forcing the rerouting of maritime traffic to alternative ports. These disruptions reverberated across “Israel’s” economy, stalling the flow of goods and amplifying supply chain vulnerabilities. The damage sustained by Haifa Port not only laid bare the limits of the regime’s defensive capabilities but also signaled a broader collapse of confidence in its infrastructure. Global shipping companies further isolating “Israel” economically. Haifa’s symbolic significance as a hub of Zionist settler colonial expansion deepened the impact of its targeting. By striking a nerve center of “Israel’s” economic apparatus, Hezbollah effectively demonstrated the hollowness of “Israel’s” claims of invulnerability.
The ceasefire agreement, brokered by imperialist powers such as the United States and France, stands as a resounding tactical triumph for Hezbollah, cementing provisions that decisively aligned with the Resistance’s strategic objectives. The deal mandated the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon within 60 days, stripping the occupation of its direct military foothold near Hezbollah strongholds, while simultaneously affirming the Resistance’s control over key territories north of the . In doing so, the agreement underscored Hezbollah’s dual role as a resilient military force and an unyielding defender of Lebanese sovereignty. In essence, the ceasefire agreement was not merely a tactical win for Hezbollah but a symbolic defeat for Western imperialism. It demonstrated the capacity of grassroots Resistance movements to withstand and counteract the hegemony of global powers and their regional proxies.
Domestically, the Israeli war machine sought to undermine Lebanese unity by deliberately targeting and safe zones under the guise of neutralizing resistance leadership. These acts of terror, designed to sow division and incite civil strife, ultimately failed to achieve their objectives. Instead, the massacres and destruction only solidified national cohesion, as the Lebanese populace rallied around Hezbollah and its supporters in an unprecedented display of unity. The Israeli regime’s attempts to manufacture internal discord backfired spectacularly, reinforcing the collective resolve of a society nearing victory.
The Operations Room of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon – Hezbollah issued Wednesday 27th November its statement , that since October 8, 2023, when it announced its mobilization as a support front for Gaza, and later, its defense of Lebanese territories amid the wide-scale Israeli aggression on Lebanon , and goes on to reveal the achievements of the Resistance and its fighters since the beginning of the aggression, detailing the targets of its operations, and the losses incurred by the enemy.
Operations
– The total number of operations, over 417 days since October 8, 2023, executed by the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon reached 4,637 declared military operations, averaging 11 per day.
– Among these operations were 1,666 multifaceted military ones since the start of the aggression on Lebanon and the ignition of Operation People of Might on September 17, 2024, and averaged 23 operations per day. They targeted the positions, barracks, and bases of the Israeli enemy army, as well as Israeli cities and settlements, stretching from the Lebanese-Palestinian border and extending beyond the city of Tel Aviv. They also included the heroic resistance to the enemy’s ground incursions into Lebanese territory.
– Within the paradigm of Operation People of Might, the Islamic Resistance carried out 105 military operations in its “Khaybar” series, targeting tens of sensitive and strategic military and security bases, for the first time since the establishment of the Israeli occupation entity, using advanced ballistic rockets, cruise missiles, and high-end assault drones, which reached territories beyond Tel Aviv, at a distance of 150 kilometers deep in occupied lands.
Israeli Losses in Lebanon
The Resistance announced the total losses the Israeli occupation army suffered since the beginning of the ground operation on October 1, 2024, until the issuance of the 4,638th statement, which came as follows:
- More than 130 killed Israeli soldiers and over 1,250 wounded.
- 59 destroyed Merkava tanks, 11 military bulldozers, two Humvees, two armored vehicles, and one armored personnel carrier.
- Six Hermes 450 drones, two Hermes 900 drones, and one Quad copter.
- The toll does not include the Israeli losses at military bases, sites, settlements, and occupied cities.
The Resistance asserts the following:
– Throughout the entirety of the Israeli ground operation into Lebanese territories, and since October 1, 2024, the invading forces failed to occupy or settle in any of the frontline towns, which had been under fire since the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, failed to establish an isolated military and security zone, and was unable to obstruct rocket and drone launches into occupied territories.
– The Resistance’s defensive plans are based on a patchwork defense system. The Resistance has established more than 300 defense lines south of the Litani River, with each patch being at its highest level of readiness in terms of manpower, equipment, and resources.
Parallel to these, Hezbollah also says it launched 105 special ‘’ operations, which started following the assassination of former leader Hassan Nasrallah. These special operations targeted sensitive sites as deep as 150 kilometers inside Israel using advanced ballistic rockets, cruise missiles, and high-end assault drones. Hezbollah also calls the of the Israeli ground invasion “nothing but a political and media declaration as the enemy was unable to advance into second-tier towns on the southern front.”
The group also says that it will closely monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Lebanese border region, which needs to be completed within 60 days. “Our hands will remain on the trigger, in defense of Lebanon’s sovereignty and for the sake of the dignity and honor of its people,”
Israel was pushing for the ceasefire, due to its high losses on the battlefield. The real losses0manpower and equipment) are many more times higher than the official figures. Besides, the tensions and rifts within the Netanyahu cabinet over these losses had the possibility of fracturing the coalition.
Cease Fire Violations
Israeli forces continued to violate the ceasefire with Lebanon on 29 November, advancing on the southern towns of Markaba and Khiam and opening fire at citizens during a funeral – following continuous violations since the agreement went into effect two days ago. “Israeli forces advanced today to the town square of Markaba, which they were unable to enter during the days of the confrontations, and occupied it now during the ceasefire, and the Israeli army is carrying out bulldozing operations and destroying roads. Civilians were present in the town yesterday and Israeli forces opened fire at citizens during a funeral.”
Israeli troops launched an operation on Friday to expand their presence towards the Khiam. The IOF are “exploiting the ceasefire” to carry out bulldozing and demolition operations in areas they were unable to enter during the ground war against Hezbollah. An Israeli targeted the Saida District of southern Lebanon on 28 November, marking the deepest attack on Lebanon since the ceasefire took effect early on Wednesday. The strike on Saida came after the Israeli army carried several artillery and bombing attacks on the south of Lebanon.
A day earlier, the Israeli army opened fire on a group of Lebanese journalists in Khiam, and attacked displaced residents in other towns as they tried to return to their homes. Israel has threatened displaced Lebanese citizens and warned them against returning.
The Lebanese army has told residents, for their own safety, not to enter villages still occupied by Israeli troops. Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said in an interview with MTV News on 28 November that the resistance will not “sit and watch” as Israel continues to violate the ceasefire. He added that “we are in an experiment now,” signaling that it is time to determine whether or not the Lebanese army is capable of repelling Israel and stopping its violations. He stressed that there is no issue between Hezbollah and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), adding that Hezbollah welcomes its deployment across all of south Lebanon. He vowed that the resistance will confront Israel should it decide to go to war against Lebanon again. Since the ceasefire, Israel has violated the ceasefire more than 50 times. Even its backers have reprimanded Bibi on this, but this is for public consumption. Do note that France is Israel’s mother, while Britain is its father.
This is a ‘temporary ceasefire’ and not a cessation to the entire war, wherein he openly admitted Israel will use the time to rearm and regroup. Naturally both sides are proclaiming victory, and there are endless angles from which one can argue for one’s favored side. Israel reportedly crippled Hezbollah’s leadership, but could not appreciably wound the force itself, managing to just barely scrape by a few kilometers into Lebanese territory amidst painful losses, widespread demoralization, and societal panic
The story continues in Part 2 ……
