The heavy handed Israeli actions , leaving mass deaths and destruction are SURE to radicalise those left behind in Gaza, The West bank and Lebanon….
Repeating the history of that region….
Israel achieved many short-term goals in a series of strikes on Hezbollah during the last week, according to five current and former senior Israeli officials. But they also expressed concern that there was no clear further strategy on bringing calm and returning tens of thousands of displaced people back to Israel’s north.
The escalations against Hezbollah began almost by chance after last-minute Israeli intelligence suggested that an operation to blow up pagers owned by members of the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia was in danger of being exposed, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. If the plan was not activated by the beginning of last week, the officials said, Hezbollah might discover it, possibly along with a second operation targeting walkie-talkies.
That set up a dizzying week of attacks in Lebanon. Israel blew up electronic devices distributed by Hezbollah, killing dozens of people and injuring thousands more. It then assassinated a group of its military leaders in an airstrike near Beirut. On Monday, a wave of Israeli airstrikes targeting parts of the country where Hezbollah holds sway killed hundreds of people.
The intensified attacks against Hezbollah reflect the opinion of some hawkish generals and others who think that the group can be forced to back down, the officials said, while others in the government believe Israel must first come to a deal on a cease-fireand hostage deal with Hamas before turning to another battleground. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed a truce that would allow Hamas to survive the war.
The decision to escalate was met with strong opposition from some senior officials, according to three current and former officials who spoke to The Times. They worried that such actions, the officials said, could lead to all-out war with face-to-face fighting and questioned how they would pave the way for the return of Israelis to the north….
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Hezbollah said it fired a ballistic missile toward the Tel Aviv area Wednesday in what the militant group called retaliation for the deadly explosion of pagers across Lebanon last week. The Israel Defense Forces said it intercepted a surface-to-surface missile as parts of Tel Aviv woke up to sirens. Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed at least 569 people since Monday, according to the country’s Health Ministry, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. The United Nations Security Council is expected to meet Wednesday to discuss the escalating conflict.
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The pace of Israeli attacks on Gaza appear to have picked up again after a day of relative quiet, the Strip’s Civil Defense spokesman said Wednesday, as Israeli forces turned their attention to Lebanon.
“The decrease in the pace of bombing” seen in Gaza on Monday, as Israel expanded its assault on Lebanon, “has returned and increased very significantly,” Mahmoud Basal told The Washington Post in a phone call.
At least 52 people died Tuesday after strikes across Gaza, especially in the center and the south, Basal said. Overnight strikes killed at least 14 more people, including five in the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, he said.
As of Wednesday, at least 41,495 have died and 96,006 have been injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians combatants….
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Over two weeks, Palestinians watched as Israeli military bulldozers tore up mile after mile of their streets and alleys, sewage seeping into the dusty ruts left behind.
The people of Tulkarm and Jenin, the two West Bank towns that were the focus of Israel’s latest military raids, said they had never before experienced such a scale of destruction.
Residents pointed to one video that shows an Israeli armored bulldozer flattening a decorative roundabout and nearby vegetation.
Visual evidence analyzed by The New York Times supports accounts from residents about the damage from Israel’s latest raids. Videos filmed in Tulkarm and Jenin show bulldozers destroying infrastructure and businesses, and soldiers impeding local emergency responders.
“We watched their bulldozers tear up streets, demolish businesses, pharmacies, schools. They even bulldozed the town soccer field, and a tree in the middle of a road,” said Kamal Abu al-Rub, the governor of Jenin, a governorate in the northern West Bank. “What was the point of all of this?”
In late August, the Israeli military launched one of its most extensive and deadliest raids in the West Bank in years, an escalation from the nearly nightly raids that have become the norm since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks….
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“They are imposing conditions, materially and psychologically, that make people feel: Gaza is coming to you,” said Shawan Jabarin, the director of Al Haq, a rights group based in the West Bank. “There is a feeling among Palestinians across the West Bank that what is coming is very bad — that it will be a plan to kill and expel us.”…
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