Flames from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, October 23, 2024. Photo: AP
Israel continues to escalate and broaden its criminal, U.S.-backed air war and invasion of Lebanon, an oppressed country of some six million people just to the north of Israel.
Israel is a Jewish-supremacist outpost for U.S. imperialism in the Middle East, founded on the genocidal ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. For the past year, it has been waging a limited military conflict with Lebanon’s Iran-backed, Islamic fundamentalist organization Hezbollah.1 On September 23, Israel massively escalated this battle to full-on war, and on October 1, it invaded southern Lebanon. Its goal is wiping out any resistance to its genocide in Gaza and ongoing atrocities in the Palestinian West Bank, as well as opposition to its existence and U.S. imperialist domination of the Middle East from any quarter.
Israel claims to be precisely targeting only Hezbollah fighters, but in reality it is carrying out war crimes by attacking civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure as well. There is nothing just about any of this, and Israel is being armed, funded and politically supported by the Biden-Harris administration and the U.S. ruling class overall.
Here are some of the atrocities Israel is now committing in Lebanon.
Fires from an Israeli airstrike in residential Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, November 1, 2024. Photo: AP
Israel is hitting densely populated cities and towns, day and night across Lebanon, causing enormous death and destruction. This picture from November 1 shows what Israeli attacks looked like in the cluster of neighborhoods known as Dahiya on the southern outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital. On that day, heavy Israeli bombing killed at least 52 people and wounded 26. It was one of some 120 Israeli air strikes that day alone. Over the past year, Israel has killed more than 2,897 people and wounded 13,150, the vast majority in the last month. Many if not most have been civilians.2
Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes on Tyre, an important port in Southern Lebanon, October 28, 2024. Photo: AP
Tyre, a port city in southern Lebanon, is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the whole world, dating back to 4000 BC. This past week, for at least the second time, the Israeli military ordered much of the population to evacuate, and then started bombing. At least seven people were killed.
On October 28 in Tyre, multiple Israeli airstrikes brought down entire residential buildings and sparked fires. One survivor said the attacks were aimed at civilians: “What do you expect us to do? They fired at random. They are not hitting military targets; they are only targeting civilians. Can you see people fighting? Why are they targeting us? Are we fighting them?”3
Beqaa Valley, where dozens were reported killed by Israeli airstrike, October 28, 2024. Photo: Screengrab from @MaucourantNada
Israel is carrying out massacres on a daily basis. Some 60,000 people were forced to flee the ancient city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon after Israeli attacks flattened homes and killed at least 60 people, including two children on October 28-29. And the killing continued through the week, with another 19 killed on October 30.
Displaced children, who fled Israeli airstrikes in Baalbek city, shelter in a school in east Lebanon, October 31, 2024. Photo: AP /Hassan Ammar
These are the faces of the children Israel is killing, maiming, traumatizing and displacing. The children in this picture are among the 400,000 Lebanese children that have been forced to flee Israel’s bombs. They fled Baalbek and some neighboring villages and were able to find a school to shelter in and have a story read to them. But many Lebanese children haven’t been able to find any refuge: since Israel launched its war on September 23, it has killed 100 children, an average of two a day.4
Child injured in Israeli airstrike on Beqaa Valley, October 28, 2024. Photo: @MaucourantNada at X.com
This child, wounded in Israel’s attack on Baalbek, is one of the 690 who’ve been injured by Israeli bombs, tanks and bullets in the past five weeks. “This disastrous conflict is exacting a tremendous toll on children,” UNICEF’s Regional Director said. “Doctors tell us of treating children who are bloodied, bruised, and broken, suffering both physically and mentally. Many are experiencing anxiety, flashbacks, and nightmares related to explosions. No child should be subjected to such horrific situations.”5
Israeli airstrikes destroyed buildings facing a hospital in a densely-populated neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon, October 22, 2024. Photo: AP
Widespread destruction near a hospital in southern Beirut, Lebanon. In the past five weeks, Israel has targeted 55 hospitals. A new Human Rights Watch report found that Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked medical workers and health-care facilities.
Truck and ambulance burn after Israeli airstrikes hit a group of paramedics outside a hospital in Marjayoun, south Lebanon, October 4, 2024. Photo: AP
An ambulance (on right) in Marjayoun, south Lebanon, targeted by Israel. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reports that 178 paramedics have been killed and 279 wounded over the past year. Israeli forces have also damaged over 150 ambulances. Attacking hospitals, healthcare infrastructure, and healthcare workers are war crimes.6
Aerial view of the bombed out area of Ramyeh in Southern Lebanon, October 24, 2024. Photo: Planet Labs via AP
While carrying out attacks throughout the country, Israel is leveling southern Lebanon, including wiping out whole agricultural villages that date back to the Bronze Age (around 2,000 BCE to 700 BCE). So far it has damaged or destroyed nearly 6,000 buildings there, the vast majority since it invaded Lebanon on October 1. This is roughly one-quarter of all buildings in the area near Lebanon’s border with Israel. The Washington Post reports that since October 2, “the destruction has continued at a rapid pace, roughly doubling every two weeks.”