Israel launched a bombing campaign against Lebanon on September 17 and then invaded the country on September 30. It said it was carrying out a “limited incursion” against military targets in southern Lebanon, aimed at stopping Hezbollah, a Shi’ite Muslim fundamentalist organization backed by Iran, from firing missiles into Israel.¹

But there’s been nothing “limited” about Israel’s murderous assault on the whole country of Lebanon and its people. It has rained death and destruction from southern Lebanon, up through the densely populated capital city of Beirut, to the Beqaa valley in the east, even to towns in the north.  

More than 2,350 people have been killed and more than 11,000 injured since Israel and Hezbollah began exchanging rocket fire a year ago, after Israel launched its genocidal assault in Gaza. Most all have been in the last month. Some 1.34 million have been displaced in the last month. Civilians, including children, make up the bulk of the casualties, which are growing by the day. 

The Biden-Harris administration is backing this slaughter with bombs, lies, and bullshit justifications for the war crimes Israel is carrying out.² 

In just the last week: 

*On Monday, October 14, an Israeli strike on a four-story apartment building in the northern village of Aitou killed 21 people, including two children. “There are strikes in our neighborhood and destruction, and they struck near my house,” one man said. “I have children. You can’t just stay where you are. We tried going to another place. We moved from Baalbek, where they struck near my house. We had to leave again. I have children. You can’t stay. We are going to Syria because it could be safer than where we are.”

*On Wednesday, October 16, Israel attacked a municipal building in the southern town of Nabatieh. The mayor and other city workers were holding a meeting to coordinate aid for the civilians remaining in the area. The mayor and 15 others were killed and another 52 were injured. Lebanon’s Prime Minister said Israel had “intentionally targeted” the meeting. 

*The same day, Israel also attacked the densely populated area on the southern outskirts of Beirut. Israel claimed to be striking “dozens of Hezbollah terrorist targets.” The UN reported, “Health care facilities, mosques, historical markets, residential complexes and now government buildings are being reduced to rubble.” 

*This past week Israel bombed the Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, forcing many to flee the area. This endangers Lebanon’s food supply: the Beqaa Valley is a major agricultural area that feeds much of the country.

*Tyre, a city of 125,000 on Lebanon’s southern coast, was founded some 4,000 years ago and is one of the world’s oldest cities. Today, it’s been “swiftly and viciously emptied by [Israeli] airstrikes” and turned into a ghost town. “There are few lights on in the city’s apartment blocks and shops. Restaurants on a commercial strip are boarded up, some with their windows smashed. Packs of dogs roam in places. Garbage sits on corners in huge piles.”

*Also last week, the UN said that it found evidence that Israel may be using white phosphorus weapons. These weapons burn through human flesh and are banned for combat use under international law. 

Israel Targets Lebanon’s Healthcare System

In the last three weeks, the World Health Organization has recorded 16 attacks on Lebanon’s healthcare system, including hospitals, clinics and ambulances, killing 65 health workers and forcing at least nine hospitals to close or cut back their operations. 

The UN is warning that Israel’s “targeting of health and relief operations is broadening.” “This is not something that is happening as an act of nature,” Lebanon’s health minister says. “Civilians are not only targeted but are being prevented from receiving help.”

A Million People Displaced… in ONE WEEK!

Lebanon is a sovereign, independent country, and Israel’s invasion is a criminal act of aggression. It’s thought that thousands of Israeli troops are involved in its invasion. Israeli forces are demanding that people in dozens of towns and villages flee their homes or be targeted by Israeli bombs, missiles or bullets.  

More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been forced from their homes, villages, cities and towns—that’s over a quarter of Lebanon’s entire population. And the number of evacuation threats are increasing every day. Now people in villages as far as 30 miles from Lebanon’s border with Israel are being told they must leave or face possible death—this after Israel claimed its invasion was “limited” to areas near the border. 

Humanitarian relief workers have been shocked by the intensity of Israel’s attacks and the speed with which people have been forced to flee. “Although we had planned for large numbers of people potentially becoming displaced, the speed with which things unfolded—uprooting over one million people in one week—was a surprise,” one said. (Emphasis added.)

“In Lebanon, the displaced are practically everywhere. In Beirut, the capital, where many are staying, they have set up makeshift tents on the corniche by the sea, crafting shelters out of stray metal poles, bits of awnings and blankets,” the New York Times reports. “In the city’s parks and squares, some families have placed floor coverings on the ground, anchoring them with cases of water and folded blankets. Others are taking shelter anywhere that they can, mostly in schools but also in unfinished buildings.”

One UN relief worker described a “humanitarian catastrophe unfolding” with “deeply concerning echoes” of the crisis in the Gaza Strip. “This has taken a huge toll on children in particular, who now grapple with nightmares of bombardments, loss of loved ones and the erasure of their homes and schools.”

U.S. Gives “Full Backing” to Israel’s War on Lebanon, Repeats Its Bullshit “Human Shields” Justifications for Slaughtering Civilians

The U.S. has given its full backing to Israel’s war on Lebanon. Until recently, there’s been little public talk from Biden and Harris about protecting civilians, even as the civilian toll skyrockets.³

Israel has justified its slaughter of civilians by claiming all of its attacks are precisely targeted at Hezbollah command centers, weapons storage facilities, and other military targets, “embedded by Hezbollah adjacent to civilian infrastructure.”

This week the Defense Secretary Austin and the U.S. State Department’s spokesperson repeated these justifications—with the State Department spokesperson refusing to criticize Israel after it leveled an entire village in southern Lebanon: “We understand that Hezbollah does operate at times from underneath civilian homes, inside civilian homes… So Israel does have a right to go after those legitimate targets, but they need to do so in a way that protects civilian infrastructure, protects civilians.”

This is a bullshit justification for indiscriminate bombing and the mass murder of noncombatant civilians. First, Israel trots out this justification no matter what the circumstances are—even if no Hezbollah forces are anywhere nearby. 

Second, the U.S. is providing Israel with bombs weighing up to 2,000 pounds. These aren’t designed for pinpoint, targeted killings, they’re designed to create widespread destruction and mass casualties. This is even more the case when they’re used in densely-populated areas, as Israel has done in Gaza and now is doing in Lebanon. 

Israel and U.S. Imperialists Push Region and World Toward the Brink

Over the past year, Israel has been carrying out a hideously barbaric genocide in Gaza, which is now intensifying. It has launched provocative, escalatory attacks against Iran and forces linked to it in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq. Last month, it unleashed a massive bombing assault and invasion of Lebanon. And now it’s preparing for what could be a major attack on Iran, with unpredictable ramifications. 

The U.S. has backed Israel every step of this bloody way, even as it’s had various tactical differences with the Netanyahu government. Why? Because this is what U.S. capitalism-imperialism rests on—wielding ruthless violence and terror to maintain its control and domination of key regions, resources, markets, and billions of people. This past year has demonstrated the violent, criminal lengths to which it will go to maintain this empire of exploitation and oppression, even at the risk of humanity’s future.

If all this needless suffering and death tears at your conscience and makes you sick with rage, what are you going to do about it? Will you find the heart and courage to answer the challenge Bob Avakian poses to follow his social media dispatches @BobAvakianOfficial, learn about, and take up the only real way out of the horrors that haunt you: 

So, those of you who are not afraid of the truth: Get ready for messages coming at you, bringing the reality of what is going on in the biggest and deepest dimensions—and most of all the reality of the revolution we urgently need, the revolution we have a real chance to bring about, right in this country, right in this intense and momentous time we are living in now.

• @BobAvakianOfficial, REVOLUTION #1