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Israel Widens Its Criminal Assault on Lebanon—Killing Thousands, Assassinating Journalists, Destroying Homes and Hospitals, Forcing Over a Million to Flee

Israeli airstrike set the suburb of Dahiyeh, Beirut on fire, October 23, 2024.

 

Israeli airstrike set the suburb of Dahiyeh, Beirut on fire, October 23, 2024.    Photo: AP

This past week Israel further escalated its criminal, U.S.-backed air war and invasion of Lebanon. Israel is a Jewish-supremacist outpost for U.S. imperialism in the Middle East. It has carried out one atrocity after another against the Palestinian people since its founding in 1948, including ongoing ethnic cleansing and now open genocide in Gaza. It has also carried out numerous acts of aggression against other countries in the Middle East, including Lebanon. 

Now, in the name of precisely attacking the Iran-backed Islamic fundamentalist organization Hezbollah, Israel is carrying out a war to crush any opposition to its genocidal assault on Gaza and its genocidal rule overall. There is nothing just about any of this, and it is being armed, funded and politically supported by the Biden-Harris administration and the U.S. ruling class overall. 

In Lebanon, Israel is using many of the same tactics it has deployed in Gaza: killing thousands, mainly civilians, assassinating journalists, destroying residential buildings and hospitals, and forcing over one quarter of Lebanon’s population to flee their homes.1

At least 2,546 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Lebanon since October 7, 2023, and another 11,862 injured, the vast majority in the last month. 

Here is a brief sampling of some of the atrocities Israel has carried out just this past week: 

  • On Sunday, October 20, Israel bombed some dozen branches of the Al-Qard al-Hassan bank, which has ties to Hezbollah, but also serves many other Lebanese, and plays a critical role in Lebanon’s economy. These banks are civilian institutions and are mostly located in densely-populated residential areas.  Many of the banks were located in residential buildings and played a critical role in Lebanon’s financial sector.
  • Monday, October 21, Israel carried out more than a dozen air strikes on densely populated Beirut and its suburbs. Bombs hit near Lebanon’s largest public medical center, the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, and caused major damage. The New York Times reports, “The air was thick with dust. The wreckage beneath, mangled and smoldering. The overnight Israeli strike had come without warning, leaving no time to evacuate… Locals gathered on Tuesday at the site, just south of Beirut, listening for the ringtones of their loved ones’ phones emanating from under the debris.” Eighteen people were killed, including four children, and another 60 injured, according to Reuters.
  • On Monday alone, at least 63 people were killed and 234 others injured across Lebanon due to Israeli attacks.
  • These attacks came as U.S. officials were praising “progress” in ceasefire negotiations.
  • Wednesday, October 23: Israel again bombed the historic port city of Tyre, home to precious archaeological sites and one of the oldest, continually inhabited cities in the world. Israel had ordered most of Tyre’s civilians to evacuate and move 25 miles north. “These are ruins that have survived thousands of years and that are being now destroyed by Israel," one Lebanese professor said.2
  • More than a quarter of Lebanese territory is now under Israeli evacuation warnings and some 1.4 million Lebanese have been forced to flee and are now seeking shelter in schools, hospitals, abandoned buildings or just sleeping on the streets. Some 400,000 of the displaced are children, who are being put at risk of contracting contagious diseases including hepatitis A and measles.
  • Israel is continuing its assassination campaign against alleged leaders or members of Hezbollah.
  • Thursday, October 24: Israel carried out at least 17 airstrikes focused the southern suburbs of Beirut. Many residential buildings were reduced to rubble, including the offices of Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese TV news station.
Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing journalists, killing three media staffers, Lebanon.

 

 Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing journalists, killing three media staffers, Lebanon, October 25, 2024. Note large "PRESS" sign on destroyed car.    Photo: AP

  • Friday, October 25: Israel assassinated three Lebanese journalists while they were sleeping in the southern town of Hasbaya, an area known to host journalists. A truck clearly marked PRESS could be seen near the destroyed guesthouse. 
  • Friday, October 25: The New York Times reports, “In Lebanon, the Israeli bombing campaign is spread over a broad area. The military said on Friday that its air force had struck over 200 targets in the country over the past day… The Israeli air force has ramped up its bombing campaign in the southern outskirts of Beirut, in a densely populated cluster of neighborhoods… the Israeli military had also carried out airstrikes on two border crossings between Lebanon and Syria, disrupting routes used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israel’s bombardment.”

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FOOTNOTES:

1. See also Israel Rains Death and Destruction Across Lebanon—U.S. Backs Israel’s Atrocities with Bombs, Lies, and Bullshit Excuses, revcom.us, October 21, 2024. [back]

2. “This Is Just Terrorism”: Israel Bombs World Heritage Site in Lebanon, Threatens Major Hospital, Democracy Now!, October 24, 2024.  [back]

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