From: BBC September 25, 2024
Israel’s earlier wars with Hezbollah were grinding, attritional and never produced a decisive victory for either side.

At first Israel hoped air power would stop rocket attacks into Israel.
When it did not, ground troops and tanks once again rolled back over the border. The war was a disaster for Lebanese civilians.

But on the last day of the war, Hezbollah was still launching salvoes of rockets into Israel.

This one might go the same way, however satisfying the last week of offensive action has been for Israel, its intelligence services and its military.

Israel’s offensive rests on an assumption - a gamble - that a point will come when Hezbollah will crumple, retreat from the border and stop firing into Israel. Most observers of Hezbollah believe it will not stop.

Fighting Israel is the main reason why Hezbollah exists.
That means Israel, just as reluctant to admit defeat, would have to escalate the war further.

Israel’s commanders know that entering Lebanon under fire would be much more formidable military challenge than fighting Hamas, in Gaza.

Hezbollah has also been making plans since the end of the 2006 war, and would be fighting on home ground, in south Lebanon which has plenty of rugged, hilly terrain that suits guerrilla tactics.

From: The Guardian September 24, 2024

Israel struck hundreds of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon overnight and during Tuesday, with the death toll from the recent wave of attacks now nearing 560 people

Israel hits targets in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah fires rockets into northern Israel
Israel has inflicted heavy blows. But so far it has not stopped Hezbollah's capacity or will to fire into Israel..

Hezbollah, which is sponsored by Iran, said it had targeted several Israeli military targets including an explosives factory about 35 miles (56km) into Israel and the Megiddo airfield near the town of Afula, which it attacked three separate times.

Officials in Israel said more than 50 missiles and rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern parts of the country on Tuesday morning, most of which were intercepted.

The Alma Centre, a security research centre in Israel, said Hezbollah had launched more than 300 rockets deep into northern and central parts of the country in the past 24 hours.

New alarms warning of rockets sounded in the northern Israeli towns of Kiryat Shmona and Margaliot late on Tuesday afternoon.

Israel and some analysts have said that Hezbollah has deliberately stored missiles and other armaments in homes or other civilian buildings to use local communities as a “human shield”.

I was reading the NBC article, impressed by this rare, relative moderate leader -- unheard of in Iran until his comments about Houthis terror in the Red Sea Another pezzonovante...

ominous warning
menacing words that Iran could be entering the war

From: The Guardian September 24, 2024
Israeli strikes on Lebanon continue as Iran says Hezbollah ‘cannot stand alone’

On Tuesday Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, expressed fears of a regional conflagration but said Hezbollah, which Iran helped to found in 1983, “cannot stand alone” against Israel

“Hezbollah cannot stand alone against a country that is being defended and supported and supplied by western countries, by European countries and the United States,” Pezeshkian told CNN.

How is Hezbollah standing alone? Aren't all the terrorists in solidarity with each other against Israel and for it's destruction

From: BBC September 25, 2024
Israeli strikes on Lebanon continue as Iran says Hezbollah ‘cannot stand alone’

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington DC, estimates that Hezbollah has around 30,000 active fighters and up to 20,000 reserves, mostly trained as mobile small units of light infantry.

Many of its men have combat experience fighting in support of the Assad regime in Syria.

Most estimates say that Hezbollah has something between 120,000 and 200,000 missiles and rockets, ranging from unguided weapons to longer-range weapons that could hit Israel’s cities.

Israel may be gambling that Hezbollah will not use all of them, fearful that the Israeli air force will do to Lebanon what it did to Gaza, turning entire towns to rubble and killing thousands of civilians.

Iran might not want Hezbollah to use weapons it would like to reserve as insurance against an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
That’s another gamble. Hezbollah might decide to use more of its arsenal before Israel destroys it.

With the war continuing in Gaza, and rising levels of violence on the occupied West Bank, Israel would also have to contemplate a third front if it invaded Lebanon.

Its soldiers are motivated, well trained and equipped, but the reserve units that provide much of Israel’s fighting power are already feeling the strain after a year of war.

Israel believes the time has come to be aggressive and audacious, to blast Hezbollah away from its borders.
But it faces an obdurate, well-armed and angry enemy.

Israel has not been able to destroy all the tunnels Hamas dug through sand in Gaza.
In the borderlands of south Lebanon, Hezbollah has spent the last 18 years preparing tunnels and positions in solid rock.

Hezbollah, which is sponsored by Iran, has a formidable arsenal, supplied by Iran.
Unlike Hamas in Gaza, it can be resupplied by land through Syria.

This is the most dangerous crisis in the long year of war since Hamas attacked Israel and at the moment nothing is stopping it spiralling towards something much worse.

Both Israel and Hezbollah wrong!
ABC Australia by Middle East correspondent Eric Tlozek 24 September 2024

Extracts:
Israel's deadly attack on Lebanon shows it wasn't deterred by Hezbollah's rockets

• Both Israel and Hezbollah have been wrong

1. Hezbollah thought it could contain its conflict with Israel
2. Israel thought it could stop Hezbollah's attacks by military means

When the Lebanese militant group started firing rockets into Israel on 08 October 2023 the day after the Hamas attacks in southern Israel, it had very clear goals

Divert Israeli military and intelligence resources, show solidarity with the Palestinian cause and make the conflict in Gaza a regional war, in keeping with the "Unity of Arenas" strategy to coordinate attacks on Israeli and United States interests by Iran-backed groups around the Middle East

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in November 2023 in his first speech outlining the group's strategy after 07 October 2023 that the group's attacks had generated panic as well as fear of a broader war, for Israel and America
Nasrallah was right that Israel and more so the United States, did fear the outbreak of a regional war that could bring Iran into the fighting But time has proven Nasrallah badly wrong about deterrence

After months of the situation on the border being dangerous but relatively static, Israel has raised the stakes significantly

Both Israel and Hezbollah wrong!
ABC Australia by Middle East correspondent Eric Tlozek 24 September 2024

Extracts:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it an official goal to return more than 60,000 evacuated northern Israel residents to their homes

Last week, Israel is presumed to have blown up Hezbollah's personal communications devices, then killed its key military leaders in the heart of Dahiyeh, the Shia Muslim district that is Hezbollah's Beirut stronghold

Now, Israel's massive strikes in the southern and central Lebanese villages where it accuses Hezbollah of storing medium and long-range missiles and again in Beirut, show it is willing to go even further

Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Centre told the ABC Australia

Both Israel and Hezbollah wrong!
ABC Australia by Middle East correspondent Eric Tlozek 24 September 2024

Extracts:
The scale of destruction from Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon was already far greater than anything caused by Hezbollah's rockets, forcing 100,000 Lebanese to flee and flattening parts of the south but the group continued firing

It showed Israel's continued failure to force the separation of the Lebanon and Gaza conflicts
Israel has been unwilling to accept Hezbollah's stance — and American advice — that the only way to stop the group's attacks was to reach a ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza


A Gaza ceasefire remains unlikely, partly due to Israel's political situation while intense domestic pressure is leading Israel to pursue an increasingly aggressive strategy in Lebanon

Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Centre told the ABC Australia
Hezbollah has been unwilling to accept diplomatic approaches by the United States that would see it comply with a United Nations Security Council resolution and withdraw from the border region

Both Israel and Hezbollah wrong!
ABC Australia by Middle East correspondent Eric Tlozek 24 September 2024

Extracts:
Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire for 11 months
Air/drone strikes and shelling/artillery/missile attacks between Israel and Hezbollah from 08 October 2023 to 20 September 2024

1. To date, Hezbollah has lost hundreds of fighters and is now losing an untold amount of munitions
2. The extent to which its capabilities have been degraded will only become clear when the group responds to these latest attacks

Iran, which regards Hezbollah as part of its "forward defence" strategy, an insurance policy against Israeli or US attack, will be considering its response too although to date it has been unwilling to enter the conflict more directly to support Hezbollah

The group now needs to both save face and attempt to regain a degree of deterrence against future Israeli attacks

It has already started launching long-range strikes into Israel, for the first time since it entered the war

Both Israel and Hezbollah wrong!
ABC Australia by Middle East correspondent Eric Tlozek 24 September 2024

Extracts:
The escalation highlights another US failure, this time of diplomatic efforts to prevent the conflict spreading

The US has continued to provide weapons and diplomatic protection for Israel while trying to convince Israel's enemies to show restraint even as global outrage grew about Israel's conduct in Gaza

The latest Israeli attacks have killed hundreds of people, including civilians and caused another mass displacement of Lebanese, battering a country that was already critically weakened by economic collapse and political dysfunction

One hopeful possibility may be that Israel has opted for these strikes in preference to a ground invasion which could have an even worse impact and longer-term consequences

However unless Hezbollah has been critically weakened, the attacks may not achieve what Israel wants

Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Centre told the ABC Australia

Some of Hezbollah's attacks on Israel have hit civilian areas, breaking laws designed to protect civilians.
They have also targeted the Israeli military.

Israel insists it has a moral army that respects the rules. But much of the world has condemned its conduct in Gaza.
The ignition of a wider border war will deepen the gap at the centre of a highly polarized argument.

Terrifying ‘barcode leaflets’ dropped by Israel

Israel has begun dropping leaflets into parts of Lebanon with a “very dangerous” barcode on them, according to Hezbollah’s media office. The ominous barcode allegedly “withdraws all information” from phones if scanned

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer was asked directly about the airdropped leaflets on Tuesday, but dodged the question completely.

“The prime minister has also made clear... that whoever tries to harm this country, we will harm them all the more forcefully,” Mr Mencer responded. “Israel’s patience is not inexhaustible. We will secure our northern border and our people will be allowed to get home.”

1. Israel has wiped out most of Hezbollah’s leadership in two days of brutal targeted airstrikes.
2. Bombs have also targeted ammo stores, with clips of the strikes showing houses in residential areas being obliterated.
3. US officials told CNN Hezbollah has been significantly weakened by the attacks which had taken them backwards by about 20 years

The Israeli strikes came less than a week after coordinated sabotage attacks targeting Hezbollah’s communication devices killed 39 people and wounded almost 3,000

Over 550 people, including dozens of children, were killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Monday, according to the country’s health ministry.

The foreign ministers of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan issue a rare joint statement condemning Israel’s “aggression” against Lebanon, warning that it is “pushing the region towards all-out war.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveb...rael-pushing-region-towards-all-out-war/

Imo, if an "all out regional war" happens for Israel to have Peace & Security from terrorists, then So Be It.

An Israeli ground operation in Lebanon does not appear "imminent." The Pentagon says so.

From: The Times of Israel September, 25, 2024
Iran threatens to back Hezbollah ‘with all means’ if fighting with Israel escalates

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the Middle East is facing a “full-scale catastrophe” and warns Tehran will back Lebanon by “all means” if fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah escalates.

“The region is on the brink of a full-scale catastrophe. If unchecked, the world will face catastrophic consequences,” he tells reporters at the United Nations, adding that Iran would “stand with the people of Lebanon with all means.”

Araqchi also claims Israel has crossed “all red lines” and says the UN Security Council must intervene to restore peace and stability.

If Israel doesn't straighten everything out and settle all terror business, this time -- once and for all -- it will continue to be terror bothered... and will always be in this same terrible place or worse....

That's the key for Israel. Gotta get the terrorists

The Guardian September 26, 2024
US thwarts French and British push for Lebanon ceasefire call at UN

An effort led by France and Britain to secure a joint statement by the UN security council calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon has stalled in the face of US objections.

Washington says Israel has legitimate security problem and more complex diplomatic agreement is required

Washington is eager to avoid any suggestion there is any equivalence of blame for the eruption of the crisis that has led to the loss of life of hundreds of people in Lebanon.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has been firm in asserting Israel has a legitimate problem to solve, blaming Hezbollah’s continued rocket fire into Israel ever since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October

European sources said the US had been working on a different, more complex, formula, and was sensitive to Israeli pressure or wording that would be seen to block its military offensive to degrade Hezbollah.

Watched this interview with Olmert on Dutch TV. He was the PM in the last invasion in 2006.

Former Israeli PM on escalation: 'Large-scale war is in no one's interest'
Israel called up thousands of reservists today and the army is said to be preparing for a possible invasion of Lebanon. According to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, that would be extremely unwise.

https://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/video/2538...ootschalige-oorlog-is-in-niemands-belang

officials speaking on condition of anonymity, former Prime Ministers, former chiefs, Generals, officers of everything including Defense, CIA, Mossad and their Dog -- are experts on the current conflict and know the strategy to win it!

Terrorists Dead Pool
Hezbollah has confirmed the death of air unit commander Mohammad Surur, who Israel Defense Forces said earlier had been killed in an airstrike on Beirut earlier on Thursday.

The Israeli military described Surur as in charge of Hezbollah’s drone operations. Hezbollah did not provide details on his role.

This is the latest, in the assassinations among the group's top ranks. Who is testing the DNA or Is Mossad's intelligence that good
1. How can Israel know from the air
2. Hezbollah confirming or denying could be a ruse

From: Reuters September 27, 2024
Hezbollah said in a statement it had struck the town of Kiryat Shmona in north Israel and an Israeli military northern command base, as well as using air defense weapons to force two Israeli warplanes back.

If true, Hezbollah has not been weakened, let alone critically...

From: Reuters September 27, 2024
Israel rejects US-backed Lebanon ceasefire plan, hits Beirut again

Israel rejected global calls on Thursday for a ceasefire with the Hezbollah movement, defying its biggest ally in Washington and pressing ahead with strikes that have killed hundreds in Lebanon and heightened fears of an all-out regional war.

Despite Israel's stance, the U.S. and France sought to keep prospects alive for an immediate 21-day truce they proposed on Wednesday, and said negotiations continued, including on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting in New York.

I was under the impression,
Why is no one calling for Russia-Ukraine ceasefire and Why is Israel not questioning the double standards and hypocrisy

The West has to negotiate with Masoud Pezeshkian about Hezbollah, Iran wants a new nuclear deal and can order their proxies to back off. Talks with Russia should also continue there is a New World Order.

[b][/b]well israel decided to take out nasrallah
i have no words for what we are witnessing here....
israel is taking shit on iran's face finally after years of terror !

Yep the group's HQ in Beirut have been bombed in the biggest attack on the capital so far.
Not known yet if he stayed there at the moment, but we can assume he was.

Israeli media report Nasrallah and many others have been killed!
This is very big.

Don't pop the champagne yet!

From: Reuters September 28, 2024
Israeli airstrikes rock Beirut, target Hezbollah command

A source close to Hezbollah told Reuters Nasrallah was alive. Iran's Tasnim news agency also reported he was safe.

A senior Iranian security official told Reuters Tehran was checking his status. Hezbollah's media office said that there was no truth to any statements surrounding the Israeli strikes, but did not say anything about the fate of the group's leader.

In New York, a senior Israeli official told reporters that senior Hezbollah commanders were the target of Israel's strike on the central headquarters on Friday but it was too early to say whether the attack took out Nasrallah.

From: The Guardian September 28,2024
Biden orders US forces in Middle East to 'adjust as necessary', says White House

Joe Biden, the US president, has directed the Pentagon to “assess and adjust as necessary” American forces in the Middle East, the White House said after a wave of Israeli strikes in Beirut on Friday.

A statement by the White House reads:
He has directed the Pentagon to assess and adjust as necessary US force posture in the region to enhance deterrence, ensure force protection, and support the full range of US objectives.

Thick smoke over Dahieh as Israeli strikes hit southern Beirut
published at 00:05 British Summer Time
00:05 BST

Nafiseh Kohnavard
BBC Persian Middle East correspondent, Beirut

Thick smoke over Dahieh
From my balcony in Beirut I can see a thick smoke over Dahieh. I've heard at least seven strong explosions already.

Our neighbourhood is considered safe but even here I can see my neighbours are still up and awake.

With every blast rumbling they are coming to their balconies to look towards Dahieh. Beirut, and I think all of Lebanon, is sleepless.

I have received many messages from family and friends in Iran, my home country, and Turkey and Iraq, countries that I was based in previously, asking me if there will be a bigger regional war now.

I don’t have a definitive answer for it yet. It is getting difficult to predict and analyse what is coming next.

But what is obvious is that this is going to be a long night for Lebanon and the region.


Iran accuses US of 'complicity' in Israeli strikes
published at 23:48 British Summer Time
23:48 BST
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has accused the US of "complicity" in Israeli strikes in Gaza and Lebanon.

"One cannot disregard the US complicity in the crime," Araghchi told the UN Security Council.

It comes as Israel says it's carrying out strikes on buildings in Beirut which it claims store weapons belonging to Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.

US President Joe Biden earlier confirmed that "the United States had no knowledge of or participation in the (Israeli) action" in Lebanon today, which was reiterated by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.