The U.S. readies to evacuate Americans from Lebanon if fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies
The Pentagon is moving U.S. military assets closer to Israel and Lebanon to be ready to evacuate Americans as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies, according to three U.S. defense officials and a former U.S. official familiar with the plans.
HEZBOLLAH RELEASES MORE DRONE FOOTAGE OF ISRAELI SITES | AL JAZEERA NEWS
Hezbollah claims to have waged an aerial assault on a military site near the border, killing and injuring Israeli soldiers. In a statement, the group said it targeted Israel’s Sahel Battalion in the Beit Hilal barracks, achieving a direct hit. There was no immediate comment from Israel’s military. The announcement came hours after Hezbollah released a new video purporting to display sensitive Israel sites along with their coordinates, as fears grow of an all-out war between the two sides. The video is overlaid with a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in which he says, “If war is imposed on Lebanon, the resistance will fight without restrictions or rules.”
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US Begins Evacuation of Thousands of Citizens: Israeli Army to Invade Lebanon and Syria Simultaneously to Eliminate Hezbollah
Risk of engagement with Assad forces - US sends 3,500 bombs
The US, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, North Macedonia and Kuwait are asking their nationals to leave Lebanon immediately, while Germany, along with the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, the UK, France, Ireland and Australia, have urged their citizens to avoid traveling to Lebanon following rising tensions between Hezbollah and Israel.
Additionally, according to breaking news, US Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force helicopters and aircraft are expected to evacuate hundreds of American citizens from Lebanon to Cyprus and from there to the United States as Israel is set to launch its operation against to Hezbollah.
An unimpeded flow of arms is now being promised by the Americans with the delivery of 1,700 500-pound Mk.82 bombs destined for Israel, which were seized in May after the Israel Defense Forces launched an incursion into Rafah in southern Gaza. The second half of the shipment containing 1,800 Mk.84 2,000lb Bombs is still under consideration but will be approved soon
Israeli war gymnasiums - The attack will also include an invasion of Syria
Israeli troops held drills last week simulating fighting in Lebanon, which the military said were part of the Northern Command's efforts to increase readiness amid heightened tensions on the northern border.
The Golani Brigade's 12th Brigade, which operates in the Mount Dov and Mount Hermon areas on the northern border, conducted a combat simulation exercise in complex terrain, the army says. Another exercise, conducted by the 55th Parachute Reserve Brigade, practiced various combat scenarios, including movement over complex terrain and advancing along a "mountain route ," the IDF says.
The drills come amid daily attacks by the Hezbollah terror group in northern Israel amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has warned that it can no longer tolerate Hezbollah's presence along its border following the Oct. 7 atrocities and has warned that if a diplomatic solution is not reached, it will turn to military action to push Hezbollah north.
There is a strong possibility that any Israeli invasion to oust Hezbollah north of the Litani River would coincide with an Israeli invasion of Southern Syria to oust Hezbollah and IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard) militias such as Fatimiyoun and Imam Al -Hussein, from Quneitra and the countryside of West Daraa.
Yesterday's pounding by Israel's air force, last night, as well as the concentration of forces in the Golan Heights and South Lebanon, support the above scenario.
Besides, according to the Financial Times, Israel's aim is to create a security zone inside Lebanon, perhaps up to 15 km deep.
"We just want Hezbollah pushed back. We have no problem with [UN peacekeeping troops], [Lebanese Armed Forces] or Lebanese civilians living there. . . But we have to clear the area of Hezbollah's presence," a senior Israeli official told the Financial Times.
Israel is already creating a de facto "security zone" inside Lebanon by destroying areas within 5 kilometers of the border with ongoing strikes, much of this strip, which is hit by the IDF, is used as a launch pad for Hezbollah attacks and is said to has been destroyed.
Hezbollah is paying a heavy price for its war of attrition against Israel, says Middle East expert Amatzia Baram, through loss of domestic support in Lebanon, the death of hundreds of fighters, huge economic losses, and 100,000 residents displaced.
Nasrallah appears to be locked in a costly conflict, but he cannot end it before the war in Gaza ends. Meanwhile, the IDF continues to pound southern Lebanon and prepare for a major war, which will be painful for Israel but a total disaster for Hezbollah, according to Israeli experts.
Besides, according to statements by a top official of the Biden administration, to Politico: "Nasrallah's logic ... is that everything is connected to Gaza and until there is a cease-fire in Gaza, the rocket launches into Israel will not stop ... Frankly, we reject completely this logic".
On the one hand, they "reject this logic" and on the other, US Secretary of State Lloyd Austin recently stated that "A new war between Israel and Lebanon would be disastrous for Israelis and Lebanese citizens, we call for urgent diplomacy".
The US's specific diplomatic line of "talking and talking" sends mixed messages to the region, resulting in more escalation, rather than de-escalation.
On the one hand, it is obvious that if Israel gets involved in Lebanon, the US will necessarily support the country, on the other hand, the Biden administration is possessed by phobic syndromes regarding the direct or indirect involvement of Iran in the theater of operations.
These phobic syndromes are so evident that they provoked the ire of John Bolton, the former national security adviser of the Trump administration, when he declared that "Biden is an embarrassment to the United States as he urges the Israelis not to retaliate against Iran."
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"ISRAEL TARGETED AND KILLED MOST OF THE ISRAELI CIVILIANS ON OCT. 7TH, NOT HAMAS" | REDACTED
For months the official Israeli line has been that al those Israeli civilians that died on October 7th were at the hands of Hamas... well now we know that was a lie. Larry Johnson confirms a new Haaretz report exposing how IDF forces targeted and killed most of the Israeli civilians killed on October 7th.