Israeli strike on Lebanon kills senior commander in elite Hezbollah unit

girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to World News@lemmy.world – 70 points –
reuters.com

An Israeli strike on south Lebanon on Monday killed a senior commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan force, three security sources told Reuters.

The security sources identified him as Wissam al-Tawil, the deputy head of a unit within the Radwan force. They said he and another Hezbollah fighter were killed when their car was hit in a strike on the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm.

"This is a very painful strike," one of the security sources said. Another said, "things will flare up now."

Israeli bombardment has killed more than 130 Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon since cross-border shelling began in the aftermath of Hamas's attack on Israeli territory on Oct. 7. Another 19 have been killed in Syria.

Hezbollah's secretary-general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel in two televised addresses last week not to launch a full-scale war on Lebanon.

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Israeli strikes in Lebanon are against Hezbollah fighters who are launching ATGM, mortars, or other munitions into Israel. This particular incident is exceptional in two ways:

  1. This is a relatively senior ranking member who was killed (number 3 in the Radwan Force)
  2. This appears to have been an attack of opportunity rather than a retaliatory strike

Reuters did a shit job on background context here. It took me 20 minutes half paying attention to a meeting that should have been an email to dig this up:

  • Hezbollah has launched 565 coordinated attacks (usually barrages against multiple targets along the border) on Israeli territory resulting in 4 civilian and 12 military fatalities and many more injured.
  • Due to the ongoing attacks, over 80,000 Israelis are internally displaced, and all the villages within 4km of the border have been evacuated.
  • Hezbollah were required to demilitarize and disarm as a consequence of binding UN Security Council resolution 1701 from 2006.
  • The Radwan force are a group within Hezbollah whose mission is to infiltrate into Israel and commit massacres against civilians.
  • Hezbollah is a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, UK, Canada, EU, and many other countries.

While I won't touch the subject matter with a ten foot pole, since I have a take that neither side likes...

It took me 20 minutes half paying attention to a meeting that should have been an email

Christ on a bike, I felt that one in my bones!

Israel is playing a dangerous game here.

I really have to wonder if they've gotten some kind of pre-emptive support from Biden that is making them believe they'll suffer no harm from retaliatory Lebanese strikes.

Netanyahu wants another war. Once he can redeploy some troops from Gaza to the north, he'll probably launch an invasion himself.

He frankly has no choice, in terms of self preservation. Once Israel is no longer at war, his political life is over. So, once Gaza is wrapped up, he will need a second war nearby to keep the Israeli people from ... dealing with him.

Every wannabe dictator's greatest potential enemy is always their own people. There are, however, methods for mitigating that risk. Lots of methods actually. I expect him to use pretty much all of them, as they become possible.

He was playing a dangerous game years ago though, and it all blew up this year. Now its the scramble to stay alive and on top, and that's all he really cares about. No cost is too high, even the health and survival of Israel itself becomes a secondary consideration.

Regarding your question, you do not need to wonder. Biden parked an aircraft carrier nearby and said in no uncertain terms to leave Israel alone. That is strong pre-emptive support. Though I doubt he'd actually support another Israeli invasion, a position I think he'll find himself in fairly soonish. Not that they actually need help, the IDF is a fairly large, powerful army just by itself.

Once Israel is no longer at war, his political life is over.

A more cynical person might wonder if he didn't intentionally ignore the Oct 7th warning signs so he could save his political ass.

Considering he was being accused of sending funds to hamas, I think that is possible.

Is there any truth to the rumours Israel pulled defenders away from the area that was attacked in the time leading up to it?

Israel has historically wiped the floor with most of these countries even without us aid.

Never forget they had like 5 countries try to invade in the war of 1948 and they fought back each one and in many cases conquered territory. (Example they had part of Egypt etc and gave it back).

Granted things have changed a bit but they still maintain a fairly significant military force.

They aren't really worried.

Israel has never been alone since the day it became a nation.

... having the backing of America, specifically militarily, has led Israel to "a great success story," helping it survive wars that broke out in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973. Source

The U.S. has given Israel $158 billion since Israel was founded, not adjusting for inflation, according to the Congressional Research Service. That makes Israel one of the biggest recipients of U.S. foreign aid since World War II. Source

Between 2001 and 2020, Israel received more military aid from the US than all other nations combined. Source

Where are these quotes from?

I put the source after each quote.

Hmm. My Memmy app doesn’t have the hyperlink. All I see is the word “Source” which sucks I guess lol

Oh, sorry about that. Here they are in order.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/history-us-support-israel-runs-deep-growing-chorus/story?id=104957109

https://www.marketplace.org/2023/10/23/a-look-at-the-history-of-u-s-aid-to-israel/

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-aid-spending-israel-military-defense-gaza-war-2023-10?op=1&r=US&IR=T

I was specifically curious about the first source as I have heard from other sources (namely Behind the Bastards) that the US initially did not care much for Israel, the Soviets helped more, and it wasn’t until the early 60s after an aggressive lobbying campaign was Israel a solid US ally.

The Wikipedia page on the 1948 Arab-Israeli war has this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Arab%E2%80%93Israeli_War

Up to 100,000 Arabs, from the urban upper and middle classes in Haifa, Jaffa and Jerusalem, or Jewish-dominated areas, evacuated abroad or to Arab centres eastwards.[40]

This situation caused the United States to withdraw its support for the Partition Plan, encouraging the Arab League to believe that the Palestinian Arabs, reinforced by the Arab Liberation Army, could put an end to the plan. However, the British decided on 7 February 1948 to support the annexation of the Arab part of Palestine by Transjordan.[41]

And later:

Thanks to funds raised by Golda Meir from sympathisers in the United States, and Stalin's decision to support the Zionist cause, the Jewish representatives of Palestine were able to sign very important armament contracts in the East.

Which suggests that initially the US government did not support Israel as the ABC article suggests. The reporting seems to get around the factual claims by just quoting their source, but I think that “Democrats for Israel” dude is stretching his historical claims.

They're not worried but they pump out enough propaganda about how they are constantly threatened with annihilation.

Tbf Israel is surrounded by nations who would be happy if it were wiped off the face of the earth ... so Israel isn't totally lying here.

The problem is Palestinians have an absolute right to live there as well, but Israel has become like the spoiled child who's been given everything without understanding the need to play nice with others. And Netanyahu is the epitome of a sneaky conniving asshole who never should have been leader.

Fair point. The two state solution is dead though. Israels apartheid system needs to be dismantled. Palestinians should have full civil rights and freedom of movement.

I hope you're wrong about the death of the 2-state solution.

I suspect we'll find out soon if Biden is willing to put the brakes on Netanyahi and Israel's right-wing coalitions tho.

Why? 2 state solution would have been a disaster. It would have created a Palestinian Bantustan fully under Israel's economic and military control. The just solution is one state with equality for all.

Israel will never agree to a one-nation state with 100% Palestinian equality.

A 2-nation state with Palestinians in control of their own water, electric and land resources - without Israel's incursions on or in Palestinian affairs - is a fair and equitable solution.

Rabin and Carter were close to that with the Oslo Accords, but Rabin's assassination shut it down.

Israel will never agree to a two state solution either. We already have a de facto one state solution. Israel just needs international pressure to dismantle apartheid and recognise civil rights for Palestinians as Israeli Arabs already enjoy. This could be done gradually starting with peaceful areas of the West Bank and rolling out to the rest of the Occupied Territories.

Nah, Biden's just a spineless Democrat completely and utterly incapable of standing up for any value if it means going against "allies", even if those monsters are committing a literal genocide. He is a spineless Democrat and fundamentally too weak to stand up to fascists. This is why real progressives fucking HATE democrats. They are sometimes genuinely worse than an openly evil enemy everyone hates because they provide room for otherwise good people to do nothing.

Note that pointing out these truths about Democrats is in no way what so ever any kind of endorsement of Republicans. They are obviously anti-American fascists.

It is almost like they want to widen the conflict.

Knowing Israel, it will have killed a few dozen unimportant civilians in an attack that for everyone else would be labeled 'belligerent' and 'criminal'.