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beirut
Israel Used US-Supplied Bomb in Beirut Strike That Killed at Least 22 Lebanese
"The Biden-Harris administration gave Israel at least 3,000 of these munitions from October-December 2023 alone," noted one expert.
Oct 11, 2024
At least one U.S.-supplied bomb was used by Israel in a Thursday night airstrike that killed at least 22 people and wounded over 115 more in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, according to a Guardiananalysis published on Friday.
The crisis, conflict, and arms division of Human Rights Watch and a former U.S. military explosives expert analyzed shrapnel from a bomb used by Israel in the strike on an apartment complex in the densely populated Basta neighborhood near central Beirut and concluded it came from a joint direct attack munition (JDAM) manufactured by Boeing.
"The bolt pattern, its position, and the shape of the remnant are consistent with the tail fin of a U.S.-made JDAM guidance kit for MK80-series air-dropped munitions," HRW senior researcher Richard Weir told The Guardian.
MK80-series JDAMs are attached to so-called "dumb" bombs ranging from 500 to 2,000 pounds to convert them into GPS-guided "smart" munitions.
"The use of these weapons in densely populated areas, like this one, places civilians and civilian objects in the immediate area at grave risk of immediate and lasting harm," Weir said.
In May, the Biden administration—which has approved tens of billions of dollars in armed aid to Israel, even as the key ally is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice— suspended transfers of 500- and 2,000-pound bombs over fears that the devastating munitions would be used in airstrikes on Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge.
By that time, Israel had already dropped hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs—which the U.S. military avoids using in civilian areas because they can destroy entire city blocks—on Gaza, including in an October 31 attack on the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp that killed more than 120 civilians.
The United Nations Human Rights Office said in June that Israel's use of 2,000-pound bombs and other U.S.-supplied weapons likely violated international law by deliberately targeting civilians in disproportionate attacks. Israeli military commanders have also been criticized for using artificial intelligence-based target selection to approve bombings they know will cause high civilian casualties.
The Biden administration resumed shipments of 500-pound bombs to Israel in July, while keeping the temporary proscription on 2,000-pound munitions in place.
While Israeli forces and Hezbollah have been engaged in cross-border attacks since the armed wing of the Lebanon--based political and paramilitary group began firing rockets and other weapons at Israel in solidarity with Gaza after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, the intensity of Israel's assault has increased dramatically since last month.
Since then, two waves of Israeli-engineered detonations targeting thousands of pagers and other communication devices killed dozens of people including Hezbollah members and civilians, two of them children. Later in September, Israeli forces unleashed an aerial bombing campaign in Lebanon, including the September 27 strike that assassinated Hezbollah political leader Hassan Nasrallah and other senior members of the group.
Expert analysis concluded that Israel used U.S.-supplied 2,000-pound bombs in the strike on a densely populated suburb of Beirut, which flattened several residential buildings.
Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health says that more than 2,200 people—including at least 127 children—have been killed and over 10,000 others wounded by Israeli forces since last October. Hezbollah attacks have killed 28 civilians and 39 soldiers in Israel over the same period.
On Friday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres joined foreign ministers from countries including China, France, Italy, Indonesia, and Turkey, as well as human rights organizations around the world, in condemning Israeli attacks on U.N. personnel in southern Lebanon after two Indonesian U.N. peacekeepers were wounded by Israeli tank fire.
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Hezbollah Confirms Hassan Nasrallah's Death as Israel Carpet-Bombs Lebanon
"Israel is committing crimes against humanity and waging regional war (while dragging international states to it) all in order to maintain its control of resources in the region," said one West Bank journalist.
Sep 28, 2024
Further elevating fears of a full-scale regional war in the Middle East, Hezbollah on Saturday confirmed the death of Hassan Nasrallah, who led the political and paramilitary group, after Israel's massive overnight assault on Lebanon.
Hezbollah
did not say how Nasrallah was killed but said in a statement that "the leadership of Hezbollah vows to the highest, most sacred, and dearest martyr in our journey filled with sacrifices and martyrs to continue its struggle against the enemy, supporting Gaza and Palestine, and defending Lebanon and its steadfast, honorable people."
The confirmation from the Iran-backed group came after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that it had killed Nasrallah—and multiple other members of Hezbollah leadership.
As of Saturday morning, at least 1,030 people in Lebanon are confirmed dead, and 6,352 people have been injured, though Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad highlighted that "there are still martyrs under the rubble, missing persons, and scattered remains."
Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon this week after trading fire with Hezbollah for nearly a year over the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and left many more displaced and starving. This week's death toll in Lebanon was over 700 even before the "
apocalyptic" bombing campaign that began Friday, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in New York City to address the United Nations General Assembly.
After
leveling several residential buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs, targeting Hezbollah's headquarters in Dahiyeh, Israel continued "conducting strikes on strategic terrorist targets" around the Lebanese capital, the IDF said, including "weapons production facilities, buildings used to store advanced weapons, and key command centers."
In response to the IDF's description of the Friday attack as a "precise strike," Adil Haque, a professor at Rutgers Law School in New Jersey, said, "Reminder that the location of military objectives in civilian areas, even when illegal, does not relieve the opposing party of its obligations under international humanitarian law."
Fellow Rutgers professor and human rights attorney Noura Erakat
stressed that "Israel transforms residential areas into targets by saying 'terrorist' once [because] of work of racism and colonialism. These are attacks on civilians [without] regard to distinction [between] civilian and militants."
Mariam Barghouti, a Palestinian American journalist and policy analyst based in the occupied West Bank,
said on social media that "in a single night Israeli military carpet-bombed Lebanon, carpet-bombed Gaza, invaded Jenin and Tulkarem in the West Bank."
"Israel is committing crimes against humanity and waging regional war (while dragging international states to it) all in order to maintain its control of resources in the region, while annexing Palestinian lands unabated," Barghouti added. "Israel's violence is in order to defend its ethnoreligous supremacy."
According toReuters:
Residents have fled Dahiyeh, seeking shelter in downtown Beirut and other parts of the city.
"Yesterday's strikes were unbelievable. We had fled before and then went back to our homes, but then the bombing got more and more intense, so we came here, waiting for Netanyahu to stop the bombing," said Dalal Daher, speaking near Beirut's Martyrs Square, where some of the displaced were camping out.
The Associated Pressreported that "on Saturday morning, the Israeli military carried out more than 140 airstrikes in southern Beirut and eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley," while "Hezbollah launched dozens of projectiles across northern and central Israel and deep into the Israel-occupied West Bank, damaging some buildings in the northern town of Safed."
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
said in a series of social media posts on Saturday that "all the Resistance forces in the region stand with and support Hezbollah."
"The Resistance forces will determine the fate of this region with the honorable Hezbollah leading the way," he continued. "The Lebanese haven't forgotten there was a time when the soldiers of the occupying regime were advancing toward Beirut, and Hezbollah stopped them and made Lebanon proud. Today too, by the grace and power of God, Lebanon will make the transgressing, malicious enemy regret its actions."
"It is an obligation for all Muslims to stand with the people of Lebanon and the honorable Hezbollah, offering their resources and assistance as Hezbollah confronts the usurping, cruel, malicious Zionist regime," he added.
Greek economist and politician Yanis Varoufakispointed out that the intense bombing by Israel—which receives billions of dollars in military support from the United States—came shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron "tabled a joint U.S.-French comprehensive cease-fire initiative to end the carnage" in Gaza and Lebanon.
"Today Israel killed Nasrallah," he said. "Can there be a greater humiliation for Biden-Macron? Can't they see they are a laughingstock?"
Just hours before Israel toppled residential buildings in Lebanon on Friday, Human Rights Watch director of crisis advocacy Akshaya Kumar wrote that her group "is calling on Israel's key allies, including the United States, to suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel, given the real risk that they will be used to commit grave abuses."
"Instead, the U.S. has done the opposite, and continues to approve weapons transfers and military aid without conditions," she noted. "World leaders gathered in New York held an emergency meeting on Lebanon, but words alone will not be enough to shift the Israeli government's plans. Leaders need to act."
Early Saturday afternoon, Biden released a statement on Israel killing Nasrallah. In it, Biden "praises not just his killing but how it was done—calling Israel's strike on an area full of civilians 'a measure of justice,'" saidHuffPost's Akbar Shahid Ahmed. "Striking."
Biden also said that "the United States fully supports Israel's right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups. Just yesterday, I directed my secretary of defense to further enhance the defense posture of U.S. military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war."
"Ultimately, our aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means," Biden claimed—though, as Ahmed emphasized, his call to reduce hostilities came "without changes to U.S. policy that's battered both."
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'This Maniac Must Be Stopped': Netanyahu Condemned Over Massive Beirut Bombing
While Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah reportedly survived the attack on the densely populated area of Lebanon's capitol, one observer warned that Israel may still "get the regional war it has sought."
Sep 27, 2024
Israel's dropping of massive bombs in Beirut on Friday sparked a fresh wave of global condemnation against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with critics accusing him of trying to drag the Middle East into an even bloodier conflict that could engulf the entire region.
The Israeli attack supposedly targeted Hassan Nasrallah, head of the political and paramilitary group Hezbollah. Multiple media outlets reported that the leader survived, though hundreds of others are feared dead in the "complete carnage" from the bombing that leveled several buildings. While the death toll from Friday is not yet clear, over 700 people have been killed in Israel's strikes in Lebanon since Monday.
As The New York Timesreported:
Lebanon's health minister, Firass Abiad, said that there had been a "complete decimation" of four to six residential buildings as a result of the Israeli strikes. He said that the number of casualties in hospitals was low so far because people were still trapped under the rubble. "They are residential buildings. They were filled with people," Mr. Abiad said. "Whoever is in those buildings is now under the rubble."
Social media and news sites quickly filled with photos and videos of massive plumes of smoke and smoldering rubble.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, said Friday that she was "deeply alarmed and profoundly worried about the potential civilian impact of tonight's massive strikes on Beirut's densely populated southern suburbs. The city is still shaking with fear and panic widespread. All must urgently cease fire."
However, the bombing is widely expected to worsen this week's escalation, which came after nearly a year of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) trading strikes with Hezbollah over the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 41,000 Palestinians.
"For Israel, it may not matter if Nasrallah was killed. Either way, it believes it'll get the regional war it has sought," Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said of the Friday attack.
Citing an unnamed Israeli official, NBC Newsreported that "Israel expects Hezbollah will attempt to mount a major retaliatory attack" in response to Friday's bombing of the group's command center.
As Reutersdetailed:
Israel has struck the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, known as Dahiyeh, four times over the last week, killing at least three senior Hezbollah military commanders.
But Friday's attack was far more powerful, with multiple blasts shaking windows across the city, recalling Israeli airstrikes during the war it fought with Hezbollah in 2006.
In a video posted on social media, IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari described the Friday attack as "a precise strike" on what "served as the epicenter of Hezbollah's terror," adding that the group's headquarters "was intentionally built under residential buildings."
During Netanyahu's United Nations General Assembly speech on Friday—which was met with a walkout from several diplomats and other officials—the prime minister said that Hezbollah has stored rockets "in schools, in hospitals, in apartment buildings, and in the private homes of the citizens of Lebanon. They endanger their own people. They put a missile in every kitchen, a rocket in every garage."
In response, Middle East expert Assal Rad said, "So he's claiming there's no civilian spaces in Lebanon and Israel has a right to destroy all of it."
Jason Hickel, who has positions at multiple European universities, also sounded the alarm over those lines from the Israeli leader's speech.
Netanyahu is "effectively arguing all homes are a military target," he said. "This is 100% genocidal and this maniac must be stopped."
Hours before the attack in suburban Beirut, the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) strongly condemned "Israel's brutal bombardment of Lebanon, another reckless escalation in the Middle East on behalf of the Benjamin Netanyahu regime that risks further destabilization in an already fragile region."
"The Israeli bombardment of Lebanon is the latest dark chapter in a series of disproportionate displays of force. Its ongoing genocide in Palestine over the last year has proven beyond any doubt that its willingness to commit horrific acts knows no bounds," DiEM25 said. "Rather than seeking a peaceful and just resolution, Israel's government has consistently chosen the path of militarism, often with international support from the European Union and the United States."
"The international community, including the E.U., has a critical role to play in promoting peace rather than enabling violence," the group added. "Peace and security in the Middle East will not come through bombs and military strength. It will come through diplomacy. We remain committed to working towards that aim and stand in solidarity with the Lebanese people, as well as all others suffering from this violent escalation."
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