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As Funerals Held for 11 Children Killed in Hezbollah Attack, Israel Weighs Retaliation
Thousands of mourners gathered in Majdal Shams, a Druze town in the Golan Heights, on July 28, 2024 to pay their respects at the funerals of 11 of the 12 children who were killed a day earlier in a Hezbollah rocket attack. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad
Thousands of mourners gathered in Majdal Shams to pay their respects at the funerals of 11 of the 12 children who were killed a day earlier in a Hezbollah rocket attack.
The attack on the small Druze town in the Golan Heights — a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria — prompted sharp warnings of retaliation from Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed that Hezbollah would “pay a heavy price.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz stated that Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed terrorist group that wields significant military and political influence across Lebanon, has “crossed all red lines.” He added that while Israel “would pay a price,” Hezbollah would pay a much higher one.
“We are facing an all-out war,” Katz predicted.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief Herzi Halevi said the attack “will result in a very, very significant reaction.”
Nevertheless, Israel’s strategic approach toward Hezbollah may not shift drastically. Some senior officials, while expressing their condolences, on Saturday indicated that the country’s “policy of containment” may continue.
Col. (res.) Dr. Barak Ben-Zur, an expert on Hezbollah, said it was incumbent on Israel to weigh all its options before retaliating. He cautioned that acting hastily in response to the magnitude of the tragedy, while emotions are high, could lead Israel into another prolonged conflict in Lebanon — an outcome that might not serve the country’s best interests militarily, diplomatically, or economically — especially while it is still fighting a war in Gaza.
Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, another Hezbollah expert and the founder and president of the Alma Research and Education Center, said that while she agreed that the “scale, nature, and timing” of a campaign in Lebanon should be chosen with care, “doing nothing” wasn’t an option.
“The very, very limited attacks that we had until now in Lebanon, focused mainly just on the other side of the border and without truly damaging Hezbollah’s capability to execute rocket launches of [the type] we saw yesterday is something that should be changed,” Zehavi told The Algemeiner.
“There must be a strategy of how and when Israel is going to protect its citizens,” she added.
More than 80,000 Israelis evacuated Israel’s north in October due to constant drone, rocket, and missile fire from Hezbollah and have since been unable to return to their homes. The majority of those spent the past nine months residing in hotels in safer areas of the country.
Members of the Druze community have vowed to avenge Saturday’s attack, in which more than 40 people were wounded — 17 of whom remain in critical condition. Many criticized the Netanyahu-led government for not doing more to protect northern Israeli communities amid near-daily barrages of between 100-200 rockets from neighboring Lebanon.
Ynet military correspondent Yoav Zitun cited a senior Israeli official as saying that he “estimates that there will be a very sharp response” but one that will put Israel “into a round of several days of limited combat,” during which Hezbollah will extend its reach to Haifa. More than 6,000 rockets have been fired by the Iran-backed terrorist group into northern Israel since October, but none have yet extended as far south as Haifa.
Israel has so far refrained from targeting civilian infrastructure in Lebanon that indirectly supports Hezbollah, such as key bridges, major highways, power plants, sea and airports. However, if a decision is made to strike such targets — as long as the casualty count is extremely low — it will serve as a strong message to the government in Beirut, Zitun noted. Such a strategy may serve to assuage the Israeli public and deter further attacks from Hezbollah.
Meanwhile reports from Lebanese media, citing American and Lebanese diplomatic sources, indicate that Israel has made the decision to conduct a broad offensive against Lebanon.
Majdal Shams is located at the foot of Mount Hermon, directly in the line of fire from the rocket launch site in Shebaa in southern Lebanon. Despite Hezbollah’s retraction of accountability and outright denial later on, when it emerged that the victims of the attack were Arab Druze children, the missile that hit Majdal Shams was the same one they claimed responsibility for firing at the Hermon region at 19:30.
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United Nations ‘Condemns’ Israel for Responding to Houthi Attacks, Decries ‘Escalation’ of Violence
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks to members of the Security Council during a meeting to address the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, April 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
In its latest salvo against the Jewish state, the United Nations (UN) condemned Israel for executing retaliatory strikes against the Houthi terror group in Yemen.
“The Secretary-General condemns escalation between Yemen and Israel,” Stéphanie Tremblay, a UN spokesperson, said in Thursday statements on behalf of UN Secretary General António Guterres.
“The Secretary-General is gravely concerned about intensified escalation in Yemen and Israel. Israeli airstrikes today on Sana’a International Airport, the Red Sea ports and power stations in Yemen are especially alarming. The airstrikes reportedly resulted in numerous casualties including at least three killed and dozens more injured” Tremblay added.
On Thursday, Israel launched a barrage of missile attacks on Houthi bases in Yemen, provoking international outrage. Israel targeted a major airport in Sanaa and ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, and power stations, locations the Jewish state claims were used by the terror group to sneak in both Iranian weapons and high-ranking Iranian officials.
On Friday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for an airstrike aimed at Ben Gurion airport, claiming that the attacks were carried out in retaliation against Israel’s targeting of Sana’a International airport.
The Israeli strikes followed days of Houthi missile and drone launches towards the Jewish state’s airspace. The Houthis have repeatedly attacked the Jewish state in the year following the Oct. 7 slaughters in Israel. Officials associated with terrorist organization claims that it will continue to attack Israel until the so-called “genocide” in Gaza ceases.
In reference to the strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad’s regime and others learned.”
Israeli officials have long accused the UN of having a bias against the Jewish state. Last year, the UN General Assembly condemned Israel twice as often as it did all other countries. Meanwhile, of all the country-specific resolutions passed by the UNHRC, nearly half have condemned Israel, a seemingly disproportionate focus on the lone democracy in the Middle East.
Weeks following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, the UN adopted a resolution calling for a “ceasefire” between Israel and the terrorist group. The UN failed to pass a measure condemning the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7.
In June, the UN put Israel on its so-called “list of shame” of countries that kill children in armed conflict. Israel is considered to be the only democracy on the list.
The post United Nations ‘Condemns’ Israel for Responding to Houthi Attacks, Decries ‘Escalation’ of Violence first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Jets Attack Syria-Lebanon Border Crossings to Stop Arms Amuggling
Smoke billows after an Israeli Air Force air strike in southern Lebanon village, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, as seen from northern Israel, Oct. 3, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jim Urquhar
Israeli jets struck seven crossing points along the Syria-Lebanon border on Friday, aiming to cut the flow of weapons to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group in southern Lebanon.
Israeli troops also seized a truck mounted with a 40-barrel rocket launcher in southern Lebanon, part of a haul from various areas that included explosives, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and AK-47 automatic rifles, the military said.
The commander of the Israeli Air Force, Major General Tomer Bar, said Hezbollah was trying to smuggle weapons into Lebanon to test Israel’s ability to stop them.
“This must not be tolerated,” he said in a statement.
Under the terms of a Nov. 27 ceasefire agreement, Israel is supposed to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon in phases while unauthorised Hezbollah military facilities south of the Litani River are to be dismantled.
However, each side has accused the other of violating the agreement, intended to end more than a year of fighting that began with Hezbollah missile strikes on Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, from Gaza.
On Thursday, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon called for Israeli forces to withdraw, citing what it said were repeated violations of the deal.
Israel, which destroyed large parts of Hezbollah’s missile stocks during weeks of operations in southern Lebanon, has said it will not permit weapons to be smuggled to Hezbollah through Syria.
Israel has also conducted attacks against the Iranian-backed Houthi movement in Yemen in recent days and pledged to continue its campaign against Iranian-backed militant groups across the region.
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Mila Kunis Says Husband Ashton Kutcher And Their Children Helped Her Embrace Judaism: ‘I Fell in Love With My Religion’
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis at the 9th Annual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, on April 16, 2023. Photo: Cover Media via Reuters Connect
Actress Mila Kunis began embracing and feeling proud of her Jewish heritage when she met her husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, and even more so after having children, she told Israeli activist and author Noa Tishby this week.
“For me, it happened when I met my husband,” the “Goodrich” star, 41, said of her former “That ’70s Show” costar, 46, who she has been married to since 2015.
Although Kutcher is not Jewish, he was a follower of Kabbalah and was frequently photographed visiting the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles when he was married to actress Demi Moore from 2005-2013. Their wedding was also reportedly officiated by a Kabbalah Centre teacher. It remains unclear if he continues to follow Kabbalah. Nevertheless, Kunis joked that Kutcher is Jewish “by choice,” not by lineage, and that his interest in Judaism sparked Kunis to reconnect with her Jewish roots.
“I fell in love with my religion because he explained it to me,” said Kunis, who voices Meg Griffin on the Fox animated series “Family Guy.”
Kunis made the comments while joining Tishby to light candles on Thursday for the second night of Hanukkah. The two joined forces as part of Tishby’s “#BringOnTheLight campaign,” which is an eight-part video series on YouTube dedicated to spreading the message of Jewish resilience, pride and unity throughout the Jewish holiday.
Kunis and Kutcher together have two children — daughter Wyatt, 10, and son Dimitri, 8. The actress was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, and moved to the United States at the age of eight. She told Tishby that she did not adhere to any Jewish traditions while growing up. “I always knew I was Jewish but I was told to never talk about,” she said. “I think because I was in a country that didn’t allow for religion.” The “Bad Moms” star added that her children also helped her tap into the religious side of Judaism.
“I was raised culturally Jewish. So for me, it’s a culture,” she said. “And as I had kids, and my kids very much identity with the religion aspect of it, I was like, ‘Oh, I guess we’re doing Shabbat and the candles. And there are so many beautiful traditions.”
“I never lit Hanukkah candles until I had kids,” she further noted.
When Kunis lit the menorah with Tishby for the second night of Hanukkah, they called Kutcher for some help. Both women were unsure if they needed to light the candles from left to right or from right to left, and asked Kutcher for guidance.
Kunis also talked about being raised with a lot of Jewish guilt and superstition. Listing another things that are culturally Jewish about her, she shared, “I have a fear of not having enough food and my fear of somebody being hungry. The worst thing my kids can say to me is, ‘I’m hungry.’”
“Food fixes everything. You’re tired, eat some food. You’re cranky, eat some food,” she joked. “A health person would say, ‘This is unhealthy and you’re doing something wrong.’ And I understand. I’m working on it. But it’s just something that is embedded in me.”
The post Mila Kunis Says Husband Ashton Kutcher And Their Children Helped Her Embrace Judaism: ‘I Fell in Love With My Religion’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.