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A Jewish museum exhibit features the Palestinian flag. Some visitors wonder if it belongs.
(J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Tucked in the far corner of a large, brightly-lit exhibition hall on the ground floor of the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, there is a delicate-looking piece of art with a strong political message.
At first glance, it appears to be three circular vases with flowers in them. The ceramic vases sit on shelves attached to the wall, and colorful collages hang above them. On closer inspection, visitors will notice that the flowers are made out of paper and that affixed to each vase is an image of the Palestinian flag printed on foam board.
A nearby label written by the curators of the exhibit, titled “Tikkun: For the Cosmos, the Community, and Ourselves,” explains that the piece was inspired by a conversation the artist, Tosha Stimage of Berkeley, had with a Palestinian man. He told Stimage about the plants that are native to Palestine — “a place which he can no longer access due to the ongoing conflict in the region,” the curators write.
The label also includes a note about the flag: “Some may find its presence at The CJM troubling or confusing, while others may find it appropriate and forthright. Stimage recognizes the potential for these divergent responses and hopes to use them as a means of generating dialogue.”
On a Sunday afternoon in October, Maury Ostroff read the label and walked away without inspecting the artwork.
Visitors to the “Tikkun” exhibit are encouraged to share their responses to the artwork via comment cards. (Andrew Esensten)
Asked how the presence of the flag made him feel, Ostroff, who is Jewish and lives in Muir Beach, in Marin County, replied, “Unhappy.”
Why?
“It’s not offensive to me in the same way that a swastika is. My skin is a little bit thicker than that. But I wish it weren’t here.”
He added, “What’s so Jewish about this? What’s so ‘tikkun olam’ about all of this?”
For the “Tikkun” exhibit, which opened Feb. 17 and runs through Jan. 8, the CJM invited both Jewish and non-Jewish Bay Area artists to contribute new works on the theme of repair, however they chose to interpret it. “No one is listening to us,” the piece by Stimage, who is not Jewish, is the first work of art featuring the Palestinian flag to be shown at CJM in recent memory; the museum could not say when or if the flag has been displayed on its walls before.
The piece prompted several internal conversations among CJM staff when it was first submitted and, since it has been on display, has generated a variety of responses from museumgoers who have left comments in a box at the entrance to the exhibit. Intentionally or not, Stimage has raised numerous questions with the artwork, including: Does a work of art that is sympathetic to the Palestinian struggle for statehood belong in a Jewish museum? And what is the role of a contemporary Jewish museum, anyway?
“To truly be a contemporary art museum, meaning embedded in the contemporary issues of our day, our job is to provide a platform for dialogue and to share a diversity of perspectives on our walls,” said Chad Coerver, CJM’s executive director since September 2021. “If any institution [like ours] took the path of withholding artwork that troubled our staff, our board or our community, it would be very difficult to mount exhibitions.”
CJM is a member of the Council of American Jewish Museums, a network of 76 museums across the country. CAJM does not have guidelines about the kind of art its member museums can and cannot display, according to Executive Director Melissa Yaverbaum.
J. reached out to several CAJM member museums in New York, Los Angeles and other places by email to ask if they had ever shown artwork with Palestinian iconography or works by Palestinian artists. The museums declined to answer or did not respond.
In recent years, two Jewish museums have been embroiled in controversy over issues relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago staged an exhibit in 2008 on Israeli and Palestinian concepts of homeland that included maps and portraits of Palestinians. Following outcry from members of the local Jewish community who felt the exhibit presented Israel in a negative light, the museum decided to close the exhibit after only a few weeks. And in 2019, the director of the Jewish Museum Berlin resigned after the museum tweeted a link to a pro-BDS article in a German newspaper. (The museum previously came under fire for welcoming anti-Zionist scholar Judith Butler and representatives of Iran.)
In a joint interview with J., two CJM staffers who worked on “Tikkun” — co-curator Qianjin Montoya, who is not Jewish, and a Jewish senior curator who served in an advisory role, Heidi Rabben — shared the story of how Stimage’s piece came to be in the exhibit. (Montoya’s co-curator for the exhibit, Arianne Gelardin, no longer works at the museum.)
Since 2009, CJM has invited local artists from different backgrounds to create new work as part of the museum’s annual Dorothy Saxe Invitational. The idea for “Tikkun” was hatched before the pandemic put the planning process on hold. Once the CJM and Saxe — a local philanthropist and art collector — agreed on the theme, the co-curators invited artists “already engaged in healing through their relationship to community or in their practice of daily life,” Gelardin told J. last February.
The 30 artists who accepted the museum’s invitation were given only four months to conceive of and submit new works. That was likely the shortest timeline in the history of the invitational, which has been held 11 previous times, according to the museum. Each artist received a packet of materials compiled by CJM staff, with input from the Shalom Hartman Institute, a non-degree granting Jewish education center, to guide their thinking on “tikkun.”
Stimage was invited to participate because she is “very active” in the Bay Area and because “her work reflects ideas of community and connection,” Montoya said.
The curators said Stimage’s inclusion of the Palestinian flag in her submitted piece came as a surprise and prompted challenging conversations. However, they noted that they found the content of some of the other artists’ work surprising, too, and that it’s not unusual for contemporary artists to push the envelope in their work.
“I wouldn’t say we expected to receive a piece about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but we weren’t steering anyone away from that, either,” Rabben told J., adding that the submission guidelines did not place any topic off limits. “That’s a commitment from the museum to authentically represent the creative spirit of the artists that we’re working with,” she said.
Still, the curators said they engaged in a dialogue with Stimage in order to better understand each aspect of her piece and her overall intentions. Through those conversations, the curators learned that Stimage wanted to explore a moment of “rupture,” and that through her piece she hoped to communicate “that before healing or repair might happen, you have to first acknowledge that rupture,” Rabben said.
The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco is showing “Tikkun,” an exhibit of works by Jewish and non-Jewish artists on the theme of repair. (Andrew Esensten)
Coerver, who was involved in some of the conversations, stressed that “careful consideration” was given to including the piece in the exhibit. “We felt an artwork addressing the plight of the Palestinians was appropriate in an exhibition on healing and repair,” he said. (No work submitted as part of the Dorothy Saxe Invitational has ever been outright rejected, the museum said.)
Stimage did not respond to interview requests from J. According to a CV on her website, she was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and earned an MFA from California College of the Arts in 2016. She is a past fellow at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and was an artist-in-residence at Facebook in 2018. She also owns a floral gift shop in Oakland called Saint Flora.
Her work often touches on Black identity; she created a piece honoring Sandra Bland, an African-American woman whose 2015 arrest and death in a Texas jail cell sparked protests, and contributed to a 2019 San Francisco Art Institute exhibit on the Black Panther Party.
“I have a responsibility to create things that will, to the best of my present knowledge, do more good than harm, heal, inspire and uplift other humans,” she told the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper in 2015.
Stimage’s precise views on Israel are unknown. CJM referred J. to her artist statement for “No one is listening to us,” which reads: “Olive, sage, and sumac are flowering plants native to the Mediterranean (including regions of Gaza and the West Bank) that have a direct relationship to contested ancestral land and affect the livelihood of so many Palestinian farmers and families caught in the conflict. They are positioned in the space of The Contemporary Jewish Museum as a metaphor for the ongoing conflict over land rights and the desperate need for restoration and healing of an age-old wound.”
The curators told J. that during their conversations with Stimage about her piece, they asked her why including images of the Palestinian flag was important to her but did not request that she remove them.
“We determined that none of [the piece’s] components in and of themselves signified something problematic or concerning,” Rabben said. “Of course, we had the awareness that the symbol [of the flag] will be read in a variety of ways by a variety of people.”
(Rabben pointed out that the exhibit includes other works with national symbols rendered in provocative ways, such as a black-and-white photograph of an American flag that was torn apart and partially reassembled by Mexican-American artist Jose Arias.)
The Palestinian flag — which contains the Pan-Arab colors of black, white, green and red — was adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964. Since then, it has been the primary symbol of Palestinian nationalism.
For decades, the PLO was considered an enemy organization by Israel, and anything associated with it “had no place in Israeli public life,” said Eran Kaplan, an Israeli-born professor of Israel studies at San Francisco State University. Israel never went so far as to ban the flag. However, during the First Intifada, which lasted from 1987 to 1993, Israeli soldiers sometimes followed orders to confiscate the flag from protesters in the West Bank and Gaza.
With the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993, Israel and the PLO recognized each other as negotiating partners. Yet the Palestinian flag remains a contentious symbol in Israel today. Kaplan noted that it recently served as a flashpoint during the funeral procession of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian American broadcaster who was killed in the West Bank in May. (The IDF conducted a review and admitted that the Israeli soldier who shot her had most likely misidentified her as an armed militant.) After warning Abu Akleh’s family not to display the flag, Israeli police attacked mourners in East Jerusalem, ripping flags out of their hands and off of the vehicle carrying her casket.
Today, the flag holds different meanings for Israelis and American Jews from different generations and political persuasions.
“There are large segments in Israeli society who view any form of Palestinian national identity as a threat to the existence of Israel,” Kaplan said. “There are others who view the PLO as legitimate partners in any form of negotiations [over the creation of a Palestinian state], but there’s an absolute split over those questions.”
Given the sensitive nature of Stimage’s work and others in the exhibit, the curators decided to solicit feedback from visitors via comment cards available at the entrance to the hall. Rabben said the museum has received a number of comments specifically about “No one is listening to us,” most of which were positive. “The majority of those comments were ‘Thank you for offering space for this topic at the museum,’” she said.
Last month, a security guard sitting in the “Tikkun” exhibition hall told a reporter that he had not witnessed any expressions of outrage or protest through the first nine months of the exhibit. “When we opened we were afraid of negative reactions, but they’re not stressed about it,” he said of visitors. “We have shown worse things here.” The guard, who has worked at the museum since it opened in 2008, mentioned a 2010 exhibit, “Our Struggle: Responding to Mein Kampf,” which included a copy of Hitler’s autobiography. “Some people were cussing us out” for displaying the book, he recalled.
Meanwhile, on the same floor as “Tikkun,” there is another, smaller exhibit containing potentially offensive art. A sign outside of the room warns visitors that inside is a Hitler marionette created by the parents of puppeteer Frank Oz. “Our intention in displaying this object is to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive through the objects and firsthand stories of those who experienced its persecution, and to encourage conversation and education about the ongoing horrors of antisemitism and authoritarianism today,” the sign says.
Coerver, CJM’s executive director, said he was proud that the museum’s three current exhibits — “Tikkun,” “Oz is for Oznowicz: A Puppet Family’s History” and “Gillian Laub: Family Matters,” which includes photographs that Laub took of her Trump-supporting relatives — are raising “challenging questions” and providing opportunities for both visitors and museum staff to “expand our horizons.”
“We’ve been wading into some issues that I think are a little thicker than maybe we’ve been confronting in the past,” he said, “and I hope that continues.”
A version of this piece originally ran in J. The Jewish News of Northern California, and is reprinted with permission.
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Attack on Michigan Synagogue Was Hezbollah-Inspired ‘Act of Terrorism,’ FBI Says
FBI agents work on the site after the Michigan State Police reported an active shooting incident at the Temple Israel Synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, US, March 12, 2026. Photo: Rebecca Cook via Reuters Connect
The FBI said on Monday that an attack on the largest Jewish temple in Michigan earlier this month was an “act of terrorism” inspired by Hezbollah.
Ayman Ghazali, a 41-year-old man who was born in Lebanon and became a US citizen in 2016, killed himself during the March 12 attack, when he crashed his truck into the Temple of Israel synagogue before opening fire on security guards and causing an explosion using fireworks, said Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Detroit field office.
No one else died during the attack on the synagogue where children were attending preschool.
Ghazali consumed pro-Hezbollah ideology prior to the attack, said Runyan, but the FBI has not been able to verify if he was a member of Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group. There is no evidence that he had co-conspirators, Runyan said.
Hezbollah, a radical Islamist organization, was founded by Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 1982. Both Hezbollah and the IRGC are designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the US. The US and Israel launched a war against Iran on Feb. 28.
“Had this man lived, I am convinced that my office would prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed the federal crime of providing material support to Hezbollah,” said Jerome Borgen, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Runyan said the day before the synagogue attack Ghazali started sharing photos on social media of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes last month. Then, on the day of the attack, while sitting in the parking lot of the Temple of Israel, Ghazali told his sister in a message that he planned “to commit a mass terrorist attack.”
Antisemitic incidents have spiked in recent years in the US, with anti-Jewish incidents accounting for nearly two-thirds of 5,300-plus religiously motivated hate crimes since February 2024, according to FBI data.
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US Lawmaker Calls for ‘Full Recognition of Somaliland’ Following Israel
US Rep. John Rose (R-TN) presents a flag to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, Sept. 5, 2025. Photo: Francis Chung/Pool/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
A US lawmaker from Tennessee now running for governor hopes that legislation he filed this month can lead to the United States following Israel in recognizing Somaliland, which has sought global support in breaking away from Somalia in the Horn of Africa for more than 30 years, as an independent and sovereign state.
In an exclusive interview with The Algemeiner, Rep. John Rose, a Republican who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, said that following outreach from Somaliland representatives, he and his team “started digging in deeper and ultimately decided that the cause of Somaliland was meritorious.”
“We think it’s in the best interest of the United States to develop a stronger relationship and to provide a path forward for what I would ultimately hope might be a full recognition of Somaliland as an independent nation,” he added.
Israel in December became the first country to officially recognize the Republic of Somaliland.
Noting the Jewish state’s decision, Rose said that he had “looked on with interest as both Israel and Taiwan have recognized Somaliland, and we think that it makes good sense because of the geopolitics and the demonstrated history of Somaliland in terms of its democratic institutions and its attempt to join the community of nations.”
Unlike most states in its region, Somaliland has relative security, regular elections, and a degree of political stability.
Filed on March 19, the Somaliland Economic Access and Opportunity Act would require the Treasury Department to submit a detailed report to the House Financial Services Committee and to the Senate Banking Committee outlining the challenges Somaliland faces in accessing the financial system. Co-sponsors of the bill include Republican Reps. Andrew Ogles (TN), Pat Harrigan (NC) and Addison McDowell (NC).
“So, what is the lay of the landscape? We want them to tell us that,” Rose explained to The Algemeiner. “And how would Somaliland — [with] its lack of broad international recognition — how does that affect its financial access? What is Somaliland’s current compliance with international banking norms, things like customer and anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing standards, other regulatory expectations of where are they and where do they need to get to be?”
Identifying numerous questions his bill would address, Rose asked, “What steps could we take as a government to facilitate responsible financial access? And how can we use our voice as a nation and our vote on international financial institutions to facilitate success for Somaliland? What steps would it take to incorporate Somaliland into the SWIFT [Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication] financial messaging and payment system which would really up their game in terms of what they could hope to accomplish?”
Founded in 1973, the SWIFT system connects more than 11,000 financial institutions around the globe, enabling quick transfers of funds.
Israel’s special envoy for water issues, Ambassador Rony Yedidia Clein, center, stands with Somaliland’s director-general at the Ministry of Water Development, Aden Abdela Abdule, second from the right, and other officials at a waste treatment facility in Israel, Feb. 25, 2025. Photo: Screenshot
Rose discussed Somaliland’s geopolitical importance and counter-terrorism role, calling the region “one of the most dangerous areas and along one of the most important sea lanes in the world.” He described partnering with Somaliland as “an opportunity to provide a way to respond to and answer what Beijing is doing in the Horn of Africa.”
Somaliland, which has claimed independence for decades in East Africa but remains largely unrecognized, is situated on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the south and west, and Somalia to the south and east. It has sought to break off from Somalia since 1991 and utilized its own passports, currency, military, and law enforcement.
China has set up its only overseas military base in Djibouti, opening in August 2017 and capable of housing 10,000 troops. Through its Belt and Road Initiative, China has also invested in Djibouti’s Doraleh Multi-Purpose Port, which the China State Engineering Corporation financed and built, propelling an average growth of 6-7 percent in the nation’s GDP. China acts as Djibouti’s banker, holding 70 percent of the African country’s $1.4 billion in external debt.
In December, China announced its opposition to Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian asserting that “no country should encourage or support other countries’ internal separatist forces for its own selfish interests.”
However, Rose noted that Somaliland is a “functioning democracy” that has the potential to be a partner of the US.
“I think it’s also an important element that this is a relatively well-functioning democracy, and we think the United States should encourage that,” he said, “We’re not proposing that we get ahead of ourselves; we just think that we should acknowledge the efforts the Somalilanders have made and try to facilitate their ascension into the community of nations.”
For those skeptical of the US potentially supporting the breaking up an African country, Rose urged people to look closer.
“You have to understand the deep history” and grasp how Somaliland “came to be part of Somalia and how the hope and promise for a united Somalia was very quickly cut short,” the lawmaker said.
“Italian Somalia took over and reneged essentially on the promise of a peaceful Somalia, and so I think if you understand that and then realize that for 35 years Somaliland has been trying to assert its independence and has essentially maintained geographic integrity over that period of time. And I think this is a lot less controversial,” Rose added.
To explain to his constituents why they should be concerned about Somaliland, Rose pointed to how “so much of the world’s commerce passes through the Gulf of Aden and you want that to be peaceful. Obviously, it is a treacherous place in terms of piracy.”
Identifying the foreign threats in the region, Rose added, “When you consider the geopolitics as it relates to China and nearby Yemen, then you know that, we need — and it is in the interest of the United States — to develop peaceful relationships with the countries that are demonstrating the right path forward in terms of embracing democracy and freedom and peace.”
On Saturday, the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, a US-designated terrorist group, joined the war with Iran and launched a missile attack against Israel. Senior Houthi official Mohammed Mansour also threatened to shut down maritime traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a 70-mile-long chokepoint connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. In 2023, analysts estimated that 12 percent of the seaborne oil trade and 8 percent of the liquefied natural gas trade flowed through the corridor between Yemen and Djibouti.
The Strait of Hormuz “is the bigger oil shock point, but Bab el-Mandeb is the broader trade shock point,” said Nayeem Noor, vice president for business development at GMS, one of the world’s largest buyers of ships. “As the southern gateway to the Red Sea and Suez corridor, any serious threat there affects not only tankers but also container services, breakbulk, dry cargo movements, vessel availability, insurance, war risk premiums, and overall voyage economics on the Asia-Europe route.”
Somaliland also has significant mineral resources, and officials have said they are willing to offer the US a strategic military base at the entrance to the Red Sea and critical minerals as part of a deal that would include formal recognition.
Rose saw larger implications for his bill and the US’s engagement with Somaliland, saying it could provide “a blueprint, or a roadmap for how other nations that want to be peace loving and want to develop their economies, about how that could happen.”
“I think seeing Somaliland succeed is really what motivates me and knowing their earnestness for doing so and the struggle that they’ve had,” he added.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar meets with Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi on Jan. 6, 2026. Photo: Screenshot
The Abraham Accords, a series of Arab-Israeli normalization agreements started in 2020, loomed over the Israel-Somaliland diplomacy, as the move represented further progress in reconciliation between the Jewish and Muslim worlds.
“I think this does fit that mold,” Rose said. “And I think is another example of how countries that want to embrace peace and want to cultivate meaningful relationships and particularly economic relationships, I think it makes great sense. So, I do see this as fitting in a piece that fits into that larger puzzle.”
Regarding how domestic politics could shape Somaliland recognition, Rose expressed optimism about the potential for a bipartisan attitude among his colleagues in the House.
“Well, I think it’s a little early to tell, but I think there should be bipartisanship on this,” Rose told The Algemeiner. “I don’t think there’s any real political angle here that ought to cause either side to wince at this or be concerned about it or use it as a dividing line. I think it makes good sense for the United States, and I think it should make good sense on a bipartisan basis.”
Rose added, “There’s just a whole array of reasons that this makes good sense for the country, and I think it’s something we can do without compromising American interest.”
Discussing a personal connection to the region, Rose described meeting African students during his college years studying in West Lafayette, Indiana.
“I got a master’s degree in agricultural economics at Purdue University in the late ’80s, and a number of good friends were from that area of Africa — from Somalia, Ethiopia, the Sudan,” Rose said. “There was a lot of outreach from Purdue and other similar programs to try to assist. And so, I had a number of fellow students that I got to know and had good relationships with and worked with extensively from that region of the world.”
Rose said he came to understand and know about “some of the challenges that they face. So, I think there is a real opportunity to lift Somaliland in that regard and create a success story there for their independence and ability to feed themselves, all those things that that area and region of the world need to continue to advance.”
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Israel Targets Hezbollah Fighters Disguised as Paramedics as Terror Group Continues to Exploit Civilian Sites
Israeli soldiers walk next to military vehicles on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, amid escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, and amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in northern Israel, March 16, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
Israel on Sunday night intercepted a Hezbollah operation in southern Lebanon, targeting a terrorist cell disguised as paramedics who tried to transport weapons in an ambulance toward Israeli forces.
The Israeli strike further exposed the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group’s use of civilians and even medical vehicles as cover for attacks.
According to Israeli intelligence, Hezbollah has fired thousands of drones and rockets toward the Jewish state since joining the war in support of Iran earlier this month, brazenly using ambulances and medical facilities as cover and embedding their weapons and operation hubs in various civilian sites.
“This incident is another example of Hezbollah’s cynical and systematic use of medical infrastructure for military purposes,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
Last week, Israel discovered a tunnel used by Hezbollah in a church in southern Lebanon, where the terrorist group has spent years building infrastructure to attack the Jewish state.
Hezbollah tunnel at a church in southern Lebanon https://t.co/5mTGP7uSvz
— Matthew Levitt (@Levitt_Matt) March 27, 2026
Under international law, deliberately using medical teams and ambulances to conceal military activity constitutes a serious violation, as battlefield protections for medical personnel apply only when they act strictly within their humanitarian role.
As the conflict in Lebanon continues to escalate, Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that once ambulances and medical teams become part of Hezbollah’s weapons transport network, they lose their protected status and become legitimate military targets.
On Monday, the IDF destroyed more than 100 high-rise towers in southern Lebanon serving as Hezbollah’s command, control, and attack-planning centers against Israeli citizens – in what officials described as the terrorist group’s “cynical exploitation of Lebanese citizens,” embedding military infrastructure amid civilian areas.
PHOTOS: Israeli soldiers discover Hezbollah weapons cache—including RPGs, mortars, hand grenades, launchers, land mines, explosive bricks, and rifles—in southern Lebanon school. (IDF) pic.twitter.com/2HIpFtPLTQ
— Avi Mayer אבי מאיר (@AviMayer) March 27, 2026
With a ground maneuver underway to expand a defensive zone in southern Lebanon, the IDF says it has eliminated over 850 Hezbollah terrorists so far, while continuing to dismantle the group’s command and weapons infrastructure.
Last week, Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, after identifying Hezbollah operatives launching heavy rocket fire from residential neighborhoods, issuing the order ahead of airstrikes to safeguard civilians from the escalating attacks.
“Hezbollah, which has dragged you into this war in service of Iran’s agenda, is deliberately operating within your neighborhoods, putting your safety at grave risk and bringing destruction to your homes and communities,” the military’s Arabic spokesperson, Col. (res.) Avichay Adraee wrote in a post on X, appealing to Lebanese citizens.
For years, Hezbollah has embedded command posts, weapons depots, snipers, and troops within Shiite villages, situating them in the heart of civilian centers near schools, hospitals, mosques, and main roads to turn entire communities into battlefields.
“We found them hiding weapons in a children’s school. We found them building a tunnel in the complex of a church in al-Kiam,” IDF International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said during a briefing to journalists.
In recent weeks, Israel has intensified strikes targeting Hezbollah, particularly south of the Litani River, where the group’s operatives have historically been most active against the Jewish state.
Israel has long demanded that Hezbollah be barred from carrying out activities south of the Litani, located roughly 15 miles from the Israeli border.
The IDF is now moving into Lebanon to establish what officials described as a “forward defensive line,” targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and destroying buildings that were being used as operational “terrorist outposts.”
As reports surfaced of potential ceasefire talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials, Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem warned Wednesday that negotiating under fire amounts to imposed surrender, adding that his fighters are prepared to continue operations “without limits.”
In just the first month of the conflict, Israeli officials report that Hezbollah has carried out more than 900 coordinated attacks, marking a sharp increase in cross-border activity and a broader expansion of its operations across the region.
So far, Israel has demolished five bridges in the Litani River area and taken effective control of three others, aiming to dominate the area from the air and prevent residents from returning south of the river until the threat of Hezbollah is removed.