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Hezbollah Launched 25 Attacks From Near UNIFIL Posts Over Past Month
JNS.org — Over the past month, the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has fired 25 rockets and missiles at Israeli communities and forces from terrorist compounds embedded near United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) posts in southern Lebanon, the IDF said on Sunday night.
One of the attacks killed two Israeli soldiers.
The IDF accused the Iranian-backed terror army of “exploiting their proximity to UN forces.”
During a targeted ground raid in southern Lebanon, troops from the 146th Division located hundreds of weapons, including firearms, grenades and rocket launchers aimed at Israeli territory. These weapons were stored in compounds located from a few dozen meters up to a few hundred meters from UNIFIL posts situated near the Blue Line border.
“UNIFIL in southern Lebanon was deployed to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and prevent the presence of armed Hezbollah operatives south of the Litani River. However, both the State of Lebanon and the international community have failed to implement Resolution 1701, despite repeated requests to do so,” the IDF said.
“For years, Hezbollah has embedded itself in southern Lebanon in grave violation of UN Security Council resolutions. The organization has stockpiled large quantities of weapons aimed at Israeli civilians over the years and has deliberately built up its attack infrastructure near UNIFIL posts,” the military continued.
The IDF emphasized that its raids target only Hezbollah and not UNIFIL posts, forces or infrastructure, noting that on Sept. 30, before the start of ground operations in Lebanon, IDF representatives requested that UNIFIL move its personnel away from posts located within five kilometers of the Blue Line because this area would become an active combat zone.
However, the United Nations has refused to move its forces to safer areas, despite a plea from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.
“I want to directly address the UN secretary-general from here: It is time for you to remove UNIFIL from Hezbollah’s strongholds and from the combat areas,” the premier said in a statement.
“The IDF has repeatedly requested this, only to be met with refusal, a refusal aimed solely at providing Hezbollah terrorists with a human shield. Your refusal to evacuate UNIFIL soldiers turns them into hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers,” he continued.
“We regret the harm caused to UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing everything we can to prevent it. But the simplest and most obvious way to ensure their safety is to simply remove them from the danger zone. Mr. Secretary-General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm’s way. It should be done right now, immediately,” Netanyahu said.
“Unfortunately, some European leaders are applying pressure in the wrong place. Instead of criticizing Israel, they should direct their criticism at Hezbollah, which uses UNIFIL as a human shield, just as Hamas in Gaza uses UNRWA as a human shield. Unfortunately, in Gaza, UNRWA even collaborates with Hamas,” he added.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was defiant on Sunday, saying that any attacks on peacekeepers “may constitute a war crime.”
“UNIFIL peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
For its part, the Israeli army said that “the IDF maintains continuous communication with UNIFIL to avoid, as much as possible, any harm to UNIFIL personnel in the area and will continue to do so, despite the complexities of the UNIFIL’s presence inside the combat zone.”
Gallant: Hezbollah will not be allowed to return to border
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday that Hezbollah will not be allowed to return to the Lebanese border area.
“The first line of villages contains Hezbollah military targets, where thousands of weapons and missiles are stored, and where there are hundreds of tunnels. These [military targets] will be destroyed, and even once IDF troops withdraw, we will not allow Hezbollah terrorists to return to these areas,” Gallant said during a visit to an observation post overlooking southern Lebanon.
Israeli soldiers entered southern Lebanon at the end of September, weeks after the Security Cabinet added the safe return of tens of thousands of internally displaced residents to their homes in the north to Israel’s official war goals.
Gallant conducted a tour and operational briefing with the commander of the IDF’s 91st Division and received an overview of the division’s activities, “with an emphasis on the progress made in ground operations aimed at locating and eliminating Hezbollah’s attack infrastructure in southern Lebanon,” according to his office.
“At this observation post we can see the entire first line of villages with Hezbollah infrastructure. These are military targets containing underground tunnels and weapon storages — our troops found hundreds of RPGs, munition and anti-tank missiles here. The IDF is currently destroying these means above and under the ground,” Gallant said.
“I have instructed the IDF at all levels to ensure the destruction of [attack infrastructure] and to ensure that terrorists may not return to these places. This is essential in order to ensure the safety of Israel’s northern communities.”
“The IDF’s actions are powerful and effective — we are operating in the entire area. We have destroyed [attack] infrastructure in Beirut, in the Bekaa [Valley] and across Lebanon, and now we are operating along the border. We will continue until operational requirements are achieved.”
Over 100 terrorists killed
The IDF said on Sunday night forces from its 146th Division have killed over 100 terrorists to date in targeted raids and ground operations in southern Lebanon.
Additionally, the division’s forces have located and destroyed dozens of tunnel shafts, terrorist infrastructure and over 50 rocket launchers and over 60 Hezbollah command posts.
Also, forces from the 205th Brigade uncovered terror infrastructure located in a tunnel around half a kilometer from the Israeli border. The tunnel contained equipment used by terrorists for prolonged stays, including electrical infrastructure, ventilation ducts and two rooms used for storing weapons and ammunition.
The tunnel itself was discovered several months ago and has now been destroyed.
Reports Beirut attacks halted ‘entirely false’
An Israeli official on Sunday night denied Hebrew media reports that Israel’’ political echelon had directed the IDF to pause airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Beirut in the past three days.
The reports are “entirely false,” the source told the Times of Israel, adding that “Israel maintains freedom of action all across Lebanon, depending on the location of the targets.”
Ynet had reported that US President Joe Biden asked Netanyahu to curb strikes in the Lebanese capital when the two spoke last week.
Hezbollah airs audio recording of Nasrallah
Hezbollah on Sunday aired an audio recording of Hassan Nasrallah, just over two weeks after an Israeli strike killed the leader of the terror group in the Dahiyah district south of Beirut.
“We count on you … to defend your people, your families, your nation, your values and your dignity, and to defend this holy and blessed land and this honorable people,” Nasrallah is heard saying in the recording.
Hezbollah said that the recording was made as he addressed the Iran-backed terror group’s fighters during a military maneuver.
Israeli strike kills Radwan missile unit commander
The IDF announced on Monday afternoon that the commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force’’ anti-tank missile unit was killed in an airstrike in the area of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon.
According to the Israeli military, Muhammad Kamel Naeem was responsible for planning and carrying out many terrorist attacks, including anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli civilians.
The post Hezbollah Launched 25 Attacks From Near UNIFIL Posts Over Past Month first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove salutes the Jewish-Canadian woman who made the first Remembrance Day poppies
The poppies that we wear at this time of year are our visual pledge to remember the brave Canadian soldiers who served and sacrificed to preserve and defend our democracy. […]
The post Treasure Trove salutes the Jewish-Canadian woman who made the first Remembrance Day poppies appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Hasidic Man Attacked in Third Antisemitic Assault in Brooklyn in Eight Days
An antisemitic hate crime spree in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York struck its latest victim on Wednesday, wreaking an “excruciating” beating on a middle-aged Hasidic man.
According to Yaacov Behrman, a liaison for Chabad Headquarters — the main New York base of the Hasidic movement — the victim was accosted by two assailants, one masked, who “chased and beat him” after he refused to surrender his cell phone in compliance with what appears to have been an attempted robbery.
“The victim is in excruciating pain and is currently in the emergency room,” Behrman tweeted. “The police are investigating the incident.”
A Chasidic man was beaten in Crown Heights tonight near Utica and President at approximately 7:30pm. The assailants, one was wearing a mask, demanded the victim’s phone, but when he refused, they chased him and beat him. The victim is in excruciating pain and is currently in the… pic.twitter.com/s4mn1K6HtV
— Yaacov Behrman (@ChabadLubavitch) November 7, 2024
The perpetrators were two Black teenagers, according to COLlive.com, an Orthodox Jewish news outlet.
Tuesday’s attack was the third time in eight days that an Orthodox resident of Crown Heights was targeted for violence and humiliation. In each case, the assailant was allegedly a Black male, a pattern of conduct which continues to strain Black-Jewish relations across the Five Boroughs.
On Monday morning, an African American male smacked a 13-year-old Jewish boy who was commuting to school on his bike in the heavily Jewish Crown Heights neighborhood
Less than a week earlier, an assailant slashed a visibly Jewish man in the face as he was walking in Brooklyn.
Numerous antisemitic hate crimes have occurred in Crown Heights in recent years. In July 2023, for example, a 22-year-old Israeli Yeshiva student, who was identifiably Orthodox and visiting New York City for the summer holiday, was stabbed with a screwdriver by one of two men who attacked him after asking whether he was Jewish and had any money. The other punched him in the face. Earlier that year, 10- and 12-year-olds were attacked on Albany Avenue by four African American teens.
According to a report issued in August by New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, antisemitic incidents accounted for a striking 65 percent of all felony hate crimes in New York City last year. The report added that throughout the state, nearly 44 percent of all recorded hate crime incidents and 88 percent of religious-based hate crimes targeted Jewish victims.
Meanwhile, according to a recent Algemeiner review of New York City Police Department (NYPD) hate crimes data, 385 antisemitic hate crimes have struck the New York City Jewish community since last October, when the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas perpetrated its Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, unleashing a wave of anti-Jewish hatred unlike any seen in the post-World War II era.
Beyond New York, anti-Jewish hate crimes in the US spiked to a record high last year, and American Jews were the most targeted of any religious group in the country, according to a report published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in September.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Hasidic Man Attacked in Third Antisemitic Assault in Brooklyn in Eight Days first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Huge Victory’: Netanyahu Calls Trump to Congratulate Him on Election Win
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called US President-elect Donald Trump to congratulate him on his victory in the US presidential election earlier this week.
“Netanyahu spoke to President-elect Donald Trump and was among the first to call to congratulate him for his victory,” the Prime Minister’s office said on Wednesday. “The conversation was warm and cordial, and the two agreed to work together for Israel’s security and discussed the Iranian threat.”
During Trump’s first term, his administration had a “maximum pressure” policy with regard to Iran, aimed at making it more difficult for the country to make a nuclear weapon and fund its terror proxies — such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis — across the Middle East.
However, some observers are concerned the incoming US administration will not be as strong on the Iranian threat as it was in its first term. Late last month, US Vice President-elect JD Vance said on a podcast that the US and Israel can at times have conflicting interests and warned that Washington should seek to avoid a war with Iran, the Jewish state’s chief adversary in the Middle East.
“Israel has the right to defend itself, but America’s interest is sometimes going to be distinct — like sometimes we’re going to have overlapping interests and sometimes we’re going to have distinct interests. And our interest, I think, very much is in not going to war with Iran,” Vance said.
He then argued that a war with Iran “would be [a] huge distraction of resources; it would be massively expensive to our country.”
In addition to the phone call, Netanyahu’s office will also reportedly announce “the appointment of a new ambassador to Washington who will work with the new Trump administration” within the next 24 hours, according to Axios reporter Barack Ravid.
Netanyahu was the first world leader to congratulate Trump on his victory.
“Congratulations on history’s greatest comeback!” he wrote on X/Twitter. “Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America.”
He added, “This is a huge victory!”
During Trump’s first term, he and Netanyahu were close allies, working together to sign the Abraham Accords and move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. However, their relationship reportedly strained when Netanyahu congratulated then-US President-elect Joe Biden on his victory against Trump while Trump was still actively disputing the results of the election.
“The first person that congratulated [Biden] was Bibi Netanyahu, the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with,” Trump reportedly said at the time. “Bibi could have stayed quiet. He has made a terrible mistake.”
“I liked Bibi. I still like Bibi. But I also like loyalty,” he added. “The first person to congratulate Biden was Bibi. And not only did he congratulate him, he did it on tape.”
Heading into Trump’s second term, there have not been indications that this tension still lingers.
The post ‘Huge Victory’: Netanyahu Calls Trump to Congratulate Him on Election Win first appeared on Algemeiner.com.