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Hezbollah Massacred Syrians; They Are Glad for Israel’s Help
An Iranian flag hangs as smoke rises after what the Iranian media said was an Israeli strike on a building close to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, April 1, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Firas Makdesi
Israel’s assassination of the senior leaders of the Hezbollah terror group, including its chief, Hassan Nasrallah, was mourned by many Shiite Muslims and celebrated by even larger numbers of Sunni Arabs.
But for one group of people in the small mountain town of Madaya, Syria, the elimination of Hezbollah’s senior leadership was especially important.
Madaya is located about 40km north-west of Syria’s capital, Damascus, and about 52km from the Lebanon border. During the Syrian civil war, the town was the site of one of Hezbollah’s cruelest and most vicious attacks.
Between July 2015 and April 2017, Madaya was besieged by Hezbollah. Hezbollah sent thousands of its fighters from Lebanon to support Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in his battle to defeat anti-regime forces opposed to his authoritarian regime.
This campaign to was characterized by widespread violence, including massacres, and inhuman acts of cruelty against civilians.
By October 2016, one million Syrians were actively under siege according to news reports, while some 4.5 million were in need of humanitarian aid.
Hezbollah planted some 12,000 landmines around Madaya, and created 65 checkpoints manned by snipers to stop food, fuel, and medicine being delivered to the town, and prevent residents from leaving.
According to survivor testimony, Hezbollah killed children, raped women, and buried people alive.
An International Committee of the Red Cross worker described the townspeople as experiencing a “colossal level of suffering.”
Over the course of the 22 months of the siege, Madaya dissolved into a genuine hellscape for its inhabitants and those sheltering there, more than 20,000 at the time, as Madaya took in people from nearby villages who were attempting to escape the terrorist group.
Disease and infection including typhoid and meningitis broke out, but the town’s two doctors had nothing but the most basic supplies at just one field hospital.
There was also a lack of access to clean water, electricity, and basic goods. At the time, Doctors Without Borders Director of Operations Brice de le Vingne said, “There is no way in or out, leaving the people to die,” he said.
There were reports of starving residents resorting to eating grass to stay alive, and desperate residents walking through the 12,000-strong minefield in search of food, many losing limbs or their lives in the process.
Starving residents were described as “walking skeletons.”
And so, following news of attacks against thousands of Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and Syria via explosives hidden in their pagers and walkie talkies on Sept. 17 and 18, widely attributed to Israel, scores of Syrians openly celebrated the demise of those who had tortured and murdered their family, friends, and neighbors.
Many Syrians also took to social media to express their satisfaction over the death of senior Hezbollah commander Hussein Ali Ghandour in a highly sophisticated Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern Dahiyeh district on Sept. 20. Syrian activist Ashakaki tweeted: “No one should ask the residents of Madaya why they are rejoicing today. When one of the murderers is gone, the world becomes better.”
Syrians also openly celebrated the death of long-time Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah one week later, on Sept. 27, with fireworks. Ahmed al-Ali, who lost multiple friends to Hezbollah terrorists, described it as the “the most beautiful day of my life.”
Yasmine Muhammad said upon hearing of Nasrallah’s death, “I consider this revenge for the thousands of Syrians who were killed by Hezbollah, the main support of Bashar al-Assad. Hezbollah committed the most heinous massacres against Syrians, and it also participated in the starvation and displacement of thousands of Syrians.”
The starvation and displacement that Muhammad spoke of was a hallmark of Hezbollah’s siege warfare across Syria.
Today, while it has reduced in intensity, Syria’s ongoing civil war — now in its 14th year — is still not over. Tens of thousands of Iranian-backed Shi’ite terror operatives, including Hezbollah, remain entrenched in Syria, forming part of Iran’s “Ring of Fire” around Israel that includes Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), Iran, Iraq, and Syria.
But as the reactions of many Syrians to Israel’s strikes against Hezbollah demonstrate, it is not just Israelis who have suffered as a result of Iran’s strategy of aggression and expansionism.
And many Syrians, Lebanese, and others, whether or not they are able to say so publicly, will be rooting for Israel to finish the job of demolishing Hezbollah, a central part of Iran’s “Ring of Fire.”
Alana Schetzer is a Policy Analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).
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Trump, Harris Tied 47%-47% in Final CNN Poll
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump points towards Democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris, during a presidential debate hosted by ABC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, Sept. 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris are tied at 47% each among likely voters, according to CNN’s last nationwide poll before the Nov. 5 election.
The poll, conducted by telephone Oct. 20-23 among 1,704 registered voters and released on Friday, had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points among likely voters and plus or minus 3.2 percentage points among the full sample of registered voters.
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2 Dead, Several Seriously Wounded After Hezbollah Rocket Hits Arab Israeli Town
The attack’s victims. Photo: i24 News
i24 News – Two Arab Israelis were killed by rocket shrapnel following a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah on the Galilee town of Majd al-Krum.
The victims were named as Hassan Suad, 21, and Arjwan Manaa, 35.
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Israel and Hezbollah Trade Fire Across Lebanon Border, Blinken Calls for Urgent Resolution
A view shows damage at a site hit by an Israeli strike that killed a few journalists and wounded several others as they slept in guesthouses used by media, Lebanon’s health ministry and local media reported, in Hasbaya in southern Lebanon, October 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
An Israeli strike killed three journalists in southern Lebanon on Friday, Lebanese officials said, while Israel said Hezbollah killed two people in a strike in its north as Washington pressed for a ceasefire.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was an urgent need to get a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, a day after he said Washington did not want to see a protracted campaign in Lebanon by its ally Israel.
Israel launched its major offensive in Lebanon a month ago, saying it was targeting the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah group to secure the return home of tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated from the north due to cross-border rocket attacks.
Beirut authorities say Israel’s Lebanon offensive has killed more than 2,500 people and displaced more than 1.2 million, sparking a humanitarian crisis.
Friday’s strike killed two people in Majd al-Krum in northern Israel, according to Israeli media, and followed a statement from Hezbollah saying that it targeted the northern Israeli town of Karmiel with a large missile salvo.
“The world must stop Iran now – before it’s too late,” Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said on X.
The conflict was sparked by the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel which triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza, where Palestinian officials said Israeli strikes had killed at least 72 people since Thursday night.
The journalists killed in south Lebanon were Ghassan Najjar and Mohamed Reda of the pro-Iranian news outlet Al-Mayadeen and Wissam Qassem, who worked for Hezbollah’s Al-Manar, the outlets said in separate statements. Several others were wounded.
They had been staying at guesthouses in Hasbaya, a town not previously targeted, when it was hit around 3 a.m. (midnight GMT).
Five journalists have been killed in previous Israeli strikes while reporting on the conflict, including Reuters visual journalist Issam Abdallah on Oct. 13, 2023.
“This is a war crime,” Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary said. At least 18 journalists from six media outlets, including Sky News and Al-Jazeera were using the guesthouses.
“We heard the airplane flying very low – that’s what woke us up – and then we heard the two missiles,” Muhammad Farhat, a reporter with Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, said.
His footage showed overturned and damaged cars, some marked “Press.” There was no immediate comment from Israel, which in general denies deliberately attacking journalists.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said Israeli forces had fired at their troops in an observation post in southern Dhayra on Tuesday, leading them to leave the post though they remained at the base.
Israel has denied deliberately targeting the force but says Hezbollah has built strongholds in close proximity to UNIFIL sites. Its previous strikes on UNIFIL posts have drawn international condemnation.
BORDER CROSSING STRUCK
Israel has used airstrikes to pound southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs, and has also sent ground forces into southern Lebanon against Hezbollah.
The military said it struck weapon production sites and Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut as well as Hezbollah targets around the Jousieh border crossing in the northern Bekaa Valley.
It said Hezbollah used the crossing, controlled by the Syrian military, to transfer weapons into Lebanon.
Lebanon’s transport minister Ali Hamieh said the Israeli strike had knocked the Jousieh crossing out of service, leaving the northern route as the only way to Syria.
The UN refugee agency said the strikes were hindering refugees’ attempts to flee. UNHCR spokesperson Rula Amin said some 430,000 people have crossed to Syria since Israel’s campaign started. Lebanon has previously been a major destination for refugees from the Syrian civil war.
“The attacks on the border crossings are a major concern,” Amin said. “They are blocking the path to safety for people fleeing conflict.”
‘REAL URGENCY’
The Israeli campaign spiraled out of a year of cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah, which opened fire on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas, a day after it launched the Oct. 7 attack.
“We have a sense of real urgency in getting to a diplomatic resolution and the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, such that there can be real security along border between Israel and Lebanon,” Blinken said in London.
He said it was important so “people at both sides of the border can have the confidence to… return to their homes”.
Hezbollah has kept fighting despite heavy blows, including the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah. Israel said five of its soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon, after announcing on Thursday the deaths of five others.
The Israeli military said it had uncovered an underground command center in a village close to the border with Israel and a site concealed in wooded terrain where Kornet anti-tank missiles, launchers, hand grenades and rifles were stored.
Washington has expressed hope that the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks, could provide an impetus for an end to fighting.
Officials said on Thursday that US and Israeli negotiators will gather in Doha in the coming days to try and restart talks toward a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who met Blinken in London, said “ethnic cleansing” was taking place in northern Gaza. Israel denies such accusations, saying it is separating civilians from Hamas terrorists and moving them to safer areas.
Safadi said: “We are at the moment now where nothing justifies the continuation of the wars. Guns have to go silent.”
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