On 17 September, at around 3:30 pm local time, hundreds of electronic devices suddenly started to explode across the country of Lebanon. There was a man who just blew up in front of a fruit shop. A man blew up in smoke at a supermarket. The pagers of operatives from Lebanese militia Hezbollah were suddenly exploding almost all at once.
Lebanon was in the grip of a deadly plot. The simultaneous explosions on such massive scale set off chaos across Lebanon, the healthcare system under severe strain with the hospitals overwhelmed with fatally injured people who had been blinded or maimed. The attack was carried out by the neighbouring Israel which has been locked in a long conflict with Lebanon and had plotted this deadly series of attacks.
The attack was carried out by the neighbouring Israel which has been locked in a long conflict with Lebanon and had plotted this deadly series of attacks.
Since this attack, the fight between Israel and Lebanon has intensified over the past week. The clouds of uncertainty is shadowing over the Middle-East as Israel has gone on with its rampant attack on Lebanon on September 23 which left nearly 500 people killed including the civilians and wounded 1,600 others. Lebanon witnessed its deadliest day on Monday with a record number of causalities as Israel airstrikes hit the militia Hezbollah’s sites and bombs are still raining on Lebanon.
In its retaliation, the Lebanon-based militia also fired a fresh series of rockets into northern Israel. The conflict in the middle east is on the verge of widening into an explosive regional war taking the neighbouring countries like Iran into in its grip.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his fears to News agency CNN of ‘the possibility of transforming Lebanon into another Gaza‘. The world leaders have been scrambling to calm the nerves. Israel and Hezbollah are locked in a deadly fire exchange since the Israeli invasion of Gaza escalated from 7th October. After the audacious pager attack inside Lebanon, Israel’s further strikes have alarmed the region and might cause a bloodbath.
The aerial bombardment by Israel killed at least 35 children and 58 women, according to Lebanese authorities. Since Monday, Israel’s strikes have killed at least 564 people, including 50 children, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
A significant proportion of the population in Lebanon is affected by these attacks and thousands of Lebanese people have fled their homes to reach to safer areas. Many of them received automated text messages on their devices asking them to evacuate. Lebanese authorities have directed to use college and school campuses as shelters for the displaced people. Roads were packed by cars piled with the belongings of those affected trying to save themselves from the deadly Israeli airstrike. ‘There were dead bodies strewn on the side of the road, people with their arms blown off. Even the ambulances that tried to reach them were struck,‘ an eyewitness described to CNN in Beirut. The city is giving shelter for about 10,000 refugees displaced by Israeli raids.
UNICEF has given a warning that situations in Lebanon are alarming for children.
UNICEF has given a warning that situations in Lebanon are alarming for children. Many children are missing under the rubble after Israeli air raids. Southern Lebanon is currently witnessing a flood of people fleeing it as the fear of becoming a target of Israeli airstrikes spreads.
Israeli onslaught on free Journalism continues: Al-Jazeera office raided by IDF
Amid its aggressive offensive in Gaza and Lebanon, on 22nd September, in yet another attempt to crush independent journalism, IDF raided Al Jazeera bureau in the occupied West Bank with an arbitrary order of closure within 45 days. Heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers entered the premises of Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and threatened the Doha-based news network to close its operations amid an ongoing onslaught on media freedom.
In addition to the Israeli crackdown on free voices in Palestine, covering the ground realities in a region which is extremely dangerous, Gazan journalists has seen the worst of the war as its deadly toll has taken the lives of at least 116 journalists and media workers since the war began according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. On field, journalists in Gaza have been targeted by Israeli forces with assaults, threats, and censorship.
‘Israel has long disregarded the safety of journalists, especially Palestinian journalists, and it has continuously misled or obfuscated the facts around particular killings of journalists,‘ says Clayton Weimers of Reporters Without Borders on the ground situations.
Apart from the killings, Israel has been reported to put barriers for independent journalists to enter into Gaza on the safety concerns which makes it nearly impossible to tell the truth on the ground. International news organisations have been directed to submit all materials and footage to the Israeli military for clearance.
Killings of civilians in Lebanon and Palestine: a violation of international laws
A series of lethal explosions had rocked Lebanon last week, killing at least 32 people after communication device such as pagers fatally exploded across Lebanon on 17 and 18 September. Some of these devices were used by the operatives of the armed group Hezbollah. The pagers and other devices that blasted over two days across Lebanon had fatal consequences for civilians on a large scale as the devices blew up in public spaces.
Though Hezbollah is labelled as a terrorist organisation by some western countries but its functionaries and allies operates in civilian areas across Lebanon — and many innocent bystanders, including children came under the fire of explosions resulting in death or serious limb causality.
Though Hezbollah is labelled as a terrorist organisation by some western countries but its functionaries and allies operates in civilian areas across Lebanon — and many innocent bystanders, including children came under the fire of explosions resulting in death or serious limb causality. In a tragic event, a large crowd gathered for the funerals of four victims of Tuesday’s simultaneous pager blasts, became the victim of some explosions which killed at least 12 people and injured nearly 3,000.
It has been acknowledged by various sources that Israeli hand was behind these attacks involving exploding pagers and walkie-talkies. The Israeli orchestrated attack has triggered a debate concerning the violations of international humanitarian law and applicability of war crimes among legal experts. What cost Israel’s audacious plot came at, is the question many are asking.
Experts have deemed it as illegal and violative of several international treaties and protocols which Israel has signed. For instance, the attack goes against the Article 7(2) of the Amended Protocol II of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which concerns the uses of conventional weapons and both Israel and Lebanon have signed to this international law.
It categorically says that the uses of any kind of booby traps, which Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, defines as ‘objects that civilians are likely to be attracted to or are associated with normal civilian daily use‘, are violative of international humanitarian law. In south of Gaza city, three Palestinian civilians were killed in a recent attack on a residential building on Maghrabi Street.
Conflict widens as more Palestinian blood is spilled
Since the escalation of violence by Israel after October 7th, exchange of rockets and fire between Israel and Hezbollah have occurred which has only intensified in the wake of recent events. Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based Shiite militia, which literally translates to ‘Party of God‘. It declares its aim as opposing Israel and challenging Western influence in the Middle East.
Hezbollah sees its armed exercises such as firing rockets into northern Israel, as a way of supporting and keeping alive the fight for the Palestinian cause.
The militia had its origins into the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). Israeli forces had invaded southern Lebanon in 1978 and again in 1982 to expel Palestinian guerrilla fighters. Hezbollah sees its armed exercises such as firing rockets into northern Israel, as a way of supporting and keeping alive the fight for the Palestinian cause.
Although neither Israel nor Hezbollah has declared a war so far, the risk of a wider regional war after the complete catastrophe in the Gaza strip has been haunting the international community since the invasion started. 42,000 people in Gaza have become victim of brutal invasion by the Israelis. It has been almost one year since Israel launched its offensive and the hopes for peace and security in the region seems dim and distant.
