Israel detonates Hezbollah walkie-talkies in second terror attack in two days

Axios reports:

Israel on Wednesday blew up thousands of two-way personal radios used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon in a second wave of an intelligence operation that started on Tuesday with the explosions of pager devices, two sources with knowledge of the operation told Axios. More than a dozen people were killed and hundreds of others were wounded in what is considered another serious security breach in Hezbollah’s ranks.

Lebanon’s health ministry said 14 people were killed and 450 wounded in the attacks on Wednesday.

The walkie-talkies were booby-trapped in advance by Israeli intelligence services and then delivered to Hezbollah as part of the militia’s emergency communications system.

On Tuesday, Israeli intelligence services blew up thousands of pager devices used by members of Hezbollah’s military units and institutions, killing nine people [some sources put the number as high as 12], including a child, and more than 2,800 were wounded in the attack.

On Wednesday afternoon local time during the funerals of some of the Hezbollah members killed in the first attack, the second wave took place, and included numerous explosions in Beirut and across Lebanon.

A large number of the walkie-talkies were reportedly in storage in Hezbollah warehouses.

White House spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. was not involved in Wednesday’s explosions in Lebanon.

Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad announced that at least 32 people were killed and thousands injured in the two sets of explosions.

HEZBOLLAH RESPONSE TO PAGER INCIDENT: “We are dealing with a full-fledged genocidal attack. There is a clear criminal attack on civilians. Those carrying pagers are not only military personnel. The matter must be investigated and the enemy held responsible,” said Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim al-Moussawi.

Hezbollah’s executive council announced the group will respond to the attacks with “special punishment,” while Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib condemned the “blatant assault on Lebanon’s sovereignty and security,” warning that it could “signal a wider war.”

US RESPONSE TO PAGER INCIDENT: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed the need to “avoid taking steps that could further escalate conflict” between Israel and the Hezbollah group. He said the US is still gathering information on what happened in Lebanon. “It’s important to fully understand what happened there,” Blinken added.

ISRAELI MEDIA CONNECTS US TO BOTH INCIDENTS: KAN, the official Israeli broadcasting channel, noted that there was coordination between Israel and the US concerning the explosions that rocked Lebanon: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had telephone conversations with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, one “on Tuesday, just minutes before the first wave of pager device explosions in Lebanon,” said KAN, and another “before the second wave of explosions.”

POSSIBLY 2 WAR CRIMES IN PAGER ATTACKS: Luigi Daniele, an expert in international humanitarian law, said he believes that there are “two probable war crimes” relevant to the incident: intentionally directing attacks against individual civilians not taking a direct part in the hostilities, and intentionally directing attacks in the knowledge that they will cause “clearly excessive incidental civilian harm.”

VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW: UN rights chief Volker Turk said Wednesday, “Simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, whether civilians or members of armed groups, without knowledge as to who was in possession of the targeted devices, their location and their surroundings at the time of the attack, violates international human rights law and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law.”

if Hamas, Hezbollah, or any group or person exploded electronic devices in Israel and killed children, it would be described by the entire Western media class as a horrific act of wanton evil sadistic terrorism. Israel does it and it’s seen as an epic based move to be celebrated

— ☀️👀 (@zei_squirrel) September 17, 2024

Middle East Eye reports:

A majority of the 193-member United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday voted in favour of a Palestinian resolution demanding an end to Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the occupied West Bank within a year.

The nonbinding resolution put forward by the Palestinian Authority was based on the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) back in July, which said Israel’s presence in the occupied territories was unlawful and must end.

One hundred and twenty-four countries voted in favour of the resolution at UN headquarters in New York City, while 14 countries voted against it, including Israel and the United States.

The 43 countries that abstained include US allies Australia, Canada, Germany, and Ukraine.

Their ambassadors said that while they support a two-state solution, they cannot vote in favour of a resolution that does not spell out Israel’s right to defend itself.

Canada’s ambassador to the UN Bob Rae said the resolution lacks a condemnation of terrorism and suggests that only one side, Israel, is responsible for the unlawful acts in the occupied territories.

Neither the ICJ ruling nor the resolution passed on Wednesday is legally binding but it still holds weight.

“It’s an important precedent because one of the main problems with Palestinian issues for the last 75 years is that nobody was putting actual deadlines,” former advisor to Palestinian leadership Nizar Farzakh told Middle East Eye.

“In international politics, it becomes a talking point that countries like South Africa or the global south, in general, can use, because it’s basically the UN General Assembly– the mood of the international community,” he added.

I acknowledge the great significance of today adoption by #UNGA of a Resolution demanding an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory within 1 year.

The EU reiterates its calls for a lasting & sustainable peace.https://t.co/WSXPsXGUXR

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) September 18, 2024

Middle East Eye reports: 

A Palestinian doctor abducted by Israeli forces from Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital has died in their custody, the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday.

Ziad Mohammed al-Dalou, an internal medicine physician, is the third doctor to die in Israeli jails, where widespread torture has killed at least 60 Palestinian prisoners over the past 11 months.

Dalou was detained on 18 March from al-Shifa Hospital, along with dozens of other health workers, when Israeli forces raided the facility in a two-week-long assault.

The deadly raid decimated the hospital, which had been the largest and most equipped medical facility in the Gaza Strip.

After the Israeli forces withdrew, dozens of bodies were found buried in mass graves in the hospital’s courtyards.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, Dalou was detained while performing his duties at the hospital.

The ministry said, “Targeting healthcare workers while performing their humanitarian duty is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.”

In April, it was revealed that Adnan al-Bursh, a Palestinian surgeon and professor of orthopaedic medicine, had been tortured to death while in Israeli detention.

Two months later, it was confirmed that another doctor, Iyad al-Rantisi, also died under torture by Israeli guards.

NOTE: Israeli torture of Palestinians has been widespread and well-documented since October 7th and long before – including torture of children. Torture is a war crime.

Since October 7th, Israel has “apprehended” thousands of Gazan civilians, including children, pregnant women, and the elderly and sick. In many cases they were kept for weeks, and experienced torture and humiliation.

This torture has been ongoing since at least 1968.

RECOMMENDED READING: Hostages of Israeli revenge in the Gaza Strip: Testimonies of 100 released Palestinian detainees reveal crimes of torture, cruel treatment.

The Israeli government did not tamper with the Hezbollah devices that exploded, defense and intelligence officials say. It manufactured them as part of an elaborate ruse.

By all appearances, B.A.C. Consulting was a Hungary-based company that was under contract to produce the devices on behalf of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. In fact, it was part of an Israeli front, according to three intelligence officers briefed on the operation. They said at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers.

B.A.C. did take on ordinary clients, for which it produced a range of ordinary pagers. But the only client that really mattered was Hezbollah, and its pagers were far from ordinary. Produced separately, they contained batteries laced with the explosive PETN, according to the three intelligence officers.

Over the summer, shipments of the pagers to Lebanon increased, with thousands arriving in the country and being distributed among Hezbollah officers and their allies, according to two American intelligence officials.

To Hezbollah, they were a defensive measure, but in Israel, intelligence officers referred to the pagers as “buttons” that could be pushed when the time seemed ripe.

That moment, it appears, came this week.

US Congress member Brad Sherman defends Israel attack

Jewish News Syndicate reports:

“Let’s be clear—in its strategic attack on Hezbollah, Israel used innovative methods to carry out a precise military operation, maximizing the elimination of terrorists while minimizing harm to civilians by targeting military communication devices,” stated Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.).

“In war, it’s impossible to fully prevent harm to civilians—especially when Hezbollah operates in Beirut’s densest civilian areas,” he said, adding, “Some impacted by this operation may be civilians due to Hezbollah’s use of civilians as human shields.”

NOTE: Rep Brad Sherman has received over $777,000 in campaign funding from pro-Israel donors over the course of his career.

Israeli defense chief announces start of ‘new phase’ of war

Andalou Agency reports:

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday a “new phase” of the war in the Gaza Strip has begun.

“We are at the start of a new phase in the war — it requires courage, determination and perseverance,” Gallant told troops in the northern city of Haifa.

“The center of gravity is shifting to the north by diverting resources and forces,” he said.

Gallant did not refer to recent explosions of electronic devices in Lebanon but he praised the work of the military and security agencies and said that “the results are very impressive.”

He claimed the purpose of the offensive in the north was to ensure that citizens who had been evacuated could safely return, adding that the government had not forgotten about Israeli captives in Gaza.

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West Bank: Israeli forces kill 2 Palestinian teenagers

WAFA reports:

Israeli occupation forces Wednesday evening killed a Palestinian and injured another in the Shufat refugee camp, north of the occupied West Bank city of Jerusalem, according to local sources.

They said that a special unit of the occupation forces barged their way into the camp to carry out a detention campaign, and following its detection, the unit fired barrages of live ammunition towards the residents.

Palestinian Hani Majdi al-Kari was hit by a live round in the chest and another was wounded.

Al-Kari, 16, succumbed to his critical injury shortly afterwards.

A Palestinian teenager was killed at dawn on Wednesday by Israeli occupation forces near the town of Ni’lin, west of Ramallah.

The Ministry of Health said that Hassan Yousef Hassan Al-Shaer, 17, was killed by occupation forces near Ni’lin.

Local sources indicated that al-Shaer was from the town of Habla, south of Qalqilya.

Saudi Crown Prince: No Saudi-Israel normalization until Palestinians get a state

Responsible Statecraft reports:

In a< span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>televised speech Wednesday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stated that, “The [Saudi] kingdom will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. We affirm that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that.”

With this statement, the Crown Prince appeared to dash the Biden’s administration’s lingering hopes of achieving a landmark normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which would have also given Riyadh a U.S. defense agreement as well as a pledge to assist in the establishment of a civilian nuclear program.

Although the Biden administration had previously signaled that they might be willing to move forward with the U.S.-Saudi defense agreement even in the absence of normalization with Israel, MBS’ announcement appears to finally kill the possibility of the so-called “Grand Bargain” that Presidential advisors Brett McGurk, Jake Sullivan, and other senior Biden officials had hoped would offer a means of countering China, resolving the Gaza crisis, and topping Trump’s Abraham Accords all in one.

(Read the full article here.)

IMEMC Daily Reports.

Andalou Agency: ‘500 casualties in 25 minutes’: Gazan doctor recounts horrors of Israel’s war

Common Dreams: Water, War, and Women in Gaza

Al Jazeera: Hezbollah pagers explode: Has Israel carried out such attacks before?

+972 Magazine: A plan to liquidate northern Gaza is gaining steam

The funeral ceremony of 10-year-old Fatima Jaafar Abdullah, killed in a pager blast, was held in Balbeek, Lebanon ⤵️

• The Lebanese girl was killed when a pager device exploded near her at her family’s home

• At least 12 were killed and around 2,800 injured due to explosions… pic.twitter.com/KAJ5ZwM1Bg

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) September 18, 2024

BREAKING: With an overwhelming majority, and for the first time in 42 years, the UNGA today voted for imposing sanctions on Israel!

The world’s global majority affirmed that the historic ruling by the ICJ triggers the legal obligation of all states to end complicity in Israel’s… pic.twitter.com/OYLwHOzzQl

— BDS movement (@BDSmovement) September 18, 2024

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – SEPTEMBER 18:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 18, 2024: at least 41,978* (41,272 in Gaza* – 11,308 women (30%), 16,715 children as of September 5. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 706 in the West Bank (~148 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 49,032 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

Ralph Nader earlier estimated 300,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

• At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 23 from West Bank).
• At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition (at least 37 of them children)**.
• About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
• Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

Palestinian injuries from October 7 – September 18: at least 101,251 (including at least 95,551 in Gaza and 5,700 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 18, 2024: ~1,457 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 293*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals. 

***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 53 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents. 

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

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