Since invading Lebanon in early March, Israeli officials have tried to frame the war as primarily targeting Lebanon’s Shi’ite population. From early on, the war was about destroying Shi’ite villages, displacing Shi’ite locals, and at times threatening to annihilate the Lebanese Shi’ite community outright. And certainly, the Shi’ites have borne the brunt of the destruction […]

It has been reported that Lebanese President Joseph Aoun received assurances from the United States that Israel does not intend to carry out any new strikes beyond the yellow line assuming Hezbollah doesn’t attack. The report was followed with suggestions that Lebanon’s goal, then, was to convince Hezbollah to stop resisting. Israel, for its part, […]

A high-profile speech by Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem this evening produced few surprises, as he reiterated backing for the terms of this summer’s US-Iran deal, support for UN Resolution 1701, but rejection of this summer’s tripartite deals between the US, Israel and the Lebanese government. Qassem laid out a position, consistent in previous Hezbollah statements, […]

Israeli military vehicles entered the village of Saida al-Golan, in Quneitra Governorate today, searching homes in the area and capturing one civilian before withdrawing from the village toward the farmland further to the west. A large number of IDF vehicles were also reported as having entered the al-Samandiyah village, where troops searched a number of […]

As is true most days, multiple areas of southern Lebanon have reported being under sustained heavy artillery fire from Israeli forces. Multiple towns and villages seem to be primary targets, including in the Tyre and Nabatieh Districts. This is a problem in any season, but particularly now, because these few weeks in October are the […]

Influential Druze leader and longtime Lebanese political figure Walid Jumblatt may be retired, officially, but that didn’t stop him from opining of the ongoing Israeli invasion and occupation of his country, and it quickly because an issue for the US State Department. In recent interviews, Jumblatt warned of Israel’s expansionist ambitions toward the country and […]

Despite myriad rounds of US-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon yielding effectively no pledges for Israel to stop attacking or ever withdraw from occupied southern Lebanon, Lebanese officials, incredibly, are continuing to try to frame the active invasion they’re still facing as something that ended in the summer and which might “restart” entirely because of […]

Israeli troops continued to operate across southwest Syria over the weekend, with multiple incursions reported against the Quneitra Governorate seemingly focused primarily on excavation and carving out the “Sufa 53 Line” that the IDF is imposing on the ground in the area. Israel has been keen on establishing a trench-line separating Syria from its own […]

The weekend saw heavy Israeli artillery shelling and drone overflights across Lebanon, with growing concerns that the ongoing war, already seeing a scaling up of daily strikes, is about to see another substantial Israel escalation. Shelling was reported in Tyre District, with the heaviest strikes in Mansouri and Majdal Zoun. Vehicles advanced into Haddatha, spraying […]

Israeli ground troops have been raiding the Yarmouk River Basin in the western part of Syria’s Daraa Governorate in growing numbers and more frequently in recent days. The restrictions placed on locals have been onerous enough to attract some international attention. Now, a fatality will add to those concerns. The incident happened overnight Thursday in […]

Two days of negotiations between Israel and Lebanon in Florida has concluded without any meaningful deal. Given how little the last seven deals between the two sides actually accomplished, the fact they weren’t able to come to even a token agreement is really saying something. Compounding the failure of these talks, no date was yet […]

It’s the last week before Israel’s elections, and the concern around Syria that there may be a pre-election “surprise” seems palpable. The belief is that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu may seek to politically benefit from a new operation within southern Syria in the next few days. And while Israel’s ongoing military operations in Syria are […]

Israeli forces continued to carry out heavy airstrikes against southern Lebanon today, with locals reporting airstrikes, drone strikes, and artillery shelling across the region, with attacks reported as far north as Nabatieh al-Fawqa, a town that has repeatedly come under fire of late. Mayfadoun was also under particularly severe targeting, with Israeli drones firing into the […]

A week before the Israeli elections, their assorted offensive wars are becoming a particularly important issue, and high ranking figures are attaching themselves to various hawkish narratives, particularly as related to the ongoing invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon. Defense Minister Israel Katz has been at the fore in this regard. Last week he threatened […]

Last week, the New York Times released the results of its investigation into the ongoing Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon and found that some 48 towns and villages had been destroyed by IDF forces. Defense Minister Israel Katz, in a weekend appearance on Israel’s Channel 14, bragged that the number is even higher. […]

Israeli military ground raids into southwest Syria continued to happen in growing numbers this weekend, with troops raiding multiple towns and villages in Daraa and Quneitra Governorates. At least four Syrian civilians were reported captured over the course of the weekend’s operations. One was reported captured Saturday during the operations around al-Razaniyah, in northern Quneitra, […]

Starting in late September, the annual olive harvest is an economically important part of life for residents of many southern Lebanese towns and villages in the Autumn. This year, however, they’re finding themselves under serious limitations by the new Israeli military occupation. Though the IDF made much of the idea that they’re allowing workers to […]

Violence against Palestinians and the press has been on going problem in Israel in general for years, but the level of such incidents in the occupied West Bank has reached a fevered pitch in recent months, with Israeli settlers attacking people with virtual impunity. The latest attack saw Washington Post veteran photojournalist Heidi Levine among […]

Earlier this week, Lebanese officials seized a truckload of explosives in the northeastern Hermel region, leading to accusations from some of the officials of an impending Hezbollah assassination campaign involving bombs. On Thursday, Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah confirmed that the explosives belonged to the group, but insisted that there was no assassination program, and that […]

Like most nights, Wednesday night saw Israeli forces carry out artillery strikes and airstrikes across southern Lebanon, with reports of strikes hitting multiple municipalities across the Tyre, Nabatieh, and Bint Jbeil Districts. Those strikes included some casualties in the town of Haddatha, in Bint Jbeil, where an Israel airstrike wounded two civilians, one of them […]