#Beirut Explosions

[usa-town-talks]

Massive Explosions Rock Beirut Amid Renewed Israeli Strikes

Israeli airstrikes caused significant explosions near Beirut’s international airport early Friday, intensifying the ongoing conflict with Hezbollah. The explosions occurred close to Dahieh, a stronghold of Hezbollah in the capital, sending plumes of smoke over the city.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health reported that in the past 24 hours, 37 people have been killed, and 151 injured in Israeli ground and air assaults. Meanwhile, the Lebanese army confirmed the deaths of two soldiers in southern Lebanon due to Israeli forces’ advances. Israel has ordered the evacuation of 20 more towns and villages, escalating the situation.

While the Israeli military has not commented on the specific targets, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launching attacks on Israeli forces, marking another day of intense border clashes. This marks the third full day of Israel’s invasion.

The Lebanese army reported one soldier’s death during an evacuation mission in Taybeh and another soldier’s death after an Israeli strike on an army post in Bint Jbeil. The incidents highlighted the Lebanese army’s rare engagement in this conflict.

As Israel continues its offensive against Hezbollah, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also announced that it had struck 200 Hezbollah targets overnight, including weapons facilities and intelligence centers. More than 1,300 people have died, and over a million have been displaced across Lebanon since the conflict began, according to local authorities.

Residents of southern Lebanon have fled en masse, with vehicles and people displaced across Beirut. Humanitarian agencies report that many of the displaced are children under the age of 15, further intensifying the crisis.

Meanwhile, Israeli border communities are under constant rocket and missile fire, with Hezbollah continuing its assault on northern Israel. Despite Israeli air defenses intercepting most projectiles, the situation remains tense along the border.

The conflict, sparked by cross-border hostilities following the war in Gaza, has seen Israel’s northern communities turned into military zones, with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence.

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

[mundua]

[head-post]

Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza’s refugee camp, Hezbollah drone attack on army base kills 4 Israeli soldiers

Israel’s military said a Hezbollah drone killed four soldiers at one of their northern bases on Sunday as Israel stepped up bombardment of Lebanon and troops battled militants on the border, while shelters in Gaza were again hit by Israeli strikes.

The Israeli airstrike killed at least 20 people, including children at a school in Gaza, two local hospitals reported. The school in Nuseirat shelters many Palestinians displaced by the war.

Meanwhile, explosions went off early Monday morning outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, killing three people and wounding about 50, the hospital said. Tents caught fire and residents in the central Gaza Strip carried the wounded to the hospital.

As fighting between Israel and Hezbollah forces raged in southern Lebanon, UN peacekeepers said they were back in the line of fire. They said Israeli troops “forcibly” entered the UN position with two tanks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the forces to withdraw from the area. The Israeli military said the tank entered the UN post under fire.

Hezbollah drone attack

Iranian-backed Hezbollah said late Sunday it had launched a “squadron of attack drones” at Camp Binyamina, 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the major city of Haifa.

The strike was in response to Israeli attacks, including airstrikes on Thursday that killed at least 22 people in the centre of Beirut, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

In a follow-up statement, Hezbollah warned Israel that “what it witnessed today in southern Haifa is no comparison to what awaits it if it decides to continue its aggression against our noble and dear people.”

Israel’s volunteer rescue service United Hatzalah said its teams in Binyamin treated ‘more than 60 wounded’ with injuries ranging from minor to critical.

Hezbollah has been firing rockets and drones at Israel for more than a year in support of Hamas in Gaza. Since late September, however, its strikes have been moving further inland. Israel’s modern air defences intercept most of the projectiles, with few casualties from the strikes and falling debris.

Defend the “blessed land”

Recently, Israel has increasingly targeted areas outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds in southern Beirut, as well as in southern and eastern Lebanon.

Israel said its air force hit “Hezbollah launchers, anti-tank missile posts, weapons depots” and other targets, while on the ground its soldiers “killed dozens” of militants.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that Israeli forces “stepped up their attacks” on southern Lebanon, launching “successive air strikes” on several border villages. The agency later said an Israeli strike on Mayfadoun, near Nabatiyeh, in southern Lebanon, killed five people and wounded another.

Hezbollah said its forces had clashed several times with Israeli troops trying to “infiltrate” villages along the border. Before the drone strike, Hezbollah said it fired a volley of rockets at a “base in southern Haifa.” The group later aired an audio recording of its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah urging fighters to “defend this holy and blessed land and this honourable nation.”

Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut on September 27, and several other senior commanders of the movement were also killed.

The Israeli military said some 115 shells fired by Hezbollah had hit Israeli territory by Sunday afternoon. A Hezbollah fighter was captured coming out of a tunnel in southern Lebanon on Sunday, the Israeli military said, the first such claim since the ground offensive began.

Hamas triggered the Gaza war with its deadliest attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures. That number includes hostages who died in captivity. According to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip’s health ministry, more than 42,000 people, most of them civilians, have died there since the start of the Israeli military campaign. The UN considers these figures reliable.

According to official figures, Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed more than 1,300 people since September 23, including on Saturday. That number exceeds the total of 1,200 deaths in Lebanon – mostly civilians – during the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, when 160 people, mostly soldiers, were killed in Israel.

The Pentagon said it would send a high-altitude anti-missile system and a crew of US military personnel to Israel to help the ally defend itself against a possible Iranian attack.

Nicola Fratoianni, Italian politician and leader of the Italian Left party, commented on events in the Middle East on X:

“We have been repeating for months that Netanyahu is a war criminal as the genocide in Gaza continues. Now repeated attacks on #Unifil in #Lebanon. Suspend the EU-Israel association treaty, sanctions against the Israeli government, recognise a Palestinian state.”

Read more HERE

[panoramaaa]

Beirut Explosion 2020 🤯🤯 Scary

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

The situation in Lebanon today is bleak. Carved out of the remains of the Ottoman Empire and subjected to years of colonialism-lite administration by France, its economy and infrastructure have been devastated by a long civil war, overlapping occupations by Syria and Israel, and corruption on a massive scale. Since 2019, Lebanon has been in the midst of a severe financial crisis, with widespread unemployment and hyperinflation. Now 80% of the population is poor and Lebanon is on the brink of becoming a failed state.

And yet, JD Harlock, Poetry Editor at Solarpunk Magazine, who lives in Beirut, believes in solarpunk. Join us for this episode to find out how that can be and what day to day life is like in Beirut right now.

You can find JD on X and Instagram at @JD_Harlock.

[avocodas]

Yesterday in Lebanon 🇱🇧 thousands of “Pagers” were exploded in response to a cyberattack which lead to over 3000 injuries, 25% are in critical condition, 500 of those lost eyesight, and 12 martyrs including 2 kids under the age of 10 were killed

Few moments ago the cyberattack continues targeting walkies. Thousands of people are messed up, apartments are sat on fire, ambulances everywhere … and now my mom contacted me to turn off my phone and get away from it, since iphone devices have exploded as well.

Fuck israhell and everyone who has the thinnest ties with dem terrorists.

[sheltiechicago]

Lebanese artist Hayat Nazer used broken glass and rubble from the Beirut explosion to create this outstanding statue, marking the time (6:08 PM) of the mega blast at the port of Beirut.

[artisanscribbles]

They proudly join the Montblanc (Halifax Explosion) and the MV Rhosus (Beirut Explosion) in the category of “Why do we keep turning cargo ships into time bombs?!?!?”

watching a video about this cargo ship that blew up in texas in the 40’s and it’s like . i know that with a lot of incidents especially older ones like this the reason that the safety standards were so shitty was because they literally did not know that these kinds of disasters COULD happen (and in many cases these disasters are what MADE the safety standards better) but sometimes you just learn about this shit and you think. how could all these people be so stupid

[zigcarnivorous]

Israel Booby-Trapped Electronic Devices Exploding in Lebanon -Democracy Now!

[ivovynckier]

What are the pagers for? Are they on call to stone women?

[uniqueeval]

How did Hezbollah get the pagers that exploded in Lebanon? | Israel-Palestine conflict News

Hundreds of pagers belonging to the armed group Hezbollah exploded on Tuesday in Lebanon, killing at least 12 people and wounding about 2,750. Some pagers belonging to Hezbollah also exploded in Syria, leading to some injuries. Lebanon, Hezbollah and the group’s allies have all blamed Israel. But what really happened? Many analysts believe the answer might lie in how Hezbollah got the pagers in…

[satireinfo]

How Hezbollah's Retro Pager Trend Ended with a Bang!

Explosive ’90s Comeback How Hezbollah’s Retro Pager Trend Ended with a Bang! In an unexpected twist of espionage and nostalgia, Mossad turns pagers into ticking time bombs, leaving Hezbollah with a blast from the past. Beirut — As the world plunges into a digital frenzy over the latest smartphone models and 5G networks, Hezbollah made the revolutionary decision to take a leap backward. Months…

[rayatii]

Well, today is the 4th anniversary of the explosion. I still remember it like it was yesterday. Time passes so fast.

Somehow, there are still people out there, including my father, who believe in the conspiracy theory that it was caused by a targeted missile sent by Isr*el... I don't believe it, bc as much as it feels good to point a finger towards the country that we consider our worst enemy, the evidence doesn't seem to add up.

[head-post]

US court overturns $1.68bn judgment against Central Bank of Iran

The US Court of Appeals reversed a ruling to pay $1.68 billion to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) in a case brought by the families of US servicemen killed in the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut.

Terror victims are seeking judgements through US courts against Iran and other states designated as sponsors of terrorism. The decision came before President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House. He is expected to impose tough sanctions against Iran’s central bank and oil sector in his first days in office.

Manhattan’s 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that a lower court should have considered state law issues before ruling against CBI and Luxembourg-based Clearstream Banking, a subsidiary of Deutsche Boerse.

The three justices rejected claims that a 2019 federal law, designed to make it easier to seize Iranian assets outside the United States, stripped CBI of sovereign immunity. Circuit Judge Robert Sack stated:

The law neither abrogates Bank Markazi’s [Central] jurisdictional immunity nor provides an independent grant of subject matter jurisdiction.

However, the CBI claimed immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The legislation protects foreign governments from US court liability. The case has now been returned to US District Judge Loretta Preska to address state law issues in the 11-year-old dispute.

The case arose from the plaintiffs’ attempts to hold Iran liable for allegedly providing material support for the 23 October 1983 terrorist attack that killed 241 US servicemen in Beirut.

The plaintiffs allege that they have more than $4 billion in unpaid judgments against Iran. The case represents one of many challenges faced by victims of terrorism seeking to obtain judgments against Iran and other states designated by the US as sponsors of terrorism through US courts.

Read more HERE