At least 14 people have been killed and 450 others injured in a series of fresh explosions targeting communications devices used by Hezbollah, Lebanon's health ministry says.

Witnesses said the detonations targeted hand-held radios used by the militant group.

One security source said the radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time that the pagers were bought.

Blasts have been seen across the south of the country and in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Lebanon's state news agency reported that some home solar energy systems also exploded.

The Lebanese Red Cross said more than 30 ambulances were treating and evacuating the wounded in the country's south, the Bekaa region and the southern suburbs of Beirut.

At least one of the explosions took place near a funeral organised by Hezbollah for those killed the previous day, when thousands of pagers used by the group detonated.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-19/hezbollah-communications-devices-explode-across-lebanon/104368530

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At around 3:45 local time, thousands of handheld pagers exploded in Lebanon and parts of Syria, injuring thousands and killing more than a dozen people. The pagers were commonly used by Hezbollah fighters, but some civilians were killed, including an eight-year-old girl. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed israel, who has not commented.

“After examining all the facts, current data, and available information about the sinful attack that took place this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that targeted civilians too,” a statement from Hezbollah reads, adding that the group will continue to support the Palestinian resistance.

CCTV footage from Lebanon showed the devices exploding in civilian areas, including a grocery store. The Lebanese Ministry of Health has urged all citizens with pagers to dispose of the devices immediately.

A #pager explodes, caught on camera while this man was shopping at a grocery store in Lebanon.

Both the Lebanese government and #Hezbollah have blamed Israel for the attack, which has now wounded over 3,000 and killed 9. pic.twitter.com/Lec9esze6Q

— Global Justice News English (@GlobalJSEN) September 17, 2024

Former senior security policy analyst at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Michael Maloof, told Sputnik’s The Final Countdown that the attack seems to be a precursor to a larger attack by Israel on Lebanon. 

“One of my sources said… this is the beginning of what they believe is going to be [an] attack from Israel. And we just heard yesterday that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] said that they were going to look to take on Hezbollah now,” Maloof argued.

According to Maloof, the attack was designed not only to kill and injure but also to interrupt Hezbollah’s communications, a common military tactic before a larger attack.

“The fact that they hit the communications first - that’s what you always go after anyway,” Maloof explained. “This way, it minimizes the ability [of the target] to coordinate and communicate with the elements throughout the country.”

Maloof is not alone in his speculation. Mohamad Elmasry told Al Jazeera that it could portend a large-scale invasion by Israel. “It seems to me what you want to do before a large-scale invasion is to disable or disrupt the communication network of the enemy. I do think we’ll have to pay close attention to what happens over the next few hours and potentially a couple of days."

Elmarsy also noted that Hezbollah has been increasing its use of couriers to send messages and may have to rely on that tactic more heavily in the wake of the attack.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu has convened a meeting with top defense officials including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi to discuss “readiness for attack and defense in all arenas.”

“I would expect if Israel is going to do anything, they would do it at this vulnerable moment,” Maloof speculated, adding that he isn’t sure how the attack will come. “Are they going to launch missiles? I haven’t heard any assessments of indications or warnings of troops massing. I think they do have some tanks near the border and troops. Does this mean there’s going to be boots on the ground? I don’t know. Israel is not communicating any of that.”

It is still unclear how the attack was pulled off. A Hezbollah official speaking anonymously told media outlets that the pagers were a new model that included lithium batteries and unnamed security sources told US media that the devices were recently acquired by the Lebanese group, but the reports did not specify a timeline.

Former NSA contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden posted on X that it is likely explosives were planted inside the devices, rather than a hack that caused the batteries to overheat.

“As information comes in about the exploding beepers in Lebanon, it seems now more likely than not to be implanted explosives, not a hack. Why? Too many consistent, very serious injuries. If it were overheated batteries exploding, you'd expect many more small fires & misfires,” Snowden said on X.

In a later post, Snowden condemned the attack as "reckless" and "indistinguishable from terrorism."

It could still be possible that intentionally overheated batteries were used to ignite implanted explosives. One anonymous Hezbollah official reportedly told US media that some Hezbollah members noticed that their pagers were heating up and managed to dispose of them before they exploded. Alternatively, modified devices could be used to reroute electricity to an implanted explosive after being given a signal, but that should result in an instant explosion without a heat-up period.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240917/is-the-pager-attack-only-the-beginning-1120183448.html

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The exclusive ‘US urges Australia over UN’s Israel vote’, published in Tuesday’s The Australian by Ben Packham, demands a response.

The article addresses a draft UN resolution advanced by the Palestinian Authority to be voted on in the General Assembly on Thursday (AEST). In essence the resolution demands immediate Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank in compliance with the 19 July ruling by the International Court of Justice. The US is reported to be urging its allies to reject the draft resolution or abstain from voting on it.

Whilst the article reported that the Albanese Government declined to comment on Australia’s intentions, it was more than prepared to publish the views of Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham. He called upon the government to oppose the draft resolution “without hesitation or ambiguity”. Such reasons as Birmingham gave do him and his shadow government no credit. Let us consider them.

First, it is said to be an extreme and one-sided resolution. But what could be extreme and one-sided about a resolution which simply seeks to implement the decision of the ICJ? That decision is the advisory opinion which the UN General Assembly sought back in 2022 on the issue of the legal consequences of the subject occupation. The opinion was sought with the intention that it would inform the General Assembly as to what appropriate action might need to be taken. The Palestinian authority’s draft resolution simply does just that! How then can it be extreme? How then can it be one-sided? And those questions carry even greater force when it is recalled that the Security Council, by Resolution 2334, dated 23 December 2016, called for pretty well exactly what the ICJ’s opinion, and the Palestinian Authority’s resolution, now calls for: refer Blood: The bitter harvest of breaching Resolution 2334, 29 November 2023.

Next, Birmingham asserts that the resolution is “shamefully silent about Hamas…7 October…and hostages”. Sorry, Simon, those issues have nothing to do with illegal occupation. They can certainly be addressed, as the ICC is attempting to do with the sole Hamas leader still alive, and said to be responsible for the 7 October military operation. As for hostages, there is every reason to believe that were Israel to comply with an adopted UN resolution as now sought, they would be released.

Then Birmingham pouts that the resolution “provides no recognition of Israel’s right to exist”. Why does he seek to raise such an irrelevant consideration? Neither the ICJ, nor the draft resolution, seeks to question Israel’s right to exist in any way. Birmingham clearly takes the Australian public as idiots.

He then asserts that the resolution involves actions “contrary to Australia’s long standing positions” and “would undermine Israel’s right to self-defence” and “would be counterproductive to peace efforts”. Once more he seeks to mislead. Australia’s longstanding position has been to seek a two-state solution. The resolution would establish just that. How would that undermine Israel’s right to self-defence? It would create a situation where the need to defend Israel would dissipate. In any event, nor does the resolution prohibit the UN taking steps to ensure peaceful implementation of the resolution.

That then deals with Birmingham’s follies. The article concludes with a contribution from AIJAC’s executive director Colin Rubenstein who throws in that the resolution would “reward Hamas’ terrorism”. Again, the resolution seeks to give effect to the ICJ advisory opinion. It does not reward Palestinian resistance, anyone, or anything: it seeks only to apply international law.

Rubenstein concludes with the ridiculous assertion that the resolution would repudiate Australia’s 30-year policy of “supporting a two-state negotiated peace settlement between the two parties”. Any thinking person would have to ask why such a policy has produced no result in 30 years. And how can there be a negotiated peace settlement when one of the parties, Israel, has flatly rejected a Palestinian state? What is there then to negotiate?

It must be noted that no-one — Penny Wong, Birmingham, Rubenstein, nor The Australian — questions that the resolution seeks to give effect to the ICJ ruling, or that that ruling is in any way questionable.

Finally, it must be said to the editor of The Australian: why are you publishing such tripe?

https://johnmenadue.com/un-vote/

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“This is a genocide of children,” said Heba Gowayed, a sociology professor at the City University of New York’s Hunter College.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Sunday released a document containing the names and ages of Palestinians killed by Israel’s assault since the Hamas-led 7 October attack, an incomplete list that nonetheless runs to 649 pages – the first 14 of which are filled with the names of babies.

The list, published to the health ministry’s Telegram account, is limited to those for whom Gaza officials had information — over 34,000 people — and the count stops on 31 August. The current death toll, according to the ministry, is close to 42,000, but experts believe that figure is likely a gross undercount.

The new document is a testament to the devastating impact Israel’s US-backed war has had on Gaza’s population, particularly children. According to Gaza officials, children make up a third of those killed since 7 October.

“This is a genocide of children. 14 pages of babies. Babies,” Heba Gowayed, a sociology professor at the City University of New York’s Hunter College, wrote on social media in response to the list. “This is nothing short of an attempt to expunge a people.”

The Gaza Health Ministry’s statistics are considered credible by independent watchdogs and have been cited internallyby US officials, notwithstanding President Joe Biden’s public questioning of the data. In June, the US House approved an amendment that would bar the State Department from using statistics from the Gaza Ministry of Health.

But after examining an earlier list of names published by the ministry, the research group Airwars found “a high correlation between the official MoH data and what Palestinian civilians reported online”. The group acknowledged that gathering data has become increasingly difficult “as Gaza’s health infrastructure has been decimated by the war”.

Trita Parsi, executive vice-president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote that the newly published list highlights “what differentiates Gaza”.

“It’s a genocide of children since their proportion is unprecedented,” Parsi wrote, adding that the “US, UK, and Germany arm and support the genocide.”

Republished from Common Dreams, September  16, 2024

https://johnmenadue.com/gaza-officials-publish-list-of-those-lilled-in-israeli-assault-the-first-14-pages-are-babies/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.