Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 21.09.2024
The Intercept argues that the terror of Israel in Lebanon this week is possibly a war crime.
Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon on September 17, killing at least 12 people and wounding around 2,800 in blasts. Hamas blames Israel for this terror. A day after pagers simultaneously exploded across Lebanon and Syria, a second round of bombs — this time embedded in walkie-talkies detonated on Wednesday in Beirut and throughout Lebanon.
While the apparent targets of Tuesday’s attack were pager-wielding Hezbollah members, it was carried out with the full knowledge that the fallout would be indiscriminate and that massive civilian casualties would ensue.
The combined death toll from the attacks rose to at least 37 people, including a 9-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy, with more than 3,000 wounded. Doctors at a Beirut hospital reported that many among the injured had lost eyes and had to have limbs amputated. Exploding walkie-talkies caused more than 70 fires to erupt in homes and stores across Lebanon, along with more than a dozen cars and motorcycles.
While the Zionist government has not claimed responsibility for the attack, multiple U.S. officials have said Israel was behind the device explosions. The indiscriminate nature of the attacks led experts in international law to say that the explosions may be war crimes.
“If it is Israel behind this, they’ve got some tough questions to answer, including to the U.S. government, because the U.S. government is providing great military support,” said Brian Finucane, a former State Department legal adviser under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. “It really should be in the U.S. government’s interest to ensure that its military partners comply with the laws of war.” [i]
“Finucane said that, were he still advising the State Department, he would urge the U.S. to ask a series of questions: Did Israel take precautions to minimize harm to civilians? Did it anticipate blasts to be large enough to harm civilians? How and when were the devices altered to be detonated?
On the topic of exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, he highlighted a law of war prohibiting the “use of booby-traps or other devices in the form of harmless portable objects which are specifically designed and constructed to contain explosive material.” Israel and Lebanon have agreed to the prohibition, Article 7(2) of Amended Protocol II, which was added to international laws of war in 1996.”[ii]
Finucane observed that “the USA Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual, when referencing the 1996 law, uses the example of communications headsets, which Italian forces during World War II booby-trapped with explosives and electronic detonators after retreat or surrender to kill their enemies.” [iii]
The terrorist actions of Israel in Lebanon are worse as they killed and injured civilians, including children. The Zionists call the resistance terrorists. However, the Nazis called the resistance terrorists. The “French Resistance” consisted of hundreds of thousands of French men and women who fought to end Nazi occupation and paid the price for it. Undoubtedly, no occupying force is willing to listen and only understands the language of force. The “French Resistance” fought for the freedom of their people, but the Nazis labeled this resistance as sabotage and terrorist operations. They held ordinary people hostage and punished them collectively and brutally for any action by the resistance forces.
The theme of one of the threatening announcements by the occupiers was: “After each terrorist operation, depending on the seriousness of the crime, several people will be killed.” It is estimated that during the occupation of France, Hitler’s army killed 30,000 ordinary French people and arrested, tortured, and forced many to become refugees inside their homeland.
In addition, the Zionists have a very long record of terrorism against Palestinians and other Arab people. After the October 7 attack, Western leaders ranging from US President Joe Biden to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron were quick to condemn Hamas, at times comparing it to the terrorist group Daesh.
But, in the 1940s, long before Palestinian resistance groups like Hamas picked up arms against the Israeli occupation, Zionist militias were bombing and shooting dead British officials and Palestinian Arabs. The Zionist groups, including the Haganah, Irgun, and the Stern Gang (Lehi), actively used terrorism to create fear among the Arab citizens.
According to Yoav Gelber, after one month of training a patrol of Unit 101 infiltrated the Gaza Strip as an exercise. Some sources estimate that a result of the infiltration was 20 killed Arabs. Unit 101 suffered two wounded soldiers. The raid was heavily condemned by foreign observers, who called it “an appalling case of deliberate mass murder“. It was publicly criticized in the Israeli cabinet by at least one minister.
Two months later, in October, the unit was involved in the raid into the village of Qibya in the northern West Bank, then a part of Jordan. During this operation that inflicted heavy damage on the Arab Legion forces in Qibya, 42 villagers were killed and 15 wounded.
The Lavon Affair is a spy story set in Israel’s early years. Its name derives from Israeli Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon, though it is also called “Esek HaBish” or “The Mishap.” The espionage story began in the very early 1950’s when the Israelis sent an undercover agent to Egypt by the name of Avraham Dar. He went by the name John Darling, posing as a British citizen of the island of Gibraltar. He taught the Egyptian Jewish spy ring about underground organizations and conspiratorial tactics. They learned how to make delayed action devices, letter bombs, and the intricacies of photography. In early 1952, most secretly came to Israel to learn sabotage and underground techniques. On July 2, 1954, they went into action. They first blew up some post offices and the American libraries in Cairo and Alexandria a few days later. These operations were to make it clear to the whole world that Egypt’s new rulers were nothing but a group of foolhardy extremists, unreliable and unworthy of taking charge of an asset as important as the Suez Canal. Furthermore, it was to be demonstrated that their grasp on power was uncertain, that they faced powerful internal opposition, and, consequently, they were unworthy of being counted upon as a dependable ally.
Israel helped the Phalanges to commit the mass murder of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon.
“I argue that Jewish terrorism in the 1940s was both tactically and strategically significant. At the tactical level, Jewish terrorists were able to frustrate British security forces and erode their ability to control Palestine,” wrote David A. Charters, professor of military history and senior fellow of the Gregg Centre for Study of War and Society at the University of New Brunswick, Canada.” [iv]
Down with the Zionist war criminals!
In a war between the Zionist monster and Hezbollah, defeat for Israel.!
Endnotes:
[i] https://theintercept.com/2024/09/19/israel-pager-walkie-talkie-attack-lebanon-war-crimes/
[ii] Ibid
[iii] ibid
[iv] David A. Charters Jewish Terrorism and the Modern Middle East. Journal of Conflict Studies Vol. 27 No. 2 (2007)