- Protest at Dáil Eireann 5pm, Wednesday 25th September
- Protest at Dept. of Foreign Affairs, 1pm, Saturday 28th September
- No expansion of the Gaza genocide to Lebanon
- No to escalation to wider war, yes to ceasefire and a diplomatic solution
The IAWM today strongly condemned Israel’s criminal escalation of the war into Lebanon where, at the time of writing, the over 1,300 airstrikes have killed 492 people including at least 42 women and 24 children with over 1,645 wounded (Source: Al Jazeera).
Before dawn yesterday people in Southern Lebanon began getting recorded messages and texts on their phones from the Israeli military informing them to evacuate their homes immediately if they live anywhere near Hezbollah weapons stores. How people were supposed to know where Hezbollah keeps weapons was not explained. Increasing the panic, programmes on some radio stations were interrupted by warnings to evacuate. Thousands got on the road, but just as in Gaza, people don’t know where it is safe to go as places they could go are also under attack.
The Israeli propaganda machine is busy spreading its lies about the Lebanese resistance’s use of civilian facilities, just as it did in Gaza – a recurring scenario to justify an upcoming targeting of Lebanese civilians. From 6.30 am yesterday Israel began a wave of bombings across southern Lebanon. A second and third wave followed and the bombing has not stopped.
Lebanon with its deep economic and political problems is now struggling to defend itself against its ‘worst case scenario’ in which an insane Israel commits a ferocious onslaught on the country, including parts of Beirut, with the apparent aim of ‘Gazifying’ Lebanon and expanding the war. Netanyahu had previously threatened to turn Beirut and South Lebanon into Gaza and Khan Younis.
Schools and universities have been closed to turn into temporary shelters and hospitals are canceling regular services to treat the wounded, allowing for more vast numbers of bomb victims.
A few days ago, Netanyahu alarmingly announced both a ‘new goal’ and a ‘new phase’ in the genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank – to include Hezbollah and Lebanon as a whole. This began last week with the indiscriminate and unprecedented mass terror attack through the orchestrated simultaneous explosion of pagers which killed hundreds and wounded thousands including women and children. The next day there were explosions of walkie-talkies with additional deaths and injuries, spreading chaos and panic.
Netanyahu’s pretext is to ‘destroy Hezbollah’ so Israeli citizens living near the border can return home and they can stop Hezbollah’s retaliatory rockets. But it should be clear to anyone with a brain that 11 months of nonstop indiscriminate destruction in Gaza with over 41,400 now known dead – the majority women and children – didn’t secure a ‘victory’ for Netanyahu. He has created a hell on earth for Gazans wounded, displaced, bereaved, and tortured, their family members and friends buried under rubble or their body parts scattered everywhere by massive bombs. Most of these bombs were sent by the US – and nine of the planes carrying weapons and warplane parts are known to have flown through Irish airspace which implicates Ireland in the slaughter.
What didn’t yield ‘victory’ in Gaza – indiscriminate bombing and devastation – will very likely not work in Lebanon either not least because of the difficult terrain and the much stronger fighting force of Hezbollah. Several Palestinian factions in Lebanon have also now declared general mobilization and alert.
Netanyahu wants to take attention away from his failure to destroy Hamas or retrieve hostages through violence by now recklessly attacking Lebanon. And yet bombings and drone attacks continue in Gaza today and every day. Ten civilians were killed in an attack in Gaza yesterday including a mother and her four children.
Hezbollah has constantly repeated it will not stop firing rockets until Israel stops its genocide in Gaza. In other words, it wants what most of the world wants – a ceasefire, which Netanyahu recklessly blocks.
It is more than outrageous that Israel with its US ally is still getting away with war crimes with impunity. Winter is approaching, and the victims of these deliberate one-sided attacks on families, the deliberate deprivation of food, medicine, and clean water, and deadly attacks on school shelters and tents of desperate people – are wondering how the world can watch a genocide on their screens – and still do not help them.
We must not let the ‘diversion’ to Lebanon take our attention away from the war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank and now we must also add Lebanon to our calls for an end to Israel’s genocidal onslaught.
The IAWM calls for an immediate ceasefire on all war fronts, an embargo on arms sales to Israel, and immediate diplomatic and economic sanctions on the terror state of Israel. Diplomatic means should be used to secure the release of all hostages, including the over 10,000 Palestinians imprisoned and many being tortured in Israeli detention centres.
The Lebanese community in Ireland is organizing a peaceful protest at 5pm at Dáil Eireann tomorrow Wednesday, 25th October.
They will hold another protest at the Dept. of Foreign Affairs, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin this Saturday 28th, September at 1pm.
All who share their pain and outrage are urged to attend.
ENDS
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