Sunday, August 06, 2006

Middle East War Report for Sunday, August 6

Updated November 30, 2008:

16 Israelis were killed and at least 233 more were wounded today.

12 IDF soldiers were killed and at least 26 more were wounded, 2 critically. All of the KIAs and 13 of the wounded fell in a Katyusha rocket attack that hit an IDF reserve unit just inside the border.

4 Israeli civilians were killed and over 200 others were wounded by Katyusha rockets.

16 Lebanese fighters were reportedly killed and 5 more were wounded. Israel took 4 Hezbollah POW's.

90 Israelis have killed so far, 57 IDF troops and 33 civilians.

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First of all, let us start out with an excellent article by Anders Strindberg that accurately sums up the position of this blog on many questions surrounding this conflict - the role of Hamas and Hezbollah, the right of the Israeli apartheid state to exist in its present nature, what really started this conflict (not Hezbollah), etc. As Strindberg notes, Hezbollah has several demands:
1. Release of Lebanese prisoners, or if not forthcoming, a prisoner swap. The desire for a prisoner swap was probably the primary reason for the attack that set off this latest mad war. These Israeli soldiers are probably the only soldiers in the history of warfare who were "kidnapped" instead of taken POW.

As a state of de facto war existed between the 2 parties and Israel violated the border on a near-daily basis for years, Hezbollah was completely within its rights, morally as well as by the rules of war, to cross the border (an internationally recognized border not being relevant during wartime) and take Israeli soldiers POW.


2. Israel continues to occupy the Shebaa Farms region of Lebanon. They retreated from everywhere but this strip of land, retaining it on a very dubious basis. As Israel continues to occupy Lebanese land, it is permissible, morally as well as within the rules of war, for Hezbollah to attack Israel on the basis that Israel is occupying their land, even to cross such "internationally recognized borders" to do so.


3. Israel continues to refuse to hand over land mine maps of all of the land that they seeded with mines during their 18-year occupation. These mines continue to kill and wound Lebanese to this day. In my opinion, Israel's refusal to hand over such maps is a legitimate reason to attack Israel right there.


4. There is some sort of a conflict regarding water between Israel and Lebanon. Lebanon says Israel is stealing Lebanon's water. Israel says it is not (And why should we believe anything Israel says at this point?). It is interesting that Israel proudly seized the Wazzani Springs, a very important water source on the border, very early in the conflict.

Also, the continuous Israeli refrains of telling all Lebanese civilians to evacuate to the north of Litani River (though even that will not save their asses as Israeli air attacks are occurring across the land) are highly suspicious.

Any student of Zionist history knows that all of Israel's early historical figures, including luminaries of both the Right and Left (including Moshe Dayan and David Ben Gurion) insisted that Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel) extended at least up to the border of the Litani River. The Litani is also a very important water source.

And let us note that the ethnic cleansing of Arab lands that gave birth to the Israeli state was preceded with similar calls for the Arab population to flee so as not to be killed.

Given Israel's past history and the suspicions surrounding the continuous talk of the Litani River, what Lebanese could believe that, if they fled, they would be allowed to return to the region under Israeli control?

That is a pretty good minimal set of demands for Hezbollah. Strindberg notes that neither Hamas nor Hezbollah is dedicated to exterminating the Jews in Israel or finishing Hitler's aborted Holocaust or engaging in Holocaust Part 2. Yet this is the incessant refrain on the part of the Zionist sophists or neurotics.

According to this odd thinking, Israel has a right to be as deadly and aggressive as possible and if anyone dares to raise a finger against their continuing aggression, (the aggression being the raison de etre of the state itself) that person is thrown into the lot with Hitler and accused of trying to exterminate the Jewish people.

Well, let's see. It is possible to wage war on a state without trying to exterminate its people. When the US attacked Iraq in 2003, Panama in 1989, Grenada in 1983, Vietnam in 1965, Korea in 1950 or Germany, Japan and Italy in 1941, was the US actually trying to exterminate every last Iraqi, Panamanian, Grenadian, Vietnamese, Korean, German, Japanese or Italian?

Well, then, surely it is possible to wage war, even brutal war, against a state without trying to exterminate every citizen there. In fact, this is the norm in modern warfare. Then why is it that every Arab who takes up arms against Israel, often in legitimate self-defense, is said to be an exterminationist? Is that rational? It's time that this incessant Zionist exterminationist refrain be aggressively challenged.
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On Saturday, Israel carried out many air strikes on Lebanese targets. IDF aircraft hit the following targets:
  • Al-Housh and Bour Al-Shemani east of Tyre (Bour Al-Shemani is 1/2 mile east of Tyre)
  • Shireen and Marjaheen in the Hermel Region
  • PFLP-GC positions in al-Naimeh south of Beirut, and all PFLP-GC positions in Central and Western Bekaa Valley
  • Al-Malikiyeh, Al-Sha’atiyeh, Shokein and Tul (locations unknown)
  • Yomor (1 mile north of Taybeh), Kfar Kila, Taybeh (2 miles west of the border at Metulla) and Khiam (4 miles north of Golan Heights), Al-Qlayleh (2 1/2 miles north of Metulla), Al-Bayada (on the coast 5 1/2 miles north of the border), Al-Mansouri (5 miles north of the border on the coast) Qana, Arnoun (2 1/2 miles north of the border near Metulla) and Sidiqueen (6 1/2 miles north of the border near Shetula) in Southern Lebanon. Al-Aisheyah and Kfar Kila are on the border of Lebanon and Israel.
  • Jibsheet (27 miles north of the border at Avivim and north of the Litani River)
  • The Dahiya District of Southern Beirut
*****

Israeli warships fired on Tyre.

An IDF airstrike on a PFLP-GC position in Al-Qusayaa Heights resulted in the death of 1 PFLP-GC cadre. Gee, I wonder if the Lebanese army will let the PFLP-GC fight now?

IDF airstrikes hit Ansar in southern Lebanon east of Sidon, hitting a Lebanese army truck in one strike and wounding a medic in another. Other airstrikes killed 6 civilians.

Israeli artillery bombarded Hula, 1 mile west of the border near Kiryat Shemona, and reports indicated that there are civilians buried under the rubble.

Hezbollah rockets attacked Safad, the Golan Heights, Maalot, Safat, Carmiel, Nahariya, Kiryat Ata, Accra, Haifa, Kiryat Motzkin, Tiberias and Kiryat Shemona. Over 250 rockets slammed into northern Israel in a mad, wild blitz.

*****
A Hizbollah rocket attack on Kibbutz Kfar Giladi near Kiryat Shemona killed 12 IDF Reserve soldiers in an and wounded 13 more, 2 seriously. A Reserve General was amongst the wounded. The rocket landed right in the midst of an IDF Artillery reserve force position near the border.

It hit the group as they rested near a cemetery, of all places. The group was resting at the entrance to the kibbutz, waiting to go into Lebanon. Palestinians held a spontaneous celebration in Nablus afterwards.
*****

3 Israeli civilians were killed and over 200 more wounded in rocket attacks on Haifa in the evening. 1 rocket hit an apartment building and caused it to collapse, killing the 3 civilians and wounding over 200 more.

The rockets were Syrian-made Raad-2 220mm rockets. This is also referred to as a Fajr-5 missile. It has a 200 pound warhead and is accurate with 1/2 mile in any direction. Hezbollah said it fired the barrage of 20 rockets in response to an IDF bombing of the Dahiya District in Beirut earlier.

This was part of a 30-rocket barrage on the Kiryat Shemona region that left dozens of vehicles destroyed, many of them in flames and left fires burning out of control around the town. Later in the afternoon, a rocket scored a direct hit on an empty home.

A rocket hit a factory in Tiberias and 6 people were wounded. A fire was burning in Kiryat Ata near Haifa. Rockets hit the Krayot Industrial Park near Haifa, damaging buildings but causing no casualties. A home was hit in Kiryat Motzkin and was in flames.
*****

Israeli troops are trying to advance into Al-Bayada, but 2 separate attempts at advances were beaten back by Hezbollah. 3 IDF soldiers were wounded in the fighting.

IDF troops entered a building in Blida in the eastern part of southern Lebanon and an explosion was heard afterwards. 8 troops were wounded in the attack, 1 seriously. The IDF reportedly killed 16 Hezbollah fighters in this village.

IDF forces suffered 5 wounded in a battle with Hezbollah in Mahbib, north of Metulla, 3 miles inside Lebanon.

Hezbollah reported that they beat back an attempted IDF advance at Ouadi Hounin, destroying tanks and causing casualties.

The IDF reportedly pulled a large armored force out of Taybeh, leaving behind 3 destroyed tanks.

IDF forces said they killed 4 Hezbollah fighters in Hula and wounded several more in a pre-dawn battle.

The IDF said they killed 8 Hezbollah fighters in Bint Jbeil, which was supposedly cleansed of fighters last weekend.

Fighting was reported in Aita Al-Shaab.

The IDF said it killed a Hezbollah fighter in Beit Leif.

Fighting was reported in Rajmin.

IDF commandos are reportedly operating deep behind enemy lines in Sidon.

IDF forces arrested one of the Hezbollah guerrillas who took the 2 IDF soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldav Regev, POW in the event that started all of this madness.

IDF forces killed an Islamic Jihad leader in Jenin. The IDF claimed he was killed in an exchange of fire, but actually, IDF forces went into his home, arrested him and executed him. This war sure is getting vicious. The IDF tends to execute Palestinian POW's when fighting gets really nasty in the region and the IDF starts suffering heavy casualties.

Palestinian guerrillas threw a bomb at IDF forces in Jenin, but there were no casualties.

A Palestinian guerrilla threw a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli settler vehicle near Kfar Salem, east of Nablus. There were no casualties.

There was a bomb scare at the Israeli Prime Minister's Office in the Knesset as an x-ray machine revealed a high likelihood of a bomb in a bag. This later turned out to be a false alert.

Palestinian guerrillas opened fire on IDF forces in Kabatiyeh in the West Bank. There were no casualties.

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