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Updated January 19, 2008:

This report covers events of Wednesday, July 26 in the Israel-Lebanon War.

There were at least 95 Israeli casualties Wednesday in the Middle East War, 9 killed and 86 wounded. 9 IDF were killed and 26 were wounded, all in and around Bint Jbail and Maroun al Ras in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border.

At least 60 Israeli civilians were wounded, all but 2 by rocket attacks. The others were a settler who was wounded in a shooting attack on his vehicle in the West Bank and an Israeli who was wounded by a Qassam attack on the Negev.

2 Merkava tanks were either damaged or destroyed, one in between Maroun al Ras and Bint Jbail and another in Bint Jbeil. An IDF unit was hit in Maroun al Ras, a village they said they captured "for reals" on Saturday nite.

Looks like Umm al Qasr syndrome, where US insisted, day by day, during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, that Umm al Qasr had been taken, only to have to retract it the next day when fighting broke out again. Fighting went on there for 1-2 weeks at least.

The Lower City of Haifa was seriously damaged by a 16-rocket barrage on Wednesday. The commercial and port facilities there sustained major damage. Near the Lebanese border, fires are raging across much of the Israeli countryside.

Smoke from fires is pouring out of the Israeli town of Metulla on the border. A fire raged inside the town of Kirstyn Shemona and 17 people were treated for smoke inhalation. Fires are raging out of control over much of the north. An incredible 500,000 trees and much of the brush in northern Israel has been destroyed by fires.

Hezbollah has suffered maybe ~125 killed so far, but Hezbollah casualties are almost impossible to determine. Israel seems to be claiming ~250 Hezbollah killed so far, but Hezbollah has only admitted to ~27 killed. US intelligence says that Israel is seriously exaggerating Hezbollah casualties.

Casualties in Lebanon as of Monday were at least 491 killed - 415 civilians (including 44 foreign nationals and 371 Lebanese) and 76 military - 40 Lebanese military, 31 Hezbollah and 5 Amal militia fighters.

Since then, at least 41 more civilians have been killed, bringing the Lebanese civilian total to 460 killed, and the figures for Hezbollah's fighters are undoubtedly low. Total dead in Lebanon are now at least 526 killed, and surely many more.

In addition, there are at least 150-200 more bodies trapped under the rubble, according to the Lebanese government. It is too dangerous to pull them out.

There were 34 Lebanese civilian casualties on Wednesday. Israel also dropped around ten bombs and missiles on Shia Southern Beirut.

It is useful to note that according to Israeli logic that is being used to target Southern Beirut, Hezbollah has a right to attack Israeli cities in the manner in which it is doing. Shia Southern Beirut is the home of Hezbollah, it is controlled by Hezbollah, and many Hezbollah live there, from high-ranking officers to foot soldiers.

Many of the civilians there are described as working for Hezbollah in some sort of support capacity. Since everyone supporting Hezbollah is said to be a target by Israel, we can apply the same logic back on the Israelis.

By that logic, all Israeli cities and towns are legitimate targets for Hezbollah, since they are all controlled by the IDF, most large centers have IDF bases or recruitment centers of some sort, and almost all have many IDF soldiers amongst the residents. The larger centers also have many IDF officers residing there.

How many Israeli civilians serve as the supporters of the IDF in one way or another? How many Israeli factories and commercial centers serve the IDF in some capacity or other?

The Lebanese town of Yaroun near the Israeli border and close to Bint Jbeil has been devastated by extremely heavy Israeli bombing. 100 foreigners, mostly Americans, were visiting relatives in the town when it was hit. Israel is targeting anything that moves in the area, making evacuation difficult. Many homes are flattened and many civilian bodies are buried under the rubble.

In Marjayoun, a Greek Orthodox town 4 1/2 miles from the border, and in Qlaya, a Maronite Catholic town 3 miles north of border, Lebanese army patrols move through the streets to try to prevent Hezbollah rocket teams from using the towns to launch missiles on Israel.

Apparently, the Lebanese army has a major presence in South Lebanon, which is surprising, since US Zionist media had told me that the entire area had been ceded by Lebanon to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah, far from being down and out, rained down 151 missiles on northern Israel Wednesday, the most ever in a single day. Missiles hit Safad, Carmiel, Hula Valley, Haifa, Maalot, Kiryat Shemona, Tiberias, Rosh Pinna, Nahariyah and Krayot.

8 IDF were killed and 22 more were wounded in Bint Jbeil in a heavy battle when they were ambushed by a large Hezbollah force using mortars, AT-3 Sagger anti-tank missiles, Lau rockets (What is this, anyone?), roadside bombs, RPG's and automatic weapons. Principal targets in the attacks were Israeli tanks and APC's.

IDF troops had only surrounded the village, not taken it, as claimed earlier. A Golani Brigade dismounted force (no vehicles) came down off a hill outside the town and tried to penetrate the town at 5 AM on Wednesday when they were hit by a devastating ambush.

Hezbollah forces had re-entered the town that night from the north with a large force, including reinforcements from surrounding villages. They took up positions in town and waited for the IDF to enter.

When the IDF got to the "deserted" marketplace, they were hit from three sides by the ambush from guerrilla fighters who darted out of homes, fired, and then disappeared. The fighting was very close-quarters and house to house. The IDF force was completely trapped and had to take refuge in the homes in the area. After many troops were hit and downed, a casualty evacuation was ordered.

A Merkava tank and various vehicles were called in to evacuate the troops but were hit by withering fire and set on fire. Casualty evacuation took 6 hours under very heavy fire.

IDF troops, in some cases, had to evacuate the wounded on foot for up to a mile before they could be airlifted out. The soldiers would drop the wounded man, pause to fire their weapons, and then go back to carrying out the wounded.

Arab TV reported 12 or 13 killed long before the Western media reported any KIA's. Later, the Israeli government reported 8 killed. A soldier inside the Golani Brigade that was involved in the fighting said, in a phone call to his mother in Gilo, opposite Bethlehem, that 10 IDF were killed in the battle.

One source says there are some IDF still missing in the town. Until this is cleared up, we are going with 8 IDF killed as per official IDF sources. Later in the day, an IDF tank was hit by an anti-tank missile between Bint Jbeil and Maroun al Ras. The tank was destroyed and 1 IDF soldier was killed and 3 more were wounded, 2 critically.

The IDF is issuing various contradictory claims of Hezbollah casualties, the most recent being 50 Hezbollah killed in Bint Jbeil in recent days. IDF ghouls have confiscated the dead bodies of Hezbollah KIA's and are keeping the stiffs on ice in order to have rigor mortis bargaining chips to use against Hezbollah to try to get the two captured IDF soldiers back.

There was a huge furor over the IDF deliberately targeting a UNIFL (UN Interim Force for Lebanon) observation post in Khiam 3 miles north of the border with the Israeli-occupied Lebanese land known as Shebaa Farms.

The village had been devastated by Israeli bombs all day. The bombs steadily came closer and closer to the observation post as the UN officers desperately called the IDF 8-10 times over a period of hours and told them to call off their fire.

The IDF received the calls and told the UN that the bombs would stop. The post was then hit with a direct hit from an Israeli precision-guided missile, in an obvious deliberate attack. The US Zionist media, even Fox News, if you can believe it (Greta van Sustern could barely contain her outrage) is up in arms over this outrage.

Koffi Annan, the UN Secretary General who replaced independent Boutros Boutros-Ghali in the post when the US government singlehandedly had the disobedient Boutros-Ghali removed, has usually been an obedient US agent. To his eternal shame, Annan has transformed the UN into an appendage and armed accomplice of US imperialism.

From its outrageous collaboration with the US colonial occupation of Iraq (this blog supported the Iraqi guerrillas' devastating attack on the UN building in Baghdad) to the criminal manner in which UN forces serve as goons for the US-French-Canadian imperial armed occupation of Haiti, to the point of repeatedly attacking the Haitian poor rebelling against the wicked imperial occupation regime, Annan has played the satrap role well.

The deliberate attack on the UN post was a bit too much though. Annan was beside himself with rage, sputtering. The "USraeli" (What the Hell, it's all one country now) media and government went nuts because Annan told the truth, and like a good submissive, Koffi backed down and lowered his gaze. He was last seen obediently muttering that he must have been mistaken.

Israel (via Debka - a de facto Mossad-owned website) admitted that the UNIFL force was attacked on purpose, apparently because they thought that the Chinese UN observer was spying on IDF positions, targets, etc.

Debka also admitted, in a shocking admission, that the "accidental" US bombing of the Chinese Embassy during Wesley Clark's NATO bombing of Serbia in the 1990's had also been deliberate, supposedly because the Chinese were gathering intelligence about US bombing targets in Serbia. At the time, the US government had fallen all over itself, tangled up in its apologies.

The line, parroted faithfully by the puppy-dog US media, was that the US maps of Belgrade had been outdated, and the present Chinese embassy was thought to be a strategic target on an outdated map.

The shocking admission that the attack was deliberate all along, and that the "progressive" Clinton Administration lied to the US public about it at the time and never came clean afterwards, serves as a reminder to Americans. A reminder that not only is truth the first casualty of war, but that Americans need to be extremely cynical about the US government's claims about its military operations.

The attack may also have been a payback to the UN, which is despised by Israel and its passionate supporters for allowing the Hezbollah buildup in the South and supposedly sympathizing with and working to help Hezbollah.

The attack may also may have been a warning of what lies in store for any international force that is going to head into the area not to go there. As if on cue, the Australian government said that it was pulling its forces out of UNIFL, since UNIFL is now a "suicide mission".

This attack seems to have shades of the USS Liberty incident, when Israel deliberately attacked a US spy ship in order to be able to commit its war crimes without the US looking on. This is probably the main reason for the attack. UNIFL is the eyes and ears on the ground of Israel's criminal destruction of the nation of Lebanon.

If UNIFL is removed from the scene as a respected witness, the IDF will be much more free to commit the massive war crimes that they are apparently dying to commit.

Hezbollah is now warning that it will hit between Netanya and Tel Aviv with missiles. Israelis cowering in sweltering bomb shelters for two weeks now are starting to run of food and medicine in a parallel with their Lebanese neighbors, who, ducking in their own makeshift shelters in South Lebanon, are also running out of food.

If you turned on CNN Wednesday, you could see excited journalists milling around a destroyed seven story building in the coastal city of Tyre in Lebanon. CNN reported that the building was a residential apartment building.

The IDF said a top Hezbollah officer had his headquarters in the building. Israel said that building was empty when it was attacked but I guess not, as I saw the wounded civilians on my TV screen. In fact, 13 civilians were wounded in this attack.

Very heavy Israeli shelling and aerial bombing continued to pound South Lebanon all throughout the day.

On the second front of the war, Israel attacked Gaza with a huge force, killing 23 Palestinians, 16 guerrillas and 7 civilians. It was the highest single-day casualty figure in Gaza since Israel withdrew its settlements from Gaza last year.

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