Above photo: Hasan Nasrallah said an Israeli ground invasion would be a “historic opportunity” for Hezbollah to target Israeli forces. Al Jazeera Livestream.
Following the Lebanon pager explosion attacks, Nasrallah said an Israeli invasion would be a “historic opportunity” to target Israeli forces.
Earlier in the week, Israel razed an entire residential block in central Gaza, killing at least 40 people.
Casualties
- 41,272 + killed* and at least 95,551 wounded in the Gaza Strip. 32,280 of the slain have been identified, including 10,627 children and 5,956 women, representing 60% of the casualties, and 2,770 elderly as of August 6, 2024. Some 10,000 more are estimated to be under the rubble*
- 708+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This includes 146 children.**
- Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
- The Israeli army recognizes the death of 714 Israeli soldiers and the injury of at least 4,100 others since October 7.***
* Gaza’s branch of the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed this figure in its daily report, published through its WhatsApp channel on September 18, 2024. Rights groups and public health experts estimate the death toll to be much higher.
** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. This is the latest figure according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health as of September 19, 2024.
*** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported on August 4, 2024, that some 10,000 Israeli soldiers and officers have been either killed or wounded since October 7. The head of the Israeli army’s wounded association told Israel’s Channel 12 that the number of wounded Israeli soldiers exceeds 20,000, including at least 8,000 who have been permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7 and as of June 18.
Key Developments
- Gaza branch of the Palestinian Health Ministry says death toll surpasses 41,272, with 95,551 wounded since October 7, including 33% children, 18.4% women, and 8.6% elderly; at least 115 Palestinian children born and killed by Israeli forces since October 7.
- Russia, the EU, and the UN condemn the Lebanon pager explosion attacks.
- Nasrallah vows “just punishment” for Israel after pager explosion attacks, calls it “a massacre” and a “terrorist attack.”
- Nasrallah says Israel will no be able to separate the Lebanese front from the front in Gaza or return Israelis to the north through military action.
- The Israeli army admits one soldier killed, 11 wounded in Hezbollah rocket attack on Israeli military base in the upper Galilee on Thursday.
- Israeli media says Israeli war minister Gallant told U.S. Defense Secretary Austin that Israel was about to conduct “a difficult operation” in Lebanon in a phone conversation hours before the pager explosions.
- Israeli media says Israeli army pulled forces from the occupied West Bank to move them to the Lebanese front in the north.
- Israeli forces killed at least 40 Palestinians in the bombing of a residential block in the central Gaza Strip last Tuesday, opened fire on rescue teams in the aftermath according to the Gaza-based Civil Defense.
- WHO says 22,500 Palestinians in Gaza, a quarter of the wounded since last October, have suffered life-changing injuries, including limb injuries, amputations, spinal cord trauma, traumatic brain injuries, and major burns.
- Israel admits to the killing of four soldiers in Rafah, including a military staff medic, and the wounding of five other soldiers during the fighting in southern Gaza.
- The armed wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, says it ambushed an Israeli armored force in Rafah and targeted Israeli soldiers inside a building.
- Israel’s public broadcaster says Israel will present a new ceasefire proposal to mediators, which would include an end to the war, a prisoner exchange, and a safe route out of Gaza for Sinwar and other Hamas leaders.
- Israeli forces kill three Palestinians after firing a missile into a house in Qabatiya, west of Jenin, following a gunfight with Palestinian resistance fighters inside. Eight schools in Qabatiya were forced to evacuate, while 1,000 students remained trapped for hours in two other schools due to Israeli forces’ raid into the town.
- The UN General Assembly passed a resolution on September 17 demanding Israel end the illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories within 12 months. The resolution also urged countries to stop importing Israeli settlement products, and to halt arms transfers to Israel.
Nasrallah Vows ‘Just Punishment’ After Pager Explosions
The Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, vowed “just punishment” against Israel in retaliation for the pager explosion attacks on Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, which left 32 people killed and thousands injured.
“The punishment will come,” Nasrallah declared. “But when, where, or how, is something that we will keep to ourselves, and even to the closest circle within ourselves.”
Nasrallah’s declarations came in a live speech on Thursday, stating that Israel’s goal from the pager explosion attack was to “put a stop to the Lebanese front and separate it from Gaza.”
“We received messages on Tuesday evening [following the explosions] saying that the aim of the explosions is to stop the [Lebanese] front, and was a threat that if we don’t stop, there will be more attacks,” Nasrallah indicated. “In the name of the martyrs and the wounded, we tell Netanyahu that the northern front will not stop except with the end of the war on Gaza. We will not stop supporting Gaza and the West Bank and all the oppressed in that sacred land,” he declared, adding, “This is the beginning of our response.”
Nasrallah also described the attack as “a massacre” and “terrorist attack,” stating that the attack aimed to weaken the morale of Hezbollah’s support base and affirming that “our environment hasn’t been shaken; the resistance and its environment are more resolved after this blow.”
Nasrallah also said that “our [military] capabilities are well, and our readiness is at its highest.”
Nasrallah’s speech came in the midst of Israeli threats to widen the war on the Lebanese front. On Monday, the Israeli cabinet passed a decision to consider the return of displaced Israelis to the north as a new objective in the ongoing war.
“I say to Netanyahu and Gallant and the enemy’s army: You will not be able to return the colonizing settlers to the north,” Nasrallah declared in his speech. “The only way is to stop the aggression on Gaza and the West Bank. Neither military pressure nor a total war can bring the residents back north.”
Responding to Israeli threats of conducting a ground invasion of Lebanon, Nasrallah said, “We wish they will cross into Lebanese territory because that would give us a historic opportunity to target them.”
On Monday, the commander of the northern front in the Israeli army advised to create a buffer zone inside Lebanon. Nasrallah addressed these statements in his Thursday speech, stating that “this buffer zone will turn to a mud trap and an abyss to hell for your army if you come to our land, and you will find hundreds of those who were injured last Tuesday and Wednesday waiting for you.”
32 Lebanese People Killed In Pager Explosions
The Lebanese health minister announced that 32 Lebanese citizens were killed while some 3,000 were injured or wounded in a series of explosions of personal communication devices on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Tuesday, thousands of pagers exploded across Lebanon, especially in Hezbollah’s strongholds in Beirut’s southern Dahiya district and in southern Lebanon. The explosions, which happened simultaneously, killed at least nine Lebanese and injured or wounded 2,800. On Wednesday, a second wave of explosions, this time of walkie-talkies, killed 20 more people. Some of the explosions took place at the funeral ceremony of those killed in the pagers’ explosions the day prior.
Hezbollah accused Israel of being behind the attack. The Israeli ‘Walla’ news site said that Israel’s war minister, Yoav Gallant, had told the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a phone call hours prior to the explosions that Israel was about to conduct “a difficult operation” in Lebanon.
Gallant’s alleged phone call came amid leaked arguments claiming that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gallant were in disagreement over expanding the war to the Lebanese front. On Monday, Israeli media outlets reported rumors of Netanyahu’s intention to dismiss Gallant from the government over his opposition to a large offensive against Lebanon and to replace him with far-right politician Gideon Sa’ar. Netanyhu’s office denied the rumors.
The conflict between Netanyahu and Gallant took place as U.S. envoy Amos Hockstein arrived in Israel to defuse tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. Ahead of Hockstein’s arrival, Israel rejected a U.S. proposal for defining borders between Israel and Lebanon.
On Thursday, Hezbollah continued its cross-border attacks on Israeli positions, killing one Israeli soldier and wounding 11 in a rocket attack on an Israeli army base in the upper Galilee, according to Israeli reports. Hezbollah said in a statement that the attack was part of its ongoing effort to keep up a Gaza “support front,” indicating that it was not a retaliation to the communications device explosions.
The Lebanon attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday were condemned by Russia, the UN, and the EU. The spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry Maria Zakharova said in a statement that Russia “strongly condemns the unprecedented attack on the friend country of Lebanon and its citizens,” calling it “a clear violation to its sovereignty” and an act of “defiance of international law” through the use of “unconventional weapons.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said that “the targeting of thousands of individuals without knowing who carried these devices violates international humanitarian law,” calling for an independent investigation into the explosions “holding those who ordered it and executed it accountable.”
The latest escalation at the Lebanese front takes place almost a month after Hezbollah launched a drone and rocket attack that targeted the Israeli army’s military intelligence headquarters near Tel Aviv. Hezbollah said that the attack was in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of the group’s top military commander, Fouad Shukr, in late July in Beirut. The assassination put Lebanon and Israel on the brink of an all-out war, which was exacerbated by Israel’s assassination of Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran the following day.
Hezbollah began a series of cross-border attacks on Israeli forces on October 8 last year, launching a “support front” to aid the resistance in Gaza. The attacks have grown in size and quality over the year, pushing around 100,000 Israelis to move away from the northern border as Israel intensified its strikes on southern Lebanese towns and its targeting of Hezbollah leaders and members. Despite U.S. attempts to end the fighting at the Lebanese border, especially through its envoy Amos Hockstein, Hezbollah has reaffirmed that it will only end its operations if Israel ends its war on Gaza.
Israel Razes A Residential Block In Gaza, Killing Dozens
Israeli forces continued targeting Palestinian houses in the Gaza Strip, which the Israeli army has done repeatedly on an almost daily basis throughout recent weeks. On Thursday, Israeli drones opened fire at tents sheltering displaced families in the Mawasi area in Khan Younis, while an airstrike on a house in al-Fakhoura in northern Gaza left dozens wounded.
On Tuesday, September 17, Israeli forces bombed and destroyed an entire residential block of seven buildings in al-Bureij in the central Gaza Strip, killing at least 40 Palestinians and burying dozens under the rubble.
All the bombed houses had been inhabited by three families, the Tartawi family, the Abu Shawqa family, and the Batran family, accounting for over 50 people in the buildings. Local sources said that Israeli forces prevented rescue teams from rescuing survivors in the aftermath of the bombing.
The Palestinian Civil Defense spokesperson in Gaza, Mahmoud Basal, told Mondoweiss that “Our teams arrived on site and saw the bodies of the martyrs under the rubble and the ceilings that had fallen on top of them, and there were also voices of people under the rubble.” Basal added that “suddenly, while the teams were working, Israeli drones began shooting at the location and ordering people through speakers to leave the area immediately.”
“Our crews withdrew after several people were injured, including civilians who participated in digging for martyrs alongside the Civil Defense crews,” Basal went on, indicating that “the bodies of the citizens and the injured are still under the rubble. The screams of people were clear, and many were still alive.” The Civil Defense was able to rescue only four people before leaving the scene, while one of its members was wounded in the leg by fire from an Israeli quadcopter drone.
Since the beginning of Israel’s assault on Gaza last October, Israeli forces have systematically targeted residential blocks, especially in the northern Gaza Strip, which is one of the reasons for the high number of civilian deaths.
The number of Palestinians estimated to remain under the rubble is around 10,000 people. Last week, the World Health Organization reported that over 22,500 people, a quarter of them wounded in Gaza since Israel’s assault began, have suffered life-changing injuries requiring rehabilitation services “now and for years to come.” These include limb injuries, amputations, spinal cord trauma, traumatic brain injuries, and major burns.