Israel Determined to ‘Change Security Reality’ with Lebanon

An Israeli artillery battery stationed near the border with Lebanon (AP)
An Israeli artillery battery stationed near the border with Lebanon (AP)
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Israel Determined to ‘Change Security Reality’ with Lebanon

An Israeli artillery battery stationed near the border with Lebanon (AP)
An Israeli artillery battery stationed near the border with Lebanon (AP)

Amid continuous violations of the rules of engagement, Israeli drones on Friday, and for the second day in a row, targeted the vicinity of the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh.
Meanwhile, the commander of the northern region in the Israeli army, Ori Gordin, announced that Israel aims to change the security situation in the north, near the border with Lebanon, in a way that allows “the safe return of residents.”
Army spokesman Avichay Adraee, on his account on X platform, quoted Gordin as saying that Israel was determined to change the security reality, as it continues “to prepare to expand the scope of the war.”
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that on Friday, an Israeli drone launched a raid on a deserted house in the Al-Sokra neighborhood at the northern entrance to the town of Yahmar Al-Shaqif in Nabatieh, and fired two missiles in two batches that penetrated the roof of the house, causing significant damage.
Later on Friday, Lebanese media reported a second raid targeting a site between the towns of Arnoun and Yahmar in Nabatieh.
Yahmar, which is about 8 km away from the city of Nabatieh, was subjected, for the first time on Thursday, to an Israeli drone strike that hit a car in what Israeli media claimed was an assassination attempt of a Hezbollah military official.
Artillery shelling also hit the town of Kafr Kila, located in the Marjayoun District, while Israeli warplanes carried out a raid on the Hamul area in Naqoura, south of Tyre. The bombing targeted the outskirts of the town of Aitaroun in the Bint Jbeil District and the vicinity of Ali Al-Taher Hill.
Hezbollah, for its part, announced the targeting of spying equipment in Israel’s Dovev Barracks, as well as in the vicinity of the Al-Malikiyah site and the Ramta site.
The head of Hezbollah’s Sharia Committee, Sheikh Mohammad Yazbek, said that the “Islamic Resistance on our front in the south has recorded successive achievements in striking the Zionist enemy.”
Yazbek said during the Friday prayers: “The envoys will only hear one word; the beginning of the solution starts from Gaza, and threats will not work.”

 

 

 

 

 

 



Abbas Denounces Israeli Gaza Offensive at UN, Insists: 'We Will Not Leave'

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, US, September 26, 2024.   REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, US, September 26, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
TT

Abbas Denounces Israeli Gaza Offensive at UN, Insists: 'We Will Not Leave'

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, US, September 26, 2024.   REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, US, September 26, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

The head of the Palestinian Authority denounced Israel and its offensive in the Gaza Strip in front of world leaders Thursday, appealing to other nations to stop what he called a “genocidal war” against a place and people he said had been totally destroyed.
Mahmoud Abbas used the rostrum of the UN General Assembly as he typically does — to criticize Israel. But this was the first time he did so since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel that triggered an Israeli military operation that has devastated the Gaza Strip.
Abbas strode to the podium to loud applause and a few unintelligible shouts. His first words were a sentence repeated three times: “We will not leave. We will not leave. We will not leave.”
He accused Israel of destroying Gaza and making it unlivable. And he said that his government should govern post-war Gaza as part of an independent Palestinian state, a vision that Israel’s hardline government rejects.
“Palestine is our homeland. It is the land of our fathers and our grandfathers. It will remain ours. And if anyone were to leave, it would be the occupying usurpers," The Associated Press quoted him as saying.
A nationwide series of campus protests against Israel's operations in Gaza swept the United States in the spring and largely originated at Columbia University, about 70 blocks north of the United Nations.
“The American people are marching in the streets in these demonstrations. We are appreciative of them," Abbas said.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians and wounded more than 96,000 others, according to the latest figures released Thursday by the Health Ministry.

Abbas spent big chunks of his speech at the United Nations talking about the state of life in Gaza, and he painted a bleak picture.
"Entire family names have been written out of the civil record," he said. "Gaza is no longer fit for life. Most homes have been destroyed. The same applies for most buildings. ... Roads. Churches. Mosques. Water plants. Electric plants. Sanitation plants. Anyone who has gone to Gaza and known it before would not recognize it anymore.”
Among his demands, none of which are new: A full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip — not “buffer zones.” Allowing Gaza's displaced Palestinians — an estimated 90% of the population — to return to their homes. And a central role for Abbas' government in any future Gaza.
“Stop this crime. Stop it now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel. This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank.”