Israel Bombs Neighborhoods in Lebanon Ahead of Approving Ceasefire

By Chris Menahan – Information Liberation

Israel on Tuesday elected to bomb a few residential neighborhoods in Lebanon as the two countries were finalizing a ceasefire agreement.

 

 

 

 

 

From Reuters:

“Our village — they destroyed half of it. In these few seconds before they announced the ceasefire, they destroyed half our village,” said Alia Ibrahim, a mother of twin girls from the southern village of Qaaqaiyat al-Snawbar, who had fled nearly three months ago to Beirut.

Ibrahim said that after weeks of Israeli officials expressing contradictory views on a ceasefire, she hoped this time they would be “faithful” to the deal.

“God willing, we can go back to our homes and our land,” she said.

Antiwar has more on the deal:

It is reported that the cabinet is expected to voted to approve the limited ceasefire on the invasion of neighboring Lebanon, and would stop a ground deployment that began in early October. The Israeli security cabinet was supposed to vote at 4:00 PM local time, but the meeting was delayed several hours.

The exact terms of the deal are not public yet, but the reports are that this will be a 60-day ceasefire, during whichIsrael is to remove its ground troops from Lebanon. The Israelis have to report “suspicious movements” to a US-led group before taking action. This was a strong sticking point for the Israeli government.

[…] [Netanyahu] insisted Hezbollah was set back “decades,” however, citing that they’d killed “all of the leaders” and destroyed most of the group’s rocket arsenals.

Netanyahu suggested the ceasefire is only temporary, and that they will attack Lebanon forcefully if Hezbollah takes any actions they object to. He further insisted that the ceasefire was important to “focus on the Iranian threat,” to “rearm the troops,” and to “isolate” Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying the Lebanon ceasefire will help Israel in their “sacred mission” in Gaza.

Israelis were split on the decision, according to a spot poll from Israel’s Channel 12 TV highlighted by Reuters:

– 37% of Israelis were for the ceasefire
– 32% were against
– 31% had no opinion

Asked about the conflict:

– 20% of Israelis thought Israel had won
– 19% said Israel had lost
– 50% said no one won
– 11% had no opinion

Asked how long the truce would last:

– 24% said two years
– 28% said a few months
– 30% said that it would collapse soon

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir denounced the deal as “a historic mistake.”

“This isn’t a ceasefire. It’s a return to the concept of quiet for quiet, and will already saw where this leads,” Ben Gvir said.

Gvir predicted that “ultimately we’ll again need to return to Lebanon,” the Times of Israel noted.