Israel invaded Lebanon this morning, its troops entering the hostile country to its north for the first time since the war of 2006. The Telegraph‘s Adrian Blomfield is in Beirut and says it’s starting to feel like all-out war.
As Israeli troops entered Lebanon for the first time since the war of 2006, artillery struck Hezbollah positions in the south and launched repeated air strikes on Beirut, the Lebanese capital.
Despite this latest escalation, Hezbollah fighters appear, at least for now, to have avoided any direct confrontation with Israeli troops on Lebanese soil.
The group has made no public mention of Israel’s incursion at all this morning, although it did say it had targeted artillery fire at Israeli troops on the other side of the border.
The Israeli ground raids came exactly a fortnight after the simultaneous detonation of thousands of pagers carried by mid-ranking Hezbollah fighters – an operation which Israel has not officially acknowledged but which clearly marked the start of this campaign.
Israel, of course, will say it did not fire the first shots of a confrontation that is starting to look like a war in all but name.
Instead, it insists, the responsibility lies with Hezbollah, which launched rockets into northern Israel almost immediately after Hamas slaughtered more than 1,000 people when it attacked Israel’s territory on October 7th last year.
Although the first fortnight of Israel’s operation against the Iran-backed group has been conducted with metronomic precision, a ground operation is a gamble with a different complexion.
During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Israel encountered much stiffer resistance from Hezbollah than it expected.
The two sides fought to a bloody standstill and Ehud Olmert, then the Israeli Prime Minister, bowed to international pressure and agreed to a ceasefire – much to the anger of many Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.
Since that conflict, Hezbollah has fortified its positions in southern Lebanon, digging tunnels deep under the rocks of the region’s mountains and, thanks to Iran, steadily accumulating a much vaster and more precise rocket capability.
Hezbollah’s arsenal of rockets, guided missiles and drones was estimated to be 150,000 strong last year – 10 times greater than in 2006.
Likewise, Hezbollah’s fighters are much more battle-hardened than they were 18 years ago after more than a decade of battle experience in Syria, where the group intervened, often viciously, in support of the Assad regime.
On the other hand, Israel has also spent the intervening years planning for this moment and has a battle plan that has proved stunningly effective so far.
Its preliminary attacks have been far more devastating than in 2006.
Worth reading in full.
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Very interesting 11min vid of the IDF’s Daniel Hagari, declassifying and explaining the IDF’s operations and what Hezbollah had in store for Northern Israel;
”Listen to IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari as he reveals Hezbollah’s plan to “Conquer the Galilee” and commit another October 7-style massacre”;
https://x.com/IDF/status/1841093834253480321
I wouldn’t believe a word of any IDF spokes person. When are folks going to get their head around the fact that Israel and the Zionists are the issue here…
This move in to Lebanon simply galvanises the false flag event of Oct 7th… And you’re still not getting it..
So the most secure and high tech border fence on the planet gets breeched in 19 separate places, while the most well resourced and trained military are caught relaxing by the pool with their pants down and fail to respond for 6 hrs..
Meanwhile, Mossad the most revered and accomplished secret service organisation, who, as we have recently witnessed can assisnate and murder their enemies in far away countries with ease of course knew absolutely nothing about the impending attack, even after several warnings from Egypt….
Wake the feck up will you….
The whole affair is sickening.. From the corrupt US politicians lobbied and encouraged by the MIC et al and the Jewish control of just about everything on this planet from the financial industry, to arms manufacturing, the media and by all accounts you…..
There is a lack of daily scepticism about certain topics here.
Lack of, you can say that again…
I’m done, I don’t come on here to read bigoted, deluded, biased PiersMorganesque bollox..
It’s worse than the Telegraph.. And that’s saying something.
Absolutely clueless
No you’re not “done”.
You’re like the toxic turd that won’t be flushed, aren’t you, ‘Jon’? 
You’ll just reinvent yourself with another name-change.
Fourth time’s a charm, amiright?
But how’s ‘coup d’etat’ doing these days? It’s been a while. Give him my regards won’t you? He was never your dominant personality though, was he?
It seems to me that very little has been said in any sort of media, corporate or otherwise, about the constant bombs dropped into northern Israel from southern Lebanon.
There’s plenty about Israel being in Gaza, but almost nothing about the incessant provocation from southern Lebanon.
This war seemed kind of inevitable for some time.
Are you referring to the illegally occupied land ie “northen Israel”
I wish folks would get some facts right instead of parrotting the forced msm narrative.. I don’t come on this site for that..its called the Daily Sceptic…
But when they own the global media and control the narrative I suppose I shouldn’t find it a surprise…
Ps… Are you aware they bankrolled Starmers election campaign……
No I bet you’re not, like most, not a clue of the power of the Israeli lobby… Not a damn clue….
Are you naive down tickers saying I’m wrong?
You’re acting like an arse and I don’t have to take what you say at face value. Prove it
Less of the attitude and rudeness you dingbat
As far as I can see, Israel has no choice.
The openly declared aim of Hamas and Hezbollah is to annihilate Israel and the Jews. If Israel wants to survive, they have to do this.
How about trying not to occupy land that belongs to others..
Yeah tatty bye ‘Mr Smith’
Don’t let the door smack you on the arse when you flounce out like a stroppy, attention-seeking little troll.
Outing yourself good and proper now, aren’t you? Yes, triggered by anything to do with Israel, as per…
“Oh and before I go…”
It’s a 10 for hypocrisy, anyway.
Don’t like being rumbled much, do you, ‘Jon’? Narcissists like to think they’re cleverer than everybody else, so to be caught out by a woman as well….the shame!!!
Yeah, see you when you’re non-compliant with your meds once more, no doubt.
“Get a life you saddo”, says the ‘man’ that just can’t stay away, despite telling every time he’s leaving, hates us all and is onto his 3rd username.
Have you thought of doing stand up??
Off you go now and throw an epic wobbler. The floor’s all yours.
Well, good.
I wonder why the IDF closed down Al Jazeera a few days ago..
I wonder if they don’t want the world to witness more wanton slaughter of the innocent….
No one has ever tried to silence the Flat Earthers…..
You deserve a down tick because your attitude stinks. I couldn’t care less what you say while you’re being like this.
Guess you all don’t mind that then…
Pro Israel, pro corruption, pro non-democracy.
Well done for swallowing their narrative.
Sceptics.. My arse
https://www.declassifieduk.org/israel-lobby-funded-half-of-keir-starmers-cabinet/
https://www.declassifieduk.org/labour-mps-have-accepted-over-280000-from-israel-lobby/
https://youtu.be/1ahlBTd6ZxI?si=WByKdtGQ6Q_vZ4aD
Expose.. The Israeli Lobby
Ooh, a meme. Proof for sure. Be pleasant or expect derision.
Oh there’s a lot more evidence than that.. If you look in the right place.. That’s not the BBC or Daily Sceptic..
Ps… The sooner the better….
Even the vast majority of Israelis know they were sold out on Oct 7th and theres been 39 weeks of protests since ,wanting Netanyahu gone
Then there’s the subscribers to the Daily Sceptic who think he’s great trying his hardest to involve the US and Iran and start WW3.
You couldn’t make it up..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2024/sep/02/tens-of-thousands-take-part-in-anti-government-protests-in-tel-aviv-in-pictures
And here we are, an extremely knowledgeable, sensible journalist talks to the polarising, pro zionist idiotic Piers Morgan….
You lot will get on with Morgan, he believes everything from the forced msm narrative too….
https://youtu.be/yvrsn6uO5e8?si=u6e11zxWnsM7u8sK
As Israeli troops entered Lebanon for the first time since the war of 2006, artillery struck Hezbollah positions in the south and launched repeated air strikes on Beirut, the Lebanese capital.
And is nobody questioning the right of Israel to bomb another nation’s capital? A capital populated by 2.5 million civilians? Men, women and children are to be bombed for what reason – because Israel does not like the place? Absolute madness.
So I repeat what Jeffrey Sachs recently reported after listening at the UN:
“Israel is not trying to live in peace with its neighbours, Israel is trying to pound into its neighbourhood we are the regional power, we have nuclear weapons, we can defeat you, we can bomb you, we can assassinate your leaders, we can act with impunity, you need to fear us.
“And what is so provoking Israel is the other side does not fear them, the other side is fighting them, and what Israel wants is not peace, it wants dominance and it wants to be feared.”
The Israeli ground raids came exactly a fortnight after the simultaneous detonation of thousands of pagers carried by mid-ranking Hezbollah fighters …
According to informed experts, Hezbollah, like most modern armies, does not use pagers for communications!
I must have missed the outbursts of disgust from western leaders at this outrageous action which affected thousands of innocent men, women and children (again), so I will repeat China’s protest at the UN Security Council:
“Thousands of communications devices in Lebanon, including pagers and two-way radios, were detonated remotely and simultaneously. The explosions caused thousands of civilian casualties. China hereby registers profound shock and grave concern over this development. Children playing in the streets lost their eyes, mothers shopping in supermarkets had their limbs maimed, doctors on their way to work were critically injured. These, and other, harrowing scenes are distressing beyond imagination. Remotely detonating communications devices in indiscriminate attacks causing mass civilian casualties and panic in society is unheard of in history. This act is, without a doubt, a gross violation of a country’s sovereignty and security, and a blatant breach of international law, particularly international humanitarian law, is an act that tramples on human lives with unconscionable callousness. The attacks were so outrageously brutal and atrocious that they deserve nothing less than condemnation in the strongest terms.”
On the other hand, Israel has also spent the intervening years planning for this moment and has a battle plan that has proved stunningly effective so far.
More critical reporters maintain that Israel has not struck Hezbollah at all because, as the article states, the latter are burrowed deep underground. It is not only Israel that has sadly spent the past years planning for eventual attacks.
It must also be remarked that Hezbollah is apparently attacking uniquely military targets in Israel, whereas Israel continues its standard practice of attacking purely civilian targets – with impunity, as always.
A history of wars:
The Israelis invaded Egypt in 1956 along with the British and the French, the Israelis carried out the June 1967 war against Egypt, Syria and Jordan (that is when the Israelis seized the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights), there was the 1982 invasion of Lebanon that started also in June 1982, and then there was the Sabra and Shatila massacres mid September 1982 in the Palestinian refugee camps, there was the occupation of the southern part of Lebanon then for the next 18 years until armed resistance forces drove the Israelis out in 2000, then there’s the 2006 war that you talked about.
The above is a quote from a very interesting discussion with the Lebanese Ghadi Francis here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34c01ZSJ1VQ.
I cannot claim to being particularly interested in “The Socialist Program” but I think the interview reveals exactly how the Lebanese population feels about Israel and its western supporters.
Well said, both comments.
Thank you. I am waiting for the critics to hit …
I like Ghadi Francis’ report in the video:
“Tell me, as a Lebanese person – I am not a Hezbollah person – tell me how am I supposed to defend my children from an F-35 or an F-16 or a technological cyber warfare that has all kinds of impunity from the world [the pager attack]? Am I supposed to sit, they expect us to sit down and wait for our death? Well, some of us do in Lebanon, actually they already chose to give up, but some of us, especially the people of south Lebanon and Beqaa and west Beqaa, these people who have been front face to face with the Israeli oppression all these decades, year in year out, they have chosen to stand their ground because they have paid so much blood, so many years. They have built and rebuilt their homes many times, so right now they are not going to stand back and they want to fight back. Their choice is to kill army leaders and military leaders and intelligence leaders of that so-called army that is massacring their civilians. So you tell me who is the demon here and what do you expect them to do? To shut up and die in silence? Well, too bad, they don’t want to, they want to fight until their last breath and they’re doing it.”