August 3, 2024
Israeli
warplanes launched at least two air raids on the Lebanese-Syrian border area
late on 2 August, targeting the Matraba crossing in the town of Al-Qasr and
later the village of Hosh al-Sayyed Ali.
According to
Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA), the second attack targeted a convoy of
trucks carrying food from Lebanon to Syria. AFP reported that at least one
Syrian driver was injured in the attack.
On Saturday
morning, an Israeli airstrike also hit a vehicle in the town of Bazourieh, near
the southern Lebanese city of Tyre.
Israel's latest
cross-border aggression comes as the nation awaits retaliation from Hezbollah
and Iran following the twin attacks in Beirut and Tehran that killed top
resistance commander Fuad Shukr and Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh.
“You do not know
which lines you have crossed and what kind of aggression you have committed …
We are in an open battle on all fronts, and we have entered a new phase [in the
war]," Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah warned on Thursday.
During a phone
call on Friday with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Iran's interim
Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani stressed that it is "Iran's natural and
legitimate right to punish the criminal Zionist gang."
He also
denounced the failure of some nations in the west countries to condemn the
assassination of Haniyeh, noting that the silence of these countries "will
encourage the Zionist entity to continue its attacks."
Bagheri Kani's
comments came hours before the US government ordered the deployment of more
fighter jets and warships to the waters of West Asia after President Joe Biden
pledged with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help him overcome the coming
retaliation.
The
US military will move an aircraft carrier, fighter jet squadron, cruisers and
destroyers with ballistic missile capability, and land-based ballistic missiles
to West Asia, the Pentagon announced on 2 August, to help defend Israel from
possible retaliatory attacks by the Axis of Resistance, led by Iran.
US
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is ordering the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft
carrier strike group to West Asia, where it will join the USS Theodore
Roosevelt carrier strike group, which is in the Gulf of Oman.
It
is unclear if the USS Abraham Lincoln will replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt,
which is scheduled to return to the US later this summer, or whether the USS
Theodore Roosevelt will remain in the region alongside the USS Abraham Lincoln
and be directed to the Mediterranean Sea to help defend Israel.
The
Pentagon did not say where the fighter jet squadron was coming from or where it
would be based in West Asia. The US has multiple Arab allies in the region who
are willing to base US military forces but request that their presence not be
made public.
The
statement did not identify which vessels and units will be involved, but says
they will be added to the "broad range of capabilities the U.S. military
maintains in the region."
US
defense official told The Washington Post on 1 August that the US Navy has
already assembled at least a dozen warships nearby to defend Israel.
The
announcement of the new deployment came a day after US President Joe Biden
spoke by phone to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden affirmed his
commitment to Israeli security "against all threats from Iran, including
its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis."
"The
President discussed efforts to support Israel's defense against threats,
including against ballistic missiles and drones, to include new defensive U.S.
military deployments," said a brief statement summarizing the two leaders'
call.
Israel
is bracing for an attack from the Axis of Resistance, an alliance comprising
Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansarallah in Yemen, the Islamic Resistance in
Iraq, and Hamas in Gaza. Axis leaders have promised to retaliate for Israel's
assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on 31 August
and top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut on 30 August.
The
US and its regional Arab allies are seeking to defend Israel as part of a
coalition that helped defend Israel from an Iranian retaliatory attack in
April.
Iran
attacked Israel with a barrage of missiles and drones in response to Israel's
bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus two weeks prior. The Israeli
attack killed sixteen people, including eight officers of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and two Syrian civilians.
"As
we have demonstrated since October and again in April, the United States'
global defense is dynamic and the Department of Defense retains the capability
to deploy on short notice to meet evolving national security threats,"
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said in her statement on Friday.
Speaking
to The Cradle, Hamas representative in Iran Khaled Kaddoumi called
"ridiculous" and "completely fabricated" a recent New York
Times (NYT) report claiming to reveal how Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh
was assassinated in Iran this week.
The
NYT report from 1 August claimed Haniyeh was killed by an explosive device
planted in his room in a guest house controlled by the Islamic Revolution Guard
Corps (IRGC). The bomb was planted two months ago and detonated remotely by
Israel's intelligence service, the Mossad, NYT report claimed.
Haniyeh
was in the Iranian capital, Tehran, for the inauguration of newly elected
President Masoud Pezeshkian.
In
contrast, Kaddoumi stated that Haniyeh and his bodyguard were killed by
explosives dropped from the air.
"I
was there, and the wall and ceiling of the place where he was were collapsed.
It is clear from the appearance of the place after the attack, and from the
body of the martyr leader Ismail Haniyeh, that the targeting was carried out by
an air-dropped projectile," Kaddoumi told The Cradle.
He
noted further, "There are ongoing investigations, and technicians who
inspected the crime scene will issue detailed reports on what happened."
The
Hamas representative told The Cradle, "The cheap scenarios promoted by
some Western media about the assassination of martyr Ismail Haniyeh are very
ridiculous. The narrative published by the New York Times about Mossad agents
planting explosive devices inside the apartment where Haniyeh stayed is
completely fabricated … They are trying to evade responsibility and its
consequences for Israel."
Kaddoumi
made similar comments to the New Arab and Anadolu Agency about Haniyeh's
killing.
The
NYT story supported the narrative of the Israeli military. After Haniyeh's
killing, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a press conference that "The air
force was not on any mission that night except for the attack that targeted
Beirut."
Haniyeh
was killed in the early hours of 1 August. The night before, Israel
assassinated top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shakr in an airstrike on a
residential building. The strike also killed two women and two children.
The
NYT story regarding Haniyeh's killing was authored by Israeli journalist Ronen
Bergman, US journalist Mark Mazetti, and US-Iranian journalist Farnaz Fassihi.
Bergman
and Mazzetti are veteran reporters with close contacts within the Israeli and
US intelligence agencies, respectively.
Hezbollah
leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to respond to Israel's killing of Haniyeh and
Shukr while stating that the conflict with Israel is in a "new
phase."
"The
enemy, and those who are behind the enemy, must await our inevitable response …
You do not know what red lines you crossed," he said, in reference to
Israel and its most important ally, the US.
The
Kayhan daily, which is closely aligned with Iran's IRGC, emphasized that
"the Zionists" would "pay blood" for Haniyeh's
assassination.
"Avenging
the bloodshed of a guest is the host's duty; the world is watching," the
daily wrote.
Iran's Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) revealed on 3 August that Hamas politburo
chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed by “a short-range projectile with a warhead
weighing around 7 kilograms” in an Israeli “terrorist crime” that hit the
Iranian capital earlier this week.
The statement
also holds the US government responsible for providing support in “planning and
executing” the operation.
"The
terrorist Zionist entity will certainly be severely punished for this gamble
and terrorist crime at the appropriate time, place, and method," the IRGC
warned.
Furthermore, the
statement strongly rejects claims in western media that allege Haniyeh was
killed by a bomb planted inside the secure residence months earlier, saying
these reports are fueled with “sinister political objectives” to divert the
attention of public opinion.
The statement
also noted that “all security protocols and safety requirements were fully
applied to the residence of Haniyeh in Tehran, which is used for accommodating
political figures and foreign guests.”
The IRGC
announcement comes on the heels of comments to The Cradle by Hamas
representative in Iran Khaled Kaddoumi, who said the New York Times (NYT)
“completely fabricated” their report on Haniyeh's death.
"The cheap
scenarios promoted by some western media about the assassination of martyr
Ismail Haniyeh are very ridiculous. The narrative published by the New York
Times about Mossad agents planting explosive devices inside the apartment where
Haniyeh stayed is completely fabricated … They are trying to evade
responsibility and its consequences for Israel," Kaddoumi said.
"I was
there, and the wall and ceiling of the place where he was were collapsed. It is
clear from the appearance of the place after the attack, and from the body of
the martyr leader Ismail Haniyeh, that the targeting was carried out by an
air-dropped projectile," the Hamas official added.
The NYT story
supported the narrative of the Israeli military. After Haniyeh's killing,
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said
in a press conference that "The air force was not on any mission
that night except for the attack that targeted Beirut."
Haniyeh was
killed in the early hours of 1 August. The night before, Israel assassinated
top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shakr in an airstrike on a residential building.
The strike also killed two women and two children.
Israeli
journalist Ronen Bergman, US journalist Mark Mazetti, and US-Iranian journalist
Farnaz Fassihi authored the NYT story regarding Haniyeh's killing.
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