Author: M Barbu

Latest Developments

Danish, Dutch, and German authorities made several arrests on December 14 in what Israel described as a Hamas-linked terrorist plot on European soil. Danish police announced during a press conference in Copenhagen that they had arrested three suspects, while Dutch police arrested a fourth suspect in Rotterdam. Dutch police — who this week raised their own terrorism threat level to “substantial” and had been on heightened security alert for months — said the arrest also involved German authorities.

Hezbollah joined the fighting against Israel on October 8, 2023, the day after Operation Iron Swords began,[2] and opened a front on Israel’s northern border, attacking IDF posts and military crews along the border. The IDF has responded by firing artillery at the sources of the rocket attacks and by attacking Hezbollah facilities in south Lebanon. In the wake of the tense situation and the fear of escalation, residents of villages and towns in south Lebanon began to move to northern areas, noteworthy because Hezbollah usually places its posts and bases in or near civilian settlements.

One person was killed and a building was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike on the town of Kafr Kila in southern Lebanon on Tuesday night, according to local media reports.

On Wednesday night two people were killed and one wounded when an Israeli warplane targeted a house in the town of Yater, according to reports. An Israeli shell also hit a house in the town of Aita Al-Shaab, causing it to burn down but no casualties were reported.

Latest Developments

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck several Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon on December 20. “Among the targets attacked were several terrorist infrastructures and military sites where the organization’s militants operated,” the IDF said in a statement. The IDF released footage of the airstrikes, showing numerous targets attacked on a Lebanese hillside. The strikes come in the wake of numerous attacks on Israel by Hezbollah on December 19. Hezbollah also claimed on December 18 that it had targeted Israel’s Iron Dome air defense batteries.

The Iran-aligned Houthis of Yemen are playing an escalating role in the Middle East, attacking shipping in the Red Sea and firing drones and missiles at Israel in a campaign they say aims to support Palestinians in the Gaza war, Reuters reported.

Retired Lebanese judge Peter Germanos said in a December 2, 2023 interview on Voice of Lebanon Radio that Lebanon is turning more and more into a leftist rogue state by refusing to abide by UN resolutions such as 1701 and others. But he added that while North Korea has nuclear power, Cuba has vast territory and food, and Venezuela has oil, Lebanon has nothing.

Recently, Sa’adollah Zarei, who is on the editorial board of the Iranian regime mouthpiece Kayhan, and Ramazan Sharif, who heads the Intifada and Quds Central Headquarters of the Islamic Propaganda Coordination Council and is spokesman of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), both expressed opposition to the “two-state solution” for Israel and Palestine proposed by countries in the West for after the Israel-Hamas war is over.

On December 7, 2023, Saraya Al-Quds, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), eulogized two of its fighters who allegedly were killed in south Lebanon in a combat against Israel.

Citing a Quranic verse that promises heavens for “martyrs,” the statement, which was posted on the group’s Telegram channel, identified the two fighters as Mohammad Ahmad Saleh (31 years) and Malik Ahmad Omar, a.k.a. Abu Hussien (27 years).