NATO states tell citizens to leave Lebanon

RT
Mon, 29 Jul 2024 02:43 UTC

© Ramiz Dallah/Anadolu via Getty Images

A UN Interim Force unit on patrol after the IDF carries out attacks in southern Lebanon on June 21, 2024

Israel and the militant group Hezbollah are on the brink of a full-blown war

Several NATO members including the US have issued travel warnings for Lebanon, urging their citizens to immediately leave the country in the face of a potential full-blown war between Israel and the pro-Palestinian armed group Hezbollah.

Tensions rapidly escalated on Saturday when a rocket strike killed 12 children in the Druze city of Majdan Shams, in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the projectile was an Iranian-made Falaq-1 rocket fired by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. The militants, however, denied any involvement in the strike.

The US Embassy released a travel notice on Saturday, urging Americans to "strongly reconsider travel to Lebanon."

"The security environment remains complex and can change quickly," the embassy stated.

The UK Foreign Office advised "against all travel to Lebanon due to risks associated with the ongoing conflict" between Israel and Hezbollah. Similar warnings were issued by France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark, as well as non-NATO countries, such as Ireland and Australia.

The IDF and Hezbollah have engaged in sporadic fighting since the war in Gaza broke out in October. The armed group has repeatedly fired rockets and mortar shells at Israeli positions in solidarity with Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza, prompting the IDF to retaliate with artillery fire and airstrikes.

In response to Saturday's strike in the Golan Heights, Israel threatened Hezbollah with "all-out war," while Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the group had "crossed all the red lines here, and the response will reflect that."

The Israeli security cabinet met on Sunday evening and granted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant the power to determine the timing and the scope of further military actions.

Comment:
Earlier there has been:
Israel nearing 'all-out war' - foreign minister
Israel's FM claims 'moment of an all-out war' with Hezbollah approaching; Netanyahu leaves US early
War criminal Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the US Congress
US and Israel should create 'Middle East NATO' - Netanyahu
World Court has cleared the fog hiding Western support for Israel's crimes
NATO state threatens to invade Israel
Not so veiled threat by Israel: "Erdogan could end up like Saddam"

The question is who really fired the rocket when: "The militants, however, denied any involvement in the strike." Of course it may have been Hezbollah or the Iranians, but what if it is not? We know that Israel would not mind a pretext for expanding the war. The news about the strike has gone around the world and for a short moment replaced the routine news of people dying from Israeli bombings in Gaza.

The Times of Israel wrote:
Anger and grief mix as Majdal Shams buries 10 children killed in rocket strike'

Lebanon should burn for this,' says one resident amid calls in Druze town for IDF to strike back hard against Hezbollah, and for Israel to do more to protect northern residents

The children killed belonged to the Druze faith which for context deserves an introduction. The Wiki has:

The Druze (/ˈdruːz/DROOZ;^[19]Arabic: دَرْزِيّ, darzī or دُرْزِيّ durzī, pl. دُرُوز, durūz), who call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (lit. 'the monotheists' or 'the unitarians'),^[20] are an Arab and Arabic-speaking esotericethnoreligious group^{[21][22][23][24]} from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion whose main tenets assert the unity of God, reincarnation, and the eternity of the soul.^{[25][26][27][28]}

Most Druze religious practices are kept secret.^[29] The Druze do not permit outsiders to convert to their religion. Marriage outside the Druze faith is rare and strongly discouraged. The Druze maintain Arabic language and culture as integral parts of their identity, and Arabic is their primary language.^[30][31]

The Epistles of Wisdom is the foundational and central text of the Druze faith.^[32] The Druze faith originated in Isma'ilism (a branch of Shia Islam),^[33] and was influenced by Christianity,^[34][35]Gnosticism, Neoplatonism,^[34][35]Zoroastrianism,^[36][37]Gandharan Buddhism, Manichaeism^[38][39]Pythagoreanism,^[40][41] and other philosophies and beliefs, creating a distinct and secretive theology based on an esoteric interpretation of scripture, which emphasizes the role of the mind and truthfulness.^[20][41] Druze believe in theophany and reincarnation.^[42]

The Druze believe that at the end of the cycle of rebirth, which is achieved through successive reincarnations, the soul is united with the Cosmic Mind (al-ʻaql al-kullī).^[43]

There is also:

Some scholars maintain that Israel has tried to separate the Druze from other Arab communities, and that the effort has influenced the way Israel's Druze perceive their modern identity.^[150][151] Survey data suggests that Israeli Druze prioritize their identity first as Druze (religiously), second as Arabs (culturally and ethnically), and third as Israelis (citizenship-wise).^[152] A small minority of them identify as Palestinians, distinguishing them from the majority of other Arab citizens of Israel, who predominantly identify as Palestinians.^[153]

According to the Wiki there are 143,000 Druze believers in Israel and the Golan heights, 250,000 in Lebanon and 600,000 in Syria.

The rocket attack on the Druze children did not benefit Hezbollah, Iran or the Druze. It benefitted somebody else.

Update about the missile that hit Majdal Shams: Al Mayadeen English carried an article on 28 Jul 2024 23:47 by Ali Halawi:
Did an Israeli Iron Dome missile cause the Majdal Shams massacre?
Skipping the details, the article ends:

A Tamir missile launched from a nearby position is likely to contain a substantial amount of fuel, as the air defense rocket was designed to fly for around 70 km. This means that the majority of the fuel meant for the missile's flight after take-off detonated and produced the fireball seen in the video.

Despite Israeli assertions of a Hezbollah attack using a Falaq-1 rocket, substantial analysis points towards a malfunctioning Israeli Tamir interceptor missile as the more plausible cause of the explosion. The discrepancies in crater size, the nature of the explosion, and Hezbollah's historical targeting patterns all support this alternative explanation. The true story behind the Majdal Shams explosion remains shrouded, but the evidence presented here offers a compelling case for reconsidering the initial narrative.