Four Killed In Israeli Strike On Southern Lebanon, Hezbollah Hit Back
South Front, May 9 2024
An Israeli strike on a car in southern Lebanon killed four people in the morning of May 9, according to Lebanon’s civil defense. The car was targeted on a road in the outskirts of the town of Bafliyeh. Citing Lebanese security sources, Reuters reported that the four killed in the strike were fighters of Hezbollah. Nevertheless, the group mourned only three fighters after the strike.
The deadly strike didn’t deter Hezbollah who announced three attacks against the IOF in the afternoon. In three separate statements, the group said its fighters destroying a surveillance system at the Ramia site, shelled a newly-established headquarters of the IOF in the settlement of Natawa with artillery and targeted a gathering of Israeli troops at the Jardah point on the Lebanese border. There were no reports of casualties in Hebrew media. Hebrew and Lebanese media also reported a drone attack on the settlement of Metula and a strike with a heavy rocket on the settlement of Shlomi. However, Hezbollah has not yet claimed responsibility.
Since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza last October, Hezbollah and its allies began launching near-daily attacks against the IOF in support of the Hamas Movement and other Palestinian armed factions in the Strip. So far, the clashes have resulted in nine civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of at least 14 IOF soldiers and reservists. On the Lebanese side, more than 400 people have been killed, including 277 fighters of Hezbollah and at least 70 civilians.
Syria Reports Losses After Israeli Attack On Building Near Damascus
South Front, May 9 2024
Syrian air defenses early on May 9 engaged Israeli missiles launched from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights towards a building in Damascus’ outskirts, SANA reported, citing a military official. Only some of the missiles were intercepted, the unnamed official told the state-run news agency, adding that losses were limited to material. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based pro-opposition monitoring group, said that the Israeli attack targeted a cultural center and training camp of the Iraqi Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba armed faction, an Iraqi armed faction, close to the Shiite town of Set Zaynab in the southern outskirts of Damascus.
Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba is a key faction of an Iranian-backed umbrella group known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI). The IRI has been launching attacks against Israel since last October in response to the war on the Palestinian Gaza Strip. This month, the group carried out more than attacks against military and infrastructure targets in Israel using cruise missiles and suicide drones. However, these attacks were most likely launched from Iraq, not Syria. Late on May 8, drone infiltration sirens sounded in the Golan Heights settlements of Yonatan and Keshet. The IDF didn’t clarify what triggered the warning, but there was speculation of a drone attack by the IRI. Israel has significantly escalated its attacks on Syria since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, targeting Syrian military sites as well as personnel of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its affiliates. War-torn Syria has for long refrained from responding to Israel’s repeated attacks in what appears to be an attempt to avoid a dangerous confrontation.
Israeli Army Acknowledges Soldier Was Killed In Hezbollah Mortar Attack
South Front, May 9 2024
The IOF acknowledged on May 9 that a soldier was killed in a mortar attack that was carried out by Hezbollah a day earlier. The deadly mortar attack targeted the al-Malikiyah site on the border with Lebanon, the IDF said in a statement, revealing that the slain soldier was serving in the ranks of the Border Defense Corps’ 869th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit. Another soldier was lightly hurt in the attack, the IOF added. Al-Malikiyah was one of 12 sites and settlements which were targeted by Hezbollah on May 8. In separate statements, the group said that the attacks were carried out in support of the Palestinian people and resistance in the Gaza Strip and as a response to recent Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.
Late on May 8, the IOF said that its fighter jets struck a building belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in the southern Lebanese town of Jabal Rezlane. Other airstrikes targeted additional buildings belonging to the group in the towns of Khiam, Odaisseh, Blida, Maroun al-Ras and Ayta al-Shaab, which are also located in southern Lebanon, the IDF added. After the strikes, Hezbollah mounted two of its fighters. The al-Quds Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also announced that three of its fighters were killed in southern Lebanon.
The clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border first broke out after the start of the war in Gaza last October, with Hezbollah and its allies carrying out attacks in support of the Strip. So far, the clashes have resulted in nine civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of at least 14 IOF soldiers and reservists. On the Lebanese side, more than 400 people have been killed, including 274 fighters of Hezbollah and at least 70 civilians.
Biden Warns Israel Over Rafah Operation, Admits US Bombs Killed Civilians In Gaza
South Front, May 9 2024
Biden said on May 8 that his administration will not support Israel or provide it with offensive weapons if it launches a large-scale operation against the Hamas Movement in populated parts of the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip. Biden told CNN:
I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support if they go after these population centers.
The Israeli military launched earlier in the week a limited operation in Rafah, where more than 1.4m Palestinians have been taking shelter, and captured a key border crossing on the border with Egypt. Around a week before the operation, the US halted the transfer of a shipment of bombs to Israel over concerns that they could be used in the attack on Rafah or other parts of Gaza. Asked by CNN if American bombs were used by the Israeli military to kill civilians in Gaza, President Biden responded:
Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which it goes after population centers. I made it clear that if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem. The operation launched by Israel this week was limited to the Rafah border crossing, even though it’s causing problems with Egypt. But it’s just wrong. We’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.
He clarified that the US will continue supplying Israel with Iron Dome missile interceptors and other defensive weapons to ensure that the country can respond to attacks from adversaries across the Middle East, saying:
We’re not walking away from Israel’s security. We’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in crowded areas.
Asked if Israel has crossed his red line regarding its conduct in Gaza, Biden responded “Not yet,” but indicated that the Israeli military was as close as it has ever come following last week’s weapons shipment holdup. Israel’s limited operation in Rafah has so far claimed the lives of 65 civilians, mostly women and children and wounded more than 280 others. The US has provided Israel with billions worth of military aid as well as intelligence support since the Oct 7 Hamas-led surprise attack which led to the war in Gaza. The Israeli war on the Strip has so far claimed the lives of at least 34,844 Palestinians. President Biden’s soft warning was not well received in Israel. In the first reaction by an Israeli official to the warning, UNn Ambassador Gilad Erdan said that it was a “difficult and very disappointing remark.” Erdan told Israel’s state broadcaster:
Of course any pressure on Israel is interpreted by our enemies as something that gives them hope. There are many Jewish Americans who voted for the president and for the Democratic Party, and now they are hesitant.
Later, Israel’s Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party likened Biden’s warning to Neville Chamberlain’s Munich Pact with Nazi Germany. Eliyahu tweets, quoting Churchill’s famous critique of Chamberlain:
Joe Biden can be Churchill but he is choosing to be Chamberlain, he chooses dishonor and will get both dishonor and war.
Biden’s warning to Israel was not the result of some major shift in US policy on the war, but rather motivated by worries that Washington’s blatant support for the war will make it complicit in Israel’s attempt to genocide Palestinians in Gaza. It is highly unlikely that Biden will be able to stick to his warning if the Israeli military expanded its operation in Rafah due to internal pressure from Israel lobbyists who maintain a very strong presence in Washington and within the administration itself.
Israel Launches Brutal Invasion Of Rafah
South Front, May 9 2024
Israel has launched a ground operation in the area of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, ignoring all international warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe. The IOF launched the operation on May 6, a day after four of its troops were killed and wounded around ten others in a rocket attack on the southern Israeli area of Kerem Shalom which was launched by the Hamas Movement from Rafah. More than 1.4 million Palestinians who had been taking refuge in Rafah were ordered by the IDF to evacuate to a “‘humanitarian zone” in the al-Mawasi area and other parts of central Gaza and Khan Yunis city in the southern part of the Strip. This so-called humanitarian zone is heavily bombarded, badly-serviced and lacks proper resources. The IOF struck Rafah at least 50 times during the initial push.
Later that day, Israeli troops entered the outskirts of Rafah and approached the Rafah Border Crossing and Egyptian border. 20 Hamas fighters were killed in the operation, according to the IOF. Hamas announced that it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal in a last-ditch effort to stop the invasion, but this was ignored by Israel. On the morning of May 7, the IOF captured the Rafah crossing. Hamas and other Palestinian armed factions shelled advancing Israeli troops and Kerem Shalom from Rafah again. Israel’s Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, stated that the operation wouldn’t stop unless Hamas was eliminated or hostages were released. Later however, Hebrew media reported that control of the Rafah crossing would be handed over to an American private firm, and that the operation was limited and intended to exert pressure on Hamas.
US NSC spox Adm (Retd) John Kirby confirmed that Israel had told the US that the operation was limited and intended to prevent smuggling of arms and money into Gaza, with negotiations for the release of Israeli hostages and a ceasefire resuming. No more advance was reported on May 8. Since its start, the operation has claimed the lives of 30 civilians, mostly women and children, and wounded more than 150 others. The losses from the operation and recent Israeli strikes brought the Palestinian toll from the Israeli war on Gaza to 34,789. The Israeli invasion of Rafah led to a serious escalation on other fronts. The Iran-linked Islamic resistance in Iraq launched eight attacks against Israel after the start of the operation. Hezbollah also escalated attacks against the IOF from southern Lebanon. Despite failing to achieve any of its goals, Israel will likely go on with its operations in Rafah. The operation will not weaken Hamas, but it will worsen the humanitarian situation in Gaza as it will give Israel and the US full control over aid entering the Strip.
Niqnaq 