Another Day In Haifa, Barrages of Missiles

 (From my friend Jeanine Hirschhorn 24.09.24)

07:45 Hezbullah clocks in. 17 consecutive explosions.  Nothing to see. No siren.  There were rocket alerts this morning in the north of the country around Nazareth and Afula.  As well as alerts in the towns along the border, Metulla, Tel Hai, Kfar Giladi and just a few minutes ago Avivim.  Making use of short range mortars/rockets. Just to keep a toe in.  As it were. 

Things your govt/media won't tell you: According to UN Security Council Resolution 1701, Hezbullah is barred from maintaining a military presence south of the Litani River. Obviously neither the UN, nor Hezbullah nor your govt/media paid any attention.

And all those "panicked Lebanese fleeing Israeli bombings" and "horrific traffic jams heading north" headlines are rubbish.  Southern Lebanese have been thru decades of incursions/wars/bombings . They know the drill well, have been heading north toward Beirut for weeks.  For the past 48 hours, Israel has been calling households in the Beka'a, a Hezbullah stronghold east of Beirut, warning them to evacuate.

 The truth your govt and media refuse to hear:  At the conclusion of her interview yesterday on France 24, Stéphanie Khoury, political journalist at l’Orient Le Jour, a Lebanese newspaper in French, stated:  ". . . the reality, the Lebanese political class has been helpless in front of Hezbullah, which is today a militia and a party controlling the state and (it) is completely helpless in the face of this organization".

A very bold and brave statement to make publicly for someone living in Lebanon, given that criticizing the thugs in power can get you murdered or worse.  

Mme Khoury's audacious statement reiterates what President Yitzhak Herzog stated on Sunday during an interview with Sky News: "There are many enemies of Hezbollah out there, quite a few these days. Hezbollah has been choking Lebanon, destroying Lebanon, creating havoc in Lebanon again and again and again. We are here simply to defend ourselves. That's all we do"

When asked about whether Israel is now at war with Lebanon, Herzog emphasised the country is "not interested to be at war with Lebanon... but Lebanon has been hijacked by a terror organisation which is also a political party called Hezbollah. It's been armed to its teeth by the Iranian empire of evil."

13:08 11 explosions. Nothing to see.  Missile alerts in Yagur (a kibbutz right down the road from me), Yokneam and the Druse village of Daliat el Carmel, 20 km south of me.

13:58 Two explosions. So few, after so many. Maybe Hezbullah's eking out what little it has left.  Alerts in Abu Snan, Sheikh Danun, Klil,  Kfar Yassif, Jadeidi
Makr, Muslim/Druse/Xtian Galilee villages.  We're ALL Hezbullah targets.

15:04 8 explosions. Got to window just in time to vaguely see 3 tracer rockets quietly exploding.  Tough to see the tracers in bright sunlight. No siren.

15:13 12 explosions. Missile alerts at kibbutzim/moshavim and Arab villages along border.

The above in addition to both missile and drone alerts all day from the border communities to Arab villages in the Galilee to Safat and Rosh Pina.

. . . and yet daily life in the north continues as usual.  Here in Haifa, people go to work, markets are full, public transport is running, Schools are closed, so there are more children in the malls and on the streets.  And what I didn't notice until this morning, Haifa Bay is full of cargo ships awaiting their turn in port.  So I guess that despite the day-long explosions, Lloyd's is far from nervous.  And if Lloyd's ain't nervous, then neither am I.

That's all from a quiet evening in Haifa on Day Two of Operation Northern Arrows