Israel’s Genocide Day 360: Israel Says Lebanon Invasion ‘Imminent’

Above photo: Naim Qassem during a televised address on September 20, 2024. Screenshot from Al Jazeera Youtube Channel.

Hezbollah Says It Is ‘Ready To Engage’ Israeli Forces.

Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General said Hezbollah’s military capacities remain intact, while Israel has reportedly informed the U.S. that an Israeli ground invasion of southern Lebanon is “imminent.”

Casualties

• 41,615 + killed* and at least 96,359 wounded in the Gaza Strip. 32,280 of the slain have been identified, including 10,627 children and 5,956 women, representing 60% of the casualties, and 2,770 elderly as of August 6, 2024. Some 10,000 more are estimated to be under the rubble*
• 719+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This includes at least 146 children.**
• Since the beginning of the current Israeli offensive on Lebanon, Israel has killed 1,640 Lebanese and wounded at least 8,000, according to Lebanese authorities.
• Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
• The Israeli army recognizes the death of 714 Israeli soldiers and the injury of at least 4,100 others since October 7.***

* Gaza’s branch of the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed this figure in its daily report, published through its WhatsApp channel on September 26, 2024. Rights groups and public health experts estimate the death toll to be much higher.

** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. This is the latest figure according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health as of September 25, 2024.

*** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported on August 4, 2024, that some 10,000 Israeli soldiers and officers have been either killed or wounded since October 7. The head of the Israeli army’s wounded association told Israel’s Channel 12 that the number of wounded Israeli soldiers exceeds 20,000, including at least 8,000 who have been permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7 and as of June 18.

Key Developments

• Gaza branch of Palestinian Health Ministry says death toll surpasses 41,615, with 96,359 wounded since October 7, including 33% children, 18.4% women, and 8.6% elderly; at least 115 Palestinian children born and killed by Israeli forces since October 7.
• Palestinian Health Ministry says death toll by Israeli army or settlers in West Bank and Jerusalem reaches 719 since October 7.
• Lebanese Ministry of Health says 1,640 Lebanese people killed, over 8,000 wounded in hundreds of Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon, especially in the south and the Beqaa Valley as of beginning of escalating hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.
• Israel assassinates Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah on Friday, leveling entire residential block in Beirut’s southern Dahiya district with up to 80 2000-pound “bunker buster” bombs that flattened six buildings.
• Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem says the group’s military capacity is still intact, is fighting “according to its battle plan and the needs of the battlefield” and is “ready for an Israeli ground invasion and will face it with force.”
• Qassem says Hezbollah “will elect a new Secretary General at the nearest opportunity.”
• Unnamed U.S. officials tells Washington Post that the U.S. had been told by Israel that a limited ground invasion in southern Lebanon “that could start imminently.”
• Israel continues bombing towns across Lebanon, killing 32 Lebanese in a single strike in al-Dilb, near Tyre in southern Lebanon.
• Israeli airstrikes kill three PFLP leaders in Beirut and the head of Hamas in Lebanon in the al-Bass refugee camp in southern Lebanon.
• Israeli airstrikes kill 31 Palestinians across Gaza on Sunday, continue to target houses across and displacement shelters.
• Palestinian journalist Wafa Aludaini killed in an Israeli strike on Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, marking 174th journalist to be killed in Gaza since October 7.

Israel Kills Palestinian Leaders In Lebanon As Hezbollah Prepares To Elect Nasrallah’s Successor

Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General, Naim Qassem, delivered a televised speech on Monday stating that Hezbollah will continue to fight according to its battle plans despite the assassination of Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah last Friday, which leveled an entire residential block in Beirut’s southern Dahiya district with at least 80 “bunker buster” bombs.

Qassem also said that Hezbollah was using the “bare minimum” of its fighting capabilities and rocket arsenal, denying Israeli claims that the movement’s middle and long-range missile capacity had been significantly degraded.

“We are fighting according to our battle plan and in accordance with our estimation of what the battlefield requires,” Qassem said, adding that Hezbollah’s fighting forces were “ready to face any Israeli ground attack.”

“We will elect a new Secretary General at the nearest opportunity, according to the adopted mechanism in the party,” Qassem continued. “Choices will be easy, because they are clear. We are all on the same page,” he added.

Later in the day, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. had been informed by Israel that a “limited ground operation” could take place “imminently” in southern Lebanon, according to an unnamed U.S. official who spoke to the Post on the condition of anonymity “to discuss private talks between the two governments.”

The U.S. official told the Post that the planned ground maneuver would be “smaller than its last war against Hezbollah in 2006,” instead focusing on “clearing out” Hezbollah military infrastructure “along the border to remove the threat to Israeli border communities.”

Meanwhile, warplanes attacked the heart of Beirut for the first time since 2006 in an airstrike that targeted an apartment in the Cola area, which killed three leading members of the Lebanese branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a leftist Palestinian political faction.

According to the PFLP, the three men were Muhammad Abdul Al, a member of the politburo of the Palestinian faction, and two leaders of the group’s military wing, Imad Odeh and Abdul Rahman Abdul Al.

The strike was Israel’s first attack on the Lebanese capital outside of its southern Dahiya district. It came four days after the assassination of Hasan Nasrallah.

On Sunday, Lebanese media sources announced that Nasrallah’s body had been located in the rubble of the Israeli strike and reported that the body was unscathed, citing Lebanese health officials that the likely cause of death was “shock” from the force of the explosion rather than direct injury from the blast. The body is scheduled to be buried later in the week as Hezbollah is expected to announce a successor. The likely successor to Nasrallah is widely speculated to be the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, Hashem Safiyudin.

ِAlso on Monday before dawn, an Israeli strike on the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Bass in southern Lebanon killed the leader of Hamas in Lebanon, Fateh Sharif Abul Amin alongside his wife and two children.

Meanwhile, Israel continued its bombings on Lebanese towns across Lebanon. On Sunday, Israeli warplanes bombed the town of al-Dilb near Tyre, causing a residential building to collapse and killing 32 civilians while wounding at least 53.

Israeli strikes also targeted the towns of Bazouriyeh, Arzoun, Deir Qanoun, Qlayleh, Dhayreh, Tair Harfa, and Alma al-Sha’ab, in addition to the surroundings of Bint Jbeil, killing at least 10 people.

For its part, Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets on the city of Safad in the upper Galilee, which has become a main target for Hezbollah attacks in recent weeks. The armed wing of Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance of Lebanon, announced on Monday that its fighters had launched 12 attacks with rockets and shells on Israeli soldiers along the border since Sunday, in addition to a drone attack on an Israeli army’s officer barracks, with confirmed hits.

On Saturday and Sunday, Hezbollah launched several rockets on central Israel and West Bank settlements. Israel’s iron dome system intercepted a rocket near Ramallah on Saturday, while it failed to intercept another rocket that exploded in the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim east of Jerusalem, provoking fires and power cuts, according to Israeli reports.

Before the Washington Post reported that Israel had informed the U.S. of intentions for an impending ground maneuver in southern Lebanon, Israeli media reported over the weekend that the Israeli army had been pursuing preparations for such an invasion alongside political discussions within the Israeli cabinet. On Saturday, the Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Israeli army officials saying that there was “a short window of opportunity for a ground operation that would be lost if Hezbollah manages to recover and regroup.” Israel continued to transfer forces to the Lebanese border over the past week, including two reserve units.

Since the beginning of the current Israeli offensive on Lebanon, Israel has killed 1,640 Lebanese and wounded at least 8,000, according to Lebanese authorities.

Israel Continues Bombing Gaza, Kills 174th Journalist Since October

Israel killed 31 Palestinians in a single day on Sunday in airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, including the bombing of a house in Deir al-Balah that killed two children.

Israeli strikes included the north of Khan Younis, farmlands, a tent encampment in the Mawasi area near Rafah, the north of Nuseirat, and the neighborhoods of Basra and Tal al-Hawa in Gaza City. On Monday, Israeli strikes targeted the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, killing 11 Palestinians.

Meanwhile, UNRWA said on Sunday that “mountains of garbage are piling up in #Gaza middle areas as sewage leaks onto streets.” According to UNRWA, “families have no choice but to live beside the accumulated waste, exposed to the reek and the threat of a looming health disaster.”

“Sanitary and living conditions across Gaza are inhumane,” the UN agency added.

On Sunday, an Israeli strike on Deir al-Balah killed a female Palestinian journalist, Wafa Aludeini, according to the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. Aludeini had founded several English-speaking media teams, and was well-known for her coverage of the conditions of Palestinians in Gaza, especially during the current Israeli genocide. With her killing, the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israel in Gaza since October 7 has risen to 174.

Israeli Forces Raid West Bank Cities, Arrest Dozens

Israeli forces raided the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday morning for the third time in 12 hours, after a previous raid on Sunday night and a second before dawn, local journalists reported.

At approximately 9:00 a.m. on Monday, Israeli forces raided the Ras al-Ain neighborhood in the city and surrounded a residential building, forcing its residents to evacuate and calling on a Palestinian man to hand himself over.

Earlier during the night, Israeli forces raided the New Nablus area, the Rafidia neighborhood, and the Askar refugee camp, breaking into several residential buildings and arresting an unspecified number of Palestinians. According to local testimonies, Israeli soldiers destroyed a public monument to the city’s martyrs on their way out. Local young men confronted Israeli forces with stones and Molotov cocktails. In some areas, fire exchange between Israeli forces and local gunmen was also reported.

In the town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, Israeli forces conducted a morning raid and arrested several Palestinians.

In the northern West Bank, Israeli forces raided parts of Qalqilya and Tulkarem, firing tear gas at houses, according to local testimonies, and carrying out a wave of arrests before withdrawing. Israeli forces also raided the city of Dahriya, south of Hebron, breaking into several shops and physically assaulting a number of Palestinians. In Idhna, west of Hebron, Israeli forces continue to block the entrance to the town after arresting a number of Palestinians in the town overnight.

In the Shu’fat refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, Israeli forces demolished at least seven shops belonging to Palestinians during a morning raid on Monday.

In the past week, Israeli forces have killed three Palestinians in the West Bank, identified as Waleed Khalifa, 30, in Nablus, Yahya Awad, 32, in Hebron, and a woman, Zuhour Amour, 34, in the village of Anza, south of Jenin.

Since October 7, Israeli forces or settlers have killed 719 Palestinians across the West Bank and Jerusalem. At least 5,700 more have been wounded and 10,000 have been arrested. Israeli forces have also demolished more than 1,300 Palestinian properties in the West Bank and Jerusalem during the same period, leaving at least 4,500 Palestinians homeless.