Israel’s army chief says Israel has drawn up plans for additional action against Hezbollah and is ready to strike.
“We have many capabilities that we have not yet activated,” Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said after approving new operational plans at Israel’s Northern Command on Wednesday.
“Every time we work at a certain stage, the next two stages are ready to go forward strongly,” he says. “At each stage, the price for Hezbollah needs to be high.”
How is setting off little bombs amongst a civilian population not terrorism?
Then why do almost all Western countries consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization?
And obviously it becomes a war only when we (the collective West) label it as such, otherwise it’s still just terrorists. They become soldiers only when it’s convenient for us.
Because they are at war. And yes, it’s an official war. Hezbollah declared war well prior to this and has been firing rockets into Israel. Hence, this is a retaliatory attack by Israel. It’s no different than bombing or firing missiles, it’s just far more targeted at Hezbollah members since it’s their electronics. Unfortunately innocent civilian casualties are always a part of war, but this type of attack actually minimizes them far more than just straight bombing would.
The US State Department designated Hezballah as a foreign terrorist organization in October 1997. More than 60 other countries and organizations, including the EU, the Arab League, and the Gulf Cooperation Council, have also designated Hizballah—either in part or in its entirety—as a terrorist group.
What a load of ghoulish warmongering. Oh it’s war? If Hezbollah had done this to Israelis, the world would be crying blood and vowing for Israel’s right to defend itself.
It is war. And what Israel did was smart tactically. Also, collateral damage is part of every war. Even more so when the enemy entrenches itself among civilians.
it’s just far more targeted at Hezbollah members since it’s their electronics.
We need to wait for the numbers before we can say either way, but I certainly doubt it. The EU foreign policy chief has already condemned the attack as indiscriminate.
Experts generally believe a small mount of stable explosive was carefully implanted into each sabotaged device. Alan Woodward, a professor of cybersecurity at Surrey University, said: “There wouldn’t need to be much explosive, as proximity to a human body means it would cause injury even if it was a few grams.”
The first wave of explosions – which occurred from about 3.30pm local time on Tuesday – appear to have been triggered by a special message from Hezbollah leadership, implying, Woodward argued, a specific modification of the pagers’ embedded software. This meant it would trigger an explosion when the appropriate message was sent.
It may have been a default setting on the pagers, but the trigger message came with a cynical twist. Eyewitnesses say the pager bleeped, then paused, then detonated – giving enough time for them to be brought closer to the owner’s face – which is why Lebanese doctors reported treating multiple hand and eye injuries after the blast. Source
This definitely feels like terrorist attack tactics, since it does more to cause fear than actually fatalities. You make some really good points though, it’s unfortunate that you’re getting so many downvotes for factual information.
As for the terrorist group designation, you can see a list of all countries and entities that consider Hezbollah a terrorist group here.. It does include both the European Union and the United States, along with many other countries. There are some countries that don’t consider them a terrorist group, notably Russia, China, and North Korea.
And while in war, there are prohibitions on targeting non-combatants, they don’t require that there be no collateral damage. Israel’s pretty clearly targeting Hezbollah here, not random Lebanese.
I do wonder if Hezbollah can maybe agree to stay out of part of Lebanon. I don’t think that that’d need to compromise either Israel’s or Hezbollah’s war plans, so maybe it’d be possible to come to some sort of agreement like that; you’d need buy-in from both parties. Then that area could be used as a safe area for Lebanese non-combatants.
Israel’s pretty clearly targeting Hezbollah here, not random Lebanese.
Do you have proof for that statement?
They tried to target them certainly but there’s a huge margin of error involved, wait awhile for all the fallout. I imagine there’s going to be more than a few instances of people cracking batteries to find suspicious potentially lethal contents. Guaranteed there’s a bunch they didn’t pop because farmer Dan or Doctor Jane got it instead.
