Israel targets Hezbollah militant in deadly airstrike on Beirut 

Israel's military struck a southern suburb of Beirut early Tuesday in an attack on a Hezbollah militant, killing at least four people. The bombing came a few days after another strike there, further testing a shaky four-month ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-aligned group.

 

An Israeli strike on Beirut killed at least four people on Tuesday, Lebanon's health ministry said after Israel announced its second strike on the country's capital in a fragile four-month truce.

Israel's military said it "targeted a Hezbollah terrorist" just days after striking the city in response to rocket fire from Lebanon which it blamed on the militant group.

Israel later confirmed it killed Hezbollah official Hassan Bdair in a Tuesday strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, a bastion of support for Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah armed group.

"Overnight... the (Israeli air force) struck and eliminated the terrorist Hassan Ali Mahmud Bdair... in the Dahieh area" of Beirut, the military and the security services said in a joint statement, alleging that the target had "directed Hamas terrorists and assisted them in planning and advancing a significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians."

The raid in Hezbollah's Dahieh stronghold left "three martyrs and seven wounded" according to a Lebanese health ministry toll, quoted by Lebanon's National News Agency.

The top two floors of a multi-storey building were destroyed by the strike, an AFP photographer at the scene said, while panicked residents poured out of their homes.

The photographer saw at least three wounded people being helped by rescue workers and debris covering a street.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned the country's military would "strike everywhere in Lebanon against any threat" in response to the rocket fire.

Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel on October 8, 2023 in support of its ally Hamas following the Palestinian group's unprecedented attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem on Saturday condemned the resumption of Israeli strikes on the city.

"This aggression must end. We cannot allow this to continue," Qassem said in a televised address.

'Enforce' truce

Israel's military said Tuesday it carried out a strike on a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut targeting a Hezbollah operative, the second such strike since a November ceasefire.

"The strike targeted a Hezbollah terrorist who had recently directed Hamas operatives and assisted them in planning a significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians," the Israeli military said in a joint statement with the domestic Shin Bet security agency.

It said it "acted to eliminate him and removed the threat" in Hezbollah's Dahieh stronghold, without yet naming the target.

The latest strike comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned last week Israel would "strike everywhere in Lebanon against any threat" after rocket fire prompted it to bomb south Beirut for the first time during a fragile four-month-old truce with Hezbollah.

The Tehran-backed Lebanese movement denied involvement in the rocket fire that Israel said prompted it to strike Beirut.

Israel has continued to carry out strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon in the months since the ceasefire, hitting what it says are Hezbollah military targets that violated the agreement.

READ MORE: Israeli strike on Lebanon 'unacceptable' ceasefire violation, Macron says

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel was due to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops in five places it deems "strategic".

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)

 

https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250401-israel-says-targeted-hezbollah-militant-in-airstrike-on-southern-beirut

 

BOMBS ARE CHEAPER THAN DIPLOMACY....

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

Ignoring Massacres in Gaza City While Protesting for Democracy in Tel Aviv
How is it possible to square the defense of Israel's democratic values with a situation in which on the other side tens of thousands of Palestinian lives are being cut short in a single blow?

 

BY Hanin Majadli

 

Israel recently committed the largest child massacre in its history. Two hundred children and 100 women were killed in one day. Altogether, about 400 civilians were killed, and the number of dead is not yet final. These numbers are not reported in the Israeli media, and if they are – it's always minimized in an outrageous manner.

For example, Channel 12 News, Israel's mainstream television station, reported that the 400 dead were "operatives." How can you claim that they were all "operatives" when it's completely clear that the entire world is seeing the horrifying pictures of dozens of babies and children bombed to death? How is it possible to lie so blatantly when the truth is so clear? For how long will the Israeli media be complicit in the crimes of the Israeli government?

 

Even the media of other countries that committed genocide would be ashamed to lie like that. But Israel's chutzpah is a foundation stone of its approach. 

 

• Gazans reel from a day of deadly Israeli airstrikes during Ramadan
• Dropping bombs on Gaza again, Netanyahu can accuse his critics of wartime treason
• Israel's media has audacity to conceal Gaza horrors, but showing it won't stop the war

The majority of the Israeli public, which opposes the war, thinks that the war jeopardizes the hostages' lives and that the fighting was resumed for political reasons. I was somehow able to understand the Israeli reaction at the start of the war, after October 7, 2023, even though it did not directly refer to the Palestinian victims. At that time, the response was intended to protect against being labeled as "traitors." But after 18 months of mass killing, which will enter the history books as an eternal disgrace, that mechanism can no longer work.

 

Although resuming the war will kill the hostages, it mainly kills masses of Palestinian men, women, children and the elderly. At what point will anti-war Israelis say aloud what should be said and stop being euphemistic? I understand there has been some coming to terms with being labeled "child murderers." Is it possible to reach a lower moral nadir? Doesn't it frighten them to be labeled as such?

 

It's already impossible to distinguish between things in Israel. It's impossible to distinguish the media from the public. Because even those who oppose the war are afraid to say that Gazans are human, too. Because it's impossible to separate the pilot from the bomb. He's told to push the button and he pushes it. The majority of the people not only tolerate mass slaughter, but demand it, either explicitly or tacitly.

 

This isn't a problem of the media concealing or manipulating. It is the fruit of militaristic racist indoctrination that begins in kindergarten and continues until death. An indoctrination that needs destruction to justify the existence of Zionism. 

 

There is something warped in the narrative, which is currently being presented by the liberal Jewish public in Israel, as a struggle to save Israeli democracy. This struggle exists in the near total absence of reference to the war's lethal consequences on Gaza and Gazans. 

 

How is it possible to square the defense of democratic values with a situation in which on the other side tens of thousands of lives are being cut short in a single blow? It sounds unbelievable.

 

How is it possible to insist on freedom and justice without any reference to the inconceivable human price of this war? How it is possible to devalue life in Gaza, which has become so cheap for Jews in Israel, while simultaneously calling for the preservation of Israeli democracy? Exactly what democracy are we talking about? One that carries on its back such enormous, terrible destruction every day?

 

https://archive.is/20250325131208/https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025-03-21/ty-article-opinion/.premium/even-anti-war-israelis-are-scared-to-say-gazans-are-human-beings/

  

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

MAERSK: THE SHIPPING COMPANY TRANSPORTING ARMS TO ISRAEL

Exclusive: Fighter jet components are being transported on Maersk ships to an Israeli air force base, cargo documents suggest.

 

BY JOHN MCEVOY

 

 

Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk is quietly transporting fighter jet components to Israel, new documents suggest.

The information is contained within cargo data reviewed exclusively by Declassified and The Ditch.

The data exposes how goods from US Air Force Plant 4 in Fort Worth are being transported to Nevatim air base in Israel on two Maersk container ships between 5 April and 1 May.

Air Force Plant 4 is a US government-owned facility which is operated by Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor in the international consortium that produces F-35 jets.

It hosts a mile-long factory where F-35 fighter jets and components are produced before being dispatched to NATO partners and allies including Israel.

Nevatim air base is home to Israel’s squadron of F-35s, which have been used to commit war crimes in Gaza.

Last year, the Israeli air force used an F-35 fighter jet to drop a 2,000lb bomb on a designated safe zone in Gaza, Al-Mawasi, killing 90 people.

A representative from the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), an organisation which has led an international campaign against Maersk, commented: “This shipment from Lockheed Martin aboard their vessels will ensure the maintenance and repair of Israeli F-35s, allowing them to return to field operations in Gaza.

“These Israeli fighter jets criss-cross Palestine’s skies every day; they are the military foundation for the current Israeli genocide, which has indiscriminately targeted every facet of social life in Gaza, murdering and maiming hundreds of thousands of our people from the air”.

Transatlantic voyage

The components will be loaded onto a cargo ship named Maersk Detroit, which sets sail from the port of Houston on 5 April.

The US-flagged Maersk Detroit will cross the Atlantic and dock two weeks later in Tangier, Morocco, where the cargo will be transferred onto another container ship named Nexoe Maersk. 

This latter ship will be arriving in Tangier from Algeciras in Spain, where arms shipments to Israel have been the subject of protest campaigns.

It will take nine days for Nexoe Maersk to travel through the Mediterranean Sea before arriving at the Port of Haifa, Israel, scheduled for 1 May. The cargo will then be transported on land to Nevatim air base, a key launchpad for the Israeli air force’s bombing campaigns in Gaza.

The use of a cargo ship to transport what appears to be fighter jet components to Israel may signal a change in the usual supply chain. 

Over the past year, the US has typically transported F-35 parts to Tel Aviv on cargo planes, suggesting the Maersk ships will be carrying larger or heavier items.

More than 2,000 shipments by Maersk

Maersk, the world’s largest integrated logistics and shipping company, has come under intense scrutiny for transporting military supplies for Israel.

In November 2024, the PYM revealed how the company had “shipped millions of pounds (lb) of military goods to the Israeli military from the United States, across more than 2,000 shipments” between September 2023 and September 2024.

It further showed how “2,110 US shipments on Maersk vessels [were] listed as being shipped to or on behalf of the Government of Israel’s Ministry of Defense”, with 827 of those “for armored vehicles, tactical vehicles, weapons systems, or parts thereof”.

The revelations led to protests in Tangier, Morocco, where Maersk will be transshipping the military cargo bound for Israel between 20 and 22 April.

The PYM also pressured the government of Spain to block the entry of Maersk vessels suspected of carrying military goods to Israel, leading the US Federal Maritime Commission to open an inquiry into the possibility of levelling punitive sanctions against Spanish shipping.

Yemen’s Houthis have targeted Maersk’s shipping operations as part of their efforts to blockade trade routes to Israel.

In January 2024, the Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at the Maersk Detroit while it was passing through the Gulf of Aden. US Central Command said one missile hit the sea while the other two were shot down by a US warship.

The company’s US-flagged subsidiary, Maersk Line, Limited (MLL), operates ships that support the American government.

Air Force Plant 4

Israel acquired its first two F-35 fighter jets in 2016. Since then, Israel has received an additional 40 F-35s, and aims to increase the size of its fleet to 75 over the coming years.

Lockheed Martin’s Air Force Plant 4 has been integral to Israel’s procurement of the fighter jets. In June 2016, Israel’s defence minister Avigdor Liberman travelled to the Texas site to see the F-35s unveiled.

“The F-35’s technology represents the crown jewel of air power superiority”, Liberman told a crowd. The rollout ceremony was broadcast live on Israeli television, with Lieberman adding that the jet would “dramatically enhance” Israel’s ability to defend itself against both “conventional and unconventional” threats.

Israeli air force chief Brigadier General Tal Kelman was also at the ceremony. He said: “As a pilot who has flown more than 30 years in a great variety of aircraft, I had the privilege of flying the F-35 simulator in Fort Worth and it was like holding the future in my hands”.

Lockheed Martin chairman Marillyn Hewson added: “We’re honored to partner with Israel and help strengthen the deep and lasting partnership between our two nations”.

Britain’s F-35 support

Over 15% of the components for the F-35 are made in the UK, including the rear fuselage, ejector seat and electronics. More than 100 UK-based companies contribute to the fighter jet’s supply chain.

In December 2024, Declassified and The Ditch revealed that over 500 shipments of F-35 parts had been sent from a British air base to the US, where they could be onward exported to Israel.

Most of the arms shipments from Britain were sent to Air Force Plant 4 in Fort Worth, the epicentre of F-35 production and source of the most recent US shipment to Israel.

This raises the prospect that the weapons components being shipped from the US to Nevatim air base could have been produced in Britain.

The UK government announced restrictions on some arms export licences to Israel last year but has continued to allow F-35 components to be supplied to the Israeli air force via third countries.

In response to previous criticism, Maersk issued a statement last year saying it has “contracts with the U.S. government” and transports cargo to “over 180 countries under security cooperation programs” which includes “military-related cargo to Israel”.

The company said: “The U.S. security cooperation program prohibits transporting classified or sensitive cargo, which includes weapons and ammunition, without a Transportation Plan submitted by the transporter and approved by the U.S. government”.

A representative of the PYM in Britain commented: “We will continue to build with left forces, labour unions, and people of conscience across the world in order to enact a people’s arms embargo against the Western-backed military supply chain that supplies Zionist war and ethnic cleansing”.

They added: “Britain’s collaboration in the genocide must come to an end, and we will fight every day to ensure it does”.

Maersk and Lockheed Martin were approached for comment.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/maersk-the-shipping-company-transporting-arms-to-israel/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.