Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses. Share the link of this article with your facebook friends

 

Hezbollah Retaliates with a Missile, After an Israeli Drone Attack on Beirut

September 1, 2019

 

Footage of Hezbollah anti-tank missile attack on Israeli military vehicle near the Leebanese border, September 1, 2019

 

Sayyed Nasrallah to the Israelis: September 1, 2019… Save the Date, No More Israeli Red Lines

One day ago September 2, 2019 Hezbollah Secretary-General. Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah addressing crowds in Sayyed Shuhada Complex in Dahiyeh on the third night of Ashura commemoration (Monday, September 2, 2019).  

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah advised the Israelis on Monday to save the date of September 1, 2019 when Lebanon’s Islamic Resistance carried out Avivim retaliatory strike, saying that the operation represented a new stage in the Israeli-resistance struggle.

Addressing crowds at Sayyed Shuhada Complex in Beirut’s Dahiyeh, Sayyed Nasrallah said while the Israeli enemy wanted to change rules of engagements with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Resistance, on its turn, broke red lines set by Tel Aviv.

His eminence stressed that Avivim strike was an achievement by itself, as it took place despite all Israeli and US threats as well as measures taken by the occupation army at the border with Lebanon.

Sayyed Nasrallah, meanwhile, said that the Resistance is committed to confront Israeli drones in the Lebanese skies, but noted, in this context, that its leadership will decide the right time and place for such confrontation.

Thanks and Salutes

After thanking God, Sayyed Nasrallah saluted Resistance fighters “who have been for eight days fully ready to retaliate for the Israeli aggression,” referring to Israeli strikes that killed two of Hezbollah fighters in Syria and the attack by two drones on Beirut’s Dahiyeh last week.

The Resistance leader then praised Lebanese Army and Lebanese people for their support and steadfastness in face of the Israeli aggression.

His eminence also hailed President Michel Aoun, Premier Saad Hairi and Speaker Nabih Berri over their national stances regarding the Israeli aggression.

Sayyed Nasrallah furthermore thanked Lebanese and some Arab media outlets over their coverage that refuted lies circulated by occupation army and media.

“We’ve Punished the Enemy”

Hezbollah S.G. stressed that the latest escalation started last week by the Israeli aggression in Syria and Dahiyeh, noting that Israeli explosive-laden drones, which fell down in Dahiyeh before dawn last Sunday (August 25), failed to achieve their goals.

“Since the first hours (of the aggression) we announced that we won’t keep mum and that we won’t accept new equations to be imposed, so we said that certainly we will retaliate.”

“We announced that the Resistance will retaliate. This announcement represents a point of strength for the Resistance,” Sayyed Nasrallah said during third night of the holy month of Muharram.

“What happened since last Sunday represented a punishment for the enemy…We are before a retaliatory attack on several levels including military and psychological ones.”

“The Israeli Army has evacuated all its posts and bases at the border in Lebanon since I announced my threats. I told them to hide and keep away (from potential targets), but what happened was that they have disappeared!”

“Tyrant Israel Humiliated”

“In the last eight days, the entire world saw Israel – the tyrant power- frightened, concerned and hiding in… It’s humiliation!” Sayyed Nasrallah said.

“On the other side, the Lebanese Army, the Resistance fighters and the Lebanese people stayed in their posts and towns (near the border)… It’s honor!”

Hezbollah S.G. noted, meanwhile, that Avivim strike took place during the day and not the night, stressing that the Resistance leadership deliberately decided to do so, in the Israeli depth and despite all risks and measures taken by the Israeli occupation.

“Despite all measures and fake targets set by the Israeli enemy, the Resistance exerted patience and accurately hit the target. What happened proves the Resistance’s courage, accuracy, responsibility.”

“No More Red Lines”

Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that what the Resistance’s operation in Avivim is an achievement since it took place despite threats and intimidation attempts, noting that one of the major red lines set by the Israeli enemy was broken during the strike.

“Territories occupied by the Israeli enemy in 1948 is one of the major red lines set by the Israeli enemy,” Sayyed Nasrallah said, stressing that the Resistance managed to launch an attack at this area, breaking the Israeli major red line.

“While the enemy wanted to change rules of engagements, the Resistance managed to break one of Israel’s major red lines,” his eminence said.

Sayyed Nasrallah addressed the Israeli as saying: “September 1, 2019… save this date. It’s the start of a new stage of the situation at the border between Lebanon and the Palestinian occupied territories.”

Israeli Drones

Sayyed Nasrallah also vowed that the Resistance will confront the Israeli drones in the Lebanese skies.

“We have a new target today, which is the Israeli drones. In the last years we avoid this target over local considerations,” the Resistance leader said, stressing that it’s the Lebanese people’s right to defend their land.

“We will defend our land. We will confront these drones in the Lebanese skies.”

Sayyed Nasrallah noted that some parties will slam such moves under the pretext that they will rise tensions with the Israeli enemy.

In this context, Sayyed Nasrallah said: “I tell those people, who are keen for stability in the region, that they have to talk to the international community in a bid to tell Israel that the Resistance won’t accept Israeli violation of the Lebanese sovereignty anymore.”

“Israelis have to know that what happened was because of (Israeli Premier Benjamin) Netanyahu’s idiocy,” Sayyed Nasrallah said, adding: “If Israel attacks us then we won’t recognize the so-called Blue Line.”

Source: Al-Manar English Website

http://english.almanar.com.lb/819623

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Hezbollah retaliates against Israel with a missile; Israel fires back at Lebanon

By James McAuley , Liz Sly and Ruth Eglash Ruth Eglash  

The Washingotn Post, September 1, 2019

JERUSALEM —

Hezbollah fired antitank missiles into northern Israel on Sunday, prompting Israel to fire volleys of artillery against three villages in southern Lebanon in a sharp escalation of already high tensions.

Both sides of the border had been bracing for confrontation after a threat by Hezbollah to retaliate for the killing of two of its commanders in an Israeli airstrike in Syria the previous weekend. The Hezbollah strike, which targeted an Israeli military vehicle, fulfilled that threat, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV station said.

The encounter was intense but limited, and abated after about an hour. Neither side reported casualties, and there were no immediate indications that a further escalation was imminent. After Israel announced that it had stopped firing on Lebanon, there was relief that the widely predicted confrontation appeared to have been contained.

The exchange nonetheless showed the risk that long-running tensions between Israel and Iran, Hezbollah’s chief sponsor, could erupt into all-out war. It was the first exchange of fire across the tense Lebanese-Israeli border since Hezbollah and Israel fought a month-long war in 2006, and it threatened the fragile cease-fire that has held since then.

At stake is a wider competition being waged mostly in the shadows in which Iran is seeking to supply its ally Hezbollah with precision missiles capable of striking Israel and Israel is seeking to prevent it from doing so. In recent weeks, Israel has struck targets in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon in an attempt to prevent sophisticated weapons or parts that could be used for making them from reaching its borders.

“I tell the Israeli army on the border — be prepared and wait for us,” Hasan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, said last Sunday in the aftermath of an apparent Israeli drone strike on a Hezbollah office in the southern suburbs of Beirut. (Al-Manar TV/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Sunday’s encounter suggested both sides want to be seen as holding their ground while avoiding a larger conflict.

Hezbollah said two of its brigades had launched missiles against a tank and caused deaths and injuries among Israelis. Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said the target was an unmarked military ambulance and there were no casualties.

The discrepancy in the accounts might be explained by claims in Israeli media Sunday night that Israel used decoy dummies splattered in red paint to convince Hezbollah that its strike had killed or injured Israelis. The claim, originally reported by public broadcaster Kan TV, was accompanied by footage showing the apparently injured Israelis on stretchers arriving at a hospital. Conricus declined to comment.

Conricus said Israel retaliated by firing about 100 shells into the area of southern Lebanon from which the attack was launched, in the vicinity of the town of Maroun al-Ras. Video footage from the area showed plumes of smoke rising from the mountainous countryside, suggesting most of the shells had landed in empty land.

The confrontation appeared to be over, Conricus said, but he said Israel would be on guard against any further Hezbollah retaliation in the coming days.

“The strategic situation is still ongoing,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces a contentious round of elections Sept. 17, appeared to taunt Hezbollah, boasting that the strike did not achieve its desired effect.

“We have no casualties, no injuries, not even a scratch,” he said in a statement. 

Hezbollah, however, hailed the strike on Israel as making good on the threat to retaliate by its leader, Hasan Nasrallah. Jubilant supporters took to the streets of Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs in celebration, waving photographs of the two Hezbollah fighters whose deaths were avenged.

Nasrallah has threatened to retaliate separately for a drone attack on its stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs the previous weekend in which an exploding drone detonated and a second one crashed. Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the attack, which Israel has not denied.

Hezbollah will respond to that incident by shooting down an Israeli drone, Nasrallah said.

In a speech Saturday night, however, Nasrallah indicated that Hezbollah is in no hurry to take revenge for the drone attack, which came hours after the Israeli strike on Syria. He said Hezbollah had no intention of downing all the Israeli drones that almost constantly overfly Lebanon because to do so would “erode the defenses of the resistance.”

“We choose the time, we choose the place, we choose the circumstances,” he said. “But they should know this is a new phase and their unmanned planes are subject to being taken down.”

Lebanese politicians appealed for restraint and de-escalation. Prime Minister Saad Hariri called U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and an aide to French President Emmanuel Macron requesting their intervention to stave off further violence.

The United Nations, whose peacekeepers police the cease-fire in southern Lebanon, expressed concern that the flare-up risked unraveling a 13-year truce. However, the U.N. force said in a statement, “at this time calm has returned in the area.”

Sly reported from Beirut. Suzan Haidamous contributed to this report.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israel-strikes-targets-in-southern-lebanon-after-apparent-hezbollah-missile-attack/2019/09/01/05bca8ae-ccc0-11e9-a620-0a91656d7db6_story.html

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