Press Releases
As we approach a year of genocide in the Gaza Strip, Israel has escalated its aggression on Lebanon, intensifying airstrikes and now launching a ground invasion. Israel’s campaign in Lebanon has mirrored its policies in Gaza: spreading lies and propaganda about the resistance to justify its aggression and to demonize the resistance, mass displacement of the population through illegal evacuation orders, mass bombing campaigns, and mass destruction of homes and critical infrastructure. As in Gaza, these actions have been carried out with the political and military support of Israel’s colonial allies to entrench and expand western colonial domination under the Israeli regime.
The Israeli propaganda machine has been an essential component of its genocide in Gaza, and now, in its aggression on Lebanon. On 23 September 2024, as Israel launched its intensified air campaign on Lebanon, Israeli forces released the first of many propaganda videos, claiming that Hezbollah has “deployed its arms inside homes and militarized civilian infrastructure [...] turn[ing] southern Lebanon into a battlefield.” That night, following airstrikes that killed at least 558 Lebanese and injured over 1,800 others, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video, stating: “For too long, Hezbollah has been using you [the Lebanese people] as human shields. It placed rockets in your living rooms and missiles in your garage.” This propaganda mirrors similar accusations made by Israel against Hamas in Gaza, claiming that the resistance hides in schools and operates from beneath hospitals. Amplified by mainstream western media, these false claims aim to demonize the resistance, manufacture a climate of consent and create a veneer of legitimacy for the crimes and violations that would and did follow. Furthermore, as seen in Gaza and now in Lebanon, such claims often precede intense Israeli attacks on civilians and civilian areas, including schools, hospitals, UN facilities and residential neighborhoods.
As in Gaza, Israeli officials have been openly spreading calls for genocide in Lebanon. In August, the commander of an Israeli army brigade avowed that the “villages of Lebanon will become desolate, and its roads impassable,” and blatantly said: “I wish for the fighters to commit genocide.” On 21 September, following Israel’s pager attacks in Lebanon and a couple days prior to the launch of the new aggression, Israeli Minister of Education Yoav Kisch proclaimed that “[t]he way things are progressing at the moment, Lebanon will be annihilated.”
In the ongoing genocide on Gaza, Israel has employed a policy of willful killing against civilians, carpet bombing almost the entirety of the Strip: killing over 41,600 Palestinians and injuring more than 96,600. In Lebanon, Israel has been practicing the same tactics, systematically targeting civilians and committing several massacres. Since 8 October 2023, Israel has killed 1,928 Lebanese (including 800 since 23 September 2024) and injured 9,290 through airstrikes, including banned white phosphorus munitions.
In the Gaza Strip, Israel has forcibly displaced over 1.9 million Palestinians and subjected them to conditions calculated to bring about their slow death, as a clear act of genocide. A similar pattern emerged in Lebanon after 23 September, where mass forced displacement became a feature of Israel’s aggression. As a result of relentless strikes and dozens of “evacuation orders” issued for villages in southern Lebanon, over 1 million people have been displaced. Save the Children stated: “Over 154,000 displaced people are currently taking refuge in 851 active shelters, including public schools, with 70% of them already at full capacity, and only some equipped with proper showers, sanitation facilities, hot water and heating. Others are staying with host families, often in overcrowded conditions.”
Additionally, Israel’s mass bombing campaign has resulted in widespread destruction across Lebanon. The United Nations High Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights reports that Israel’s attacks had destroyed or damaged dozens of thousands of homes even prior to the new aggression in September. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also reports that “around 40 of 317 primary health centers, and two hospitals have suspended the provision of services due to the escalation.” Damage to 25 water facilities has disrupted supply for over 360,000 people in Lebanon. In Gaza, the policy of widespread destruction has resulted in the majority of hospitals damaged and 80 percent of schools, 92 percent of primary roads, 67 percent of critical infrastructure and facilities, and 63 percent of all homes destroyed by Israel.
In the Gaza Strip, the suffering of Palestinians is exacerbated by the fact that Israel is intentionally imposing a plethora of genocidal conditions—including forced displacement, starvation, hazardous health and living conditions, and the obstruction of humanitarian agencies providing aid and services, especially UNRWA—in tandem. With the Lebanese people facing mass forced displacement, massacres and the destruction of critical infrastructure, it is evident that Israel is employing the same playbook of destruction and suffering it has employed for almost a year in Gaza.
As Israel continues to escalate its aggression on Lebanon—particularly with the launch of a ground invasion—and the genocide on Gaza, it is paramount to reiterate that the only solution is to cut off the unwavering support from complicit colonial states to the Israeli colonial-apartheid regime. To end both the genocide and aggression, states are obligated to immediately impose arms embargoes and economic and political sanctions.
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