'Losing control': Hamas's grip weakens as Gaza's desperation grows - analysis "The buildup of criticism, frustration, and anger could lead the Palestinian public to rise up strongly against Hamas and hold them accountable," one official noted. https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-814117
TYPICAL ISRAEL SHIT STIRRING - WITH AMERICAN BLESSINGS Sonic booms – the psychological warfare Israel uses to sow fear in Lebanon Since October 7, Israel has been using thunderous noise, triggering memories of Beirut’s devastating port explosion and spreading dread among the population. An Israeli combat jet flies near the border with Lebanon on February 29, 2024 in northern Israel [Amir Levy/Getty Images] By Mat Nashed Published On 10 Aug 2024 Beirut, Lebanon – The first time Eliah Kaylough, 26, heard the thunderous blast, he was so terrified, he instinctively ran for cover. On Tuesday this week, he had just started his shift as a waiter at a restaurant on bustling Gemmayze Street in east Beirut when he was suddenly startled by the sound of a major blast. For Kaylough, it immediately triggered memories of the massive port explosion in 2020 and he was terrified the city was either experiencing a new explosion or that it was under attack. But as he was racing out of the restaurant, a man from a nearby shop stopped him and explained that Beirut wasn’t being bombed. The sound, Kaylough discovered, was a sonic boom, a thunderous noise caused by an object moving faster than the speed of sound. Israeli jets have been increasingly triggering these sonic booms over Lebanon since October 7 last year, following the attack on southern Israel by Hamas. But the booms which sounded over Beirut on Tuesday were the loudest that had been heard in the city, several residents told Al Jazeera. Kaylough said that it was the first time that he had heard one since Israel tends to launch sonic booms in other parts of the country and city. “The sound was terrifying and I really thought we were under attack,” Kaylouh told Al Jazeera on Thursday evening at the restaurant, where he was back working a shift. “I remember putting on my hat and grabbing my bag and I was ready to close up shop.” Since October, the Lebanese armed group, Hezbollah, and Israel have been engaged in a low-level conflict. On Friday, Israel stepped up its attacks, killing Hamas official Samer al-Hajj in a drone attack on the coastal city of Sidon, about 50km (30 miles) from Lebanon’s southern border. Throughout the Gaza war, however, Israel has been launching sonic booms by flying jets at low altitudes over Lebanon in an apparent effort to intimidate and terrify the population, analysts and residents told Al Jazeera. “We are concerned about the reported use of sonic booms by Israeli aircrafts over Lebanon that has caused great fear among the civilian population,” said Ramzi Kaiss, a Lebanon researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Parties in armed conflict should not use methods of intimidation against a civilian population.” Indeed, sonic booms heard earlier this week occurred just two days after the anniversary of the August 4, 2020 Beirut-port explosion, which devastated large swaths of Beirut, killed more than 200 people and injured thousands. The blast was caused by a fire in a warehouse where a stockpile of highly combustible ammonium nitrate was being stored. Tuesday’s sonic boom was triggered just moments before Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was about to begin a speech. Last month, tensions between the foes escalated after Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s senior commander, Fuad Shukr, in Lebanon and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital Tehran. Civil defence workers extinguish a fire in a car after it was hit by an Israeli strike, killing a Hamas official, in Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon, on Friday, August 9, 2024 [Mohammed Zaatari/AP] Systematic use of ‘sound terror’ The use of sonic booms is part of a broader trend of psychological warfare that Israel wages against the Lebanese population, according to Lawrence Abu Hamdan, a sound expert and the founder of Earshot, a nonprofit that conducts audio analysis to track human rights abuses and state violence. Abu Hamdan said that since the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war, which lasted 34 days and left 1,100 Lebanese nationals and 165 Israelis dead, Israel has routinely violated Lebanese airspace with its fighter jets to scare civilians. “Since the truce of 2006, there have been more than 22,000 Israeli air violations of Lebanon. In 2020 alone, there were more than 2,000 [air violations] with no response from Hezbollah, Abu Hamdan told Al Jazeera. Abu Hamdan believes that, since last October, Israel has also been using sonic booms as an “acoustic reminder that [Israel] can turn Lebanon into Gaza at any point”. He said Israel’s increasing use of sonic booms reflects the escalation in conflict with Hezbollah over the past several months. “There is an escalation and we are seeing that escalation in sound. The next phase to the escalation is, of course, material destruction,” Abu Hamdan said. Beirut resident Rana Farhat, 28, said Israel’s scare tactics are having the desired effect. She heard the August 6 sonic booms while having dinner with her family at a restaurant in a town north of Beirut. They were startled when they heard the sound of an explosion, but her parents tried to reassure her and her siblings that Beirut was not being attacked. Everyone quickly checked their phones to find out what was going on. “We were all checking the news to see if it was an explosion or not,” Farhat, 28, said, while smoking shisha in a Beirut cafe on Thursday night. “There were little children in the restaurant and they were clearly scared. They don’t understand what such sounds mean.” Recurring trauma The murmur of fighter jets and other blast-like noises can re-traumatise populations that have survived previous explosions and wars, Abu Hamdan said. Over the long term, recurring jet and blast sounds can even increase the risk of stroke and deplete calcium deposits in the heart, according to medical studies he cited. “Once you have been exposed to [jet or blast] sounds that have produced the sort of fear that they have in this country, then whenever you hear it – even quietly – it will produce the same stress response [in an individual],” Abu Hamdan explained. Kaylough said that the sonic booms he heard on Tuesday this week transported him back to the Beirut port explosion. That day, he was working in a mall when a sudden blast shattered the glass around him and blew the doors off the hinges of the store he was working in. “The sound was so loud. I remember people were screaming, but I couldn’t hear them,” he told Al Jazeera. After the initial shock, Kaylough felt a sudden pain and realised that a large piece of metal was wedged into his lower leg. He was rushed to hospital and eventually treated by doctors. While Kaylough suffered no long-term physical injuries, he says the sonic booms are triggering the trauma he experienced that day. “The [sound from] the sonic boom did take me back to the moment of the blast, but I’m just trying not to think about it,” he said. Farhat said the sonic booms also remind her of the 2006 war. At the time, her neighbourhood was not directly being hit, but she remembers watching coverage of the war on television with her parents. As a 10-year-old, she realised that the scenes of collapsed buildings and rubble she was seeing were being filmed just a short drive from her home. She also recalls hearing the sound of Israeli fighter jets flying over Beirut to bomb the southern suburbs. While Farhat does not know if another war is looming over Beirut right now, she insisted that Israel’s scare tactics won’t compel her to leave her beloved city. “They are just trying to scare us, but I take it as a sign of weakness,” she told Al Jazeera. “Whatever happens, I don’t want to leave home and I won’t. I was born here, raised here and I will stay here.” Source: Al Jazeera
The sonic booms by the Israeli Air Force don't have anything to do with psychological warfare associated with Beirut’s devastating port explosion. Most of the Israeli planes are not flying anywhere near Beirut. The sonic booms over Lebanon have to do with two factors: The increased operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon since October 7th Remember that Hezbollah is constantly shooting rockets over the border. The government of Lebanon could eliminate this problem by having its military take on Hezbollah -- but they are not going to do this. The sonic booms are related to combat jets increasing speed to greatly reduce the change of being hit by an anti-aircraft missile while taking out Hezbollah launch positions. This article by Mat Nashed of Al Jazeera has got to be one of the dumbest put forward in recent weeks -- and that's saying a lot.
White House 'deeply concerned' over Israeli airstrike that hit east Gaza school sheltering displaced Palestinians Posted 3 hours ago More than 80 Palestinians reportedly killed in Israel’s air strike on school. In short: More than 80 Palestinians have been killed and dozens have been injured in an Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced people east of Gaza City, according to Palestinian authorities. The White House said it was "deeply concerned" about reports of the air strike, adding that Washington was in touch with Israel to seek more information. What's next? Egypt said the strike showed that Israel had no intention of reaching a ceasefire deal, potentially hindering renewed talks. More than 80 Palestinians have been killed and dozens have been injured in an Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the Daraj district, east of Gaza City, according to Palestinian authorities. The health authorities said it was one of the deadliest attacks of the 10-month Israel-Gaza war, with a witness reporting the attack occurred during prayers at a mosque in the building. The UN's human rights office has condemned the attack, saying "for many, schools are the last resort to find some shelter". The office says it is the latest in a series of "systematic attacks on schools" by Israel, with at least 21 occurring since July 4, leaving hundreds dead. The White House has said it was "deeply concerned" about reports of the air strike.
No they're not! Just more lies coming out from Washington. If there were an ounce of concern they would stop the supply of weapons to Israel. America displays pride in their surveilance abilities, but when it comes to the thousands of Israels attrocities committed, America is dumb, mute, "no comment", willfully blind, just like their religion. Talk the bs talk, but doesn't walk.
I don't see any ceasefire coming soon. The current leadership on neither side wants it. This new Hamas chief signals more war, not less for Gaza Perhaps this is what Israel wants, as Yahya Sinwar is much more hardline and less likely to support a ceasefire deal than his predecessor. https://responsiblestatecraft.org/sinwar-hamas-israel-ceasefire/
Interesting and in-depth article. Off grid: How does Yahya Sinwar lead Hamas from underground? - analysis “Sinwar is said to no longer trust electronic communications, fearing that the Israeli army will discover his location and kill him,” the report said. https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-814536
Blinken approves sale of more than $20bn in arms to Israel US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has approved the sale of military equipment, including fighter jets, to Israel that are worth more than $20bn. The announcement by the Pentagon comes despite the mounting death toll in Gaza and as the Biden administration pushes for a ceasefire deal. Earlier this week, Washington released $3.5bn to Israel to spend on US weapons and military equipment in line with Congress legislation. We will bring you more details on this shortly. F-15s, missiles, shells: Latest US weapons sales to Israel Here are the weapons sales to Israel that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has just approved. Some, including the fighter jets, could take years to deliver while equipment like tank shells could arrive immediately. 50 F-15IA AND F-15I+ aircraft for $18.82bn Nearly 33,000 tank cartridges for $774.1m Modified M1148A1P2 family of medium tactical vehicles for $583.1m Advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles for an estimated $102.5m 120mm high explosive mortar cartridges for $61.1m “The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the US Department of State said about the F-15s, which are made by Boeing. An Israeli Air Force F-15 Eagle is pictured at an air base [Israeli military via Reuters]
LMAO The United States is committed to the security of Israel....but not the Middle East as it continues support genocide and Netanyahu and to fuel the wars.
US approves $20 billion arms sale to Israel amid Middle East tensions AP | | Posted by Tuhin Das Mahapatra Aug 14, 2024 State Department announces $20 billion arms deal with Israel, including fighter jets and missiles. The U.S. has approved $20 billion in arms sales to Israel, including scores of fighter jets and advanced air-to-air missiles, the State Department announced Tuesday. .......................... Nice work again Bibi, you're continuing to do a great job fleecing American do gooder suckers. All ya gotta do is wave a bible in front of their nose and they'll come running to offer you assistance in killing the 'enemy' they created.