While Israel joins with the U.S. in carrying out a criminal monstrous war on Iran, they have seized on this to launch a preplanned assault on Lebanon. 

Israel's crimes in Lebanon intensify

At least 1,268 people have now been killed by Israel, and in a matter of weeks, its bombings and mass evacuation orders have triggered one of the fastest and largest displacements in Lebanon's history. More than one million people—one-fifth of Lebanon's population—have been forced to flee their homes, often with just the clothes on their backs, and no safe place to go. 

No fewer than 121 children have been killed and 399 injured, and more than 370,000 children have been forced from their homes in the first three weeks. Think about the devastating mental and emotional exhaustion these children are being forced to endure. In addition, there are 11,600 pregnant women who are affected, 4,000 are anticipated to give birth over the next three months, according to the United Nations Population Fund. 

"Many of these women have been forced from their homes, cut off from essential health services and forced to give birth in dangerous conditions, some even by the side of the road." 

Forcible displacement, wanton destruction and attacks deliberately targeting civilians are war crimes. It is the people of Lebanon who have been the true targets of Israel's genocidal assault on Lebanon since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. 

Israel is taking complete control of southern Lebanon, indefinitely, and carrying out the religious cleansing of Shi'ite Muslims

Thousands of Israeli troops have now invaded Lebanon, and are heading north toward the Litani River. Israel's defense minister confirmed that when fighting in southern Lebanon ends, Israel intends to occupy the entire area between the Litani River and the Israel-Lebanon border—about 10 percent of the entire country—indefinitely.

A most chilling part of Israel's plan has been revealed in recent days: Israel is setting out to wipe out the Shi'ite population in southern Lebanon. It is Shi'ite Muslim villages in southern Lebanon that are being targeted, and obliterated, by Israeli bombing. Shi'ites are being forced to seek refuge in other villages to escape the bombings and evacuation orders. 

Shi'ite Muslims make up the majority in southern Lebanon, and Israel is justifying this crime because the Iran-backed Hezbollah forces are Shi'ites, and a major force in the life of Lebanon. In the genocidal lies of an Israeli military spokesperson, “every home in southern Lebanon, the Shi'ite homes, are command centres [for Hezbollah]”. (Hezbollah—which means Party of God—is a reactionary, Shi’ite Islamic fundamentalist party and military organization in Lebanon aligned with Iran. It does not represent genuine liberation struggle.)

Israel is deploying "divide and conquer" methods to accomplish this. The New York Times is now reporting that Israeli military officials have been approaching neighboring village officials and Christian and Druze religious leaders, telling them to expel all Shi'ites who've come to their villages seeking shelter. All of the local leaders interviewed admitted they'd complied, saying that if they didn't they would be the next to be bombed. Nevertheless, such complicity is despicable. Even more despicable, the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, a Lebanese-American appointed by the Trump regime in recent months, said that the United States had asked Israel to spare Christian border ‌villages from bombing and had “received a promise to that effect, on the condition that Hezbollah members do not infiltrate these villages.” This is yet another towering Israeli war crime, backed and enabled by the U.S.! 

Think about that: the people of one religion, and anyone who would stand with them, have been singled out by Israel and are now forced to flee or face a possible death sentence. For anyone who knows the history of Nazi rule, Bob Avakian's provocative, but accurate statement should jump out: "Israel has done something truly incredible—Israel has managed to turn Jews into Nazis!"

Siege of Beirut 

Israel's horrific attack on the Shi'ites in southern Lebanon is creating a mounting humanitarian catastrophe, concentrated in Beirut, Lebanon's capital city. With a population of 2.4 million (nearly half of Lebanon's total population), Beirut's streets are now crammed with over 800,000 displaced Shi'ites. People are living on the edge, lacking shelter or basic assistance—health care, water, and sanitation services, even mattresses or blankets. Incredibly, this has not prevented Israel from repeatedly pounding Beirut—claiming to be targeting Hezbollah forces from the air. (This includes bombing Lebanese University and killing two academics.)

The presence of so many displaced Shi'ites in Beirut is triggering growing tension and a feeling among the displaced Shi'ites that they are not welcome there. This is rooted in Lebanon's 15-year civil war, from 1975-1990, between different religious groups, where over 150,000 died. With two-thirds of Beirut's population members of different religions—Christians and Sunni Muslims—this "tilting" of the makeup of the city, along with Hezbollah's presence there, is stoking religious antagonisms. A part of Israel's strategy is to provoke the antagonism and opposition between these religious forces and Hezbollah. 

The crimes of the rogue genocidal terrorist state of Israel—and its main imperialist sponsor the U.S.—urgently needs to be opposed.