Death toll surpasses 1,300 as Israel strikes Gaza and fierce battles intensify between Hamas gunmen and Israeli troops.

Hamas’s Qassam Brigades has threatened to execute Israeli captives if Israel continues to bombard and kill civilians in Gaza.

“Any targeting of innocent civilians without warning will be met regretfully by executing one of the captives in our custody, and we will be forced to broadcast this execution,” said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ Qassam Brigades.

“We regret this decision but we hold the Zionist enemy and their leadership the responsibility for this,” he said.

  • Cleverdawny@lemm.eeEnglish
    102·
    1 year ago

    Point here, it wasn’t Lebanon, it was Hezbollah. Hezbollah is tolerated within Lebanon because of a weak Lebanese central government, but they’re still a militia within Lebanon, not Lebanon itself. They more or less represent the Iranian-aligned portion of Lebanese Shiite Muslims, not Lebanese Christians or Sunni Muslims.

      • Cleverdawny@lemm.eeEnglish
        41·
        1 year ago

        Lebanon is a failed/failing state with a weak centralized government that can’t exercise total control over the nation, but it’s also a super diverse country. Just saying, it’s a minority of the population which supports Hezbollah, it’s just not a minority which can be suppressed since they receive extensive military support from Iran and Syria. If they tried, it’d be the Lebanese Civil War again

          • Cleverdawny@lemm.eeEnglish
            21·
            1 year ago

            Usually what Israel does is counter artillery action and maybe some airstrikes. They haven’t actually invaded in a while. I expect that’s what’s going to happen this time around too, they’re likely mostly focused on Gaza.