Category: US

Marjeyoun, Lebanon
CNN
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The silence on Lebanon’s border with Israel is deafening. After five days of near constant crossfire between fighters in Lebanon and Israeli forces, the guns seem to have largely gone quiet.

This remains one of the most important, and dangerous, fault lines in this volatile region. Following the surprise Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, this frontier – largely calm since the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war – is even more charged with consequence.

Any conflict erupting here could pour fuel on the raging fire of the current Hamas-Israel war by drawing in the most powerful paramilitary group in the Middle East: Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Hezbollah’s political stance has unambiguously supported the Palestinian militants. It has sponsored rallies in support of Palestinian groups and has roundly condemned Israel’s large-scale airstrikes on Gaza.

More than 1,200 people have been killed in the Hamas attacks on Israel, while more than 1,500 people have been killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza since Saturday.

But it is still unclear whether Hezbollah will actively participate in this conflict. So far, it has adhered to its current rules of engagement and repeatedly stated that it will fire at Israel only when Lebanese territory, or its fighters, are fired upon. It has broadly stuck to that, despite the spiraling wider tensions.

Skirmishes here can instead be seen as the low rumble of tit-for-tat exchanges since the start of the Hamas-Israel war. For days, Lebanon-based Palestinian militants have launched rockets into Israel, leading to Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory, including Hezbollah positions. Hezbollah has fired back at Israeli border positions with precision-guided missiles.

Three Hezbollah militants and three Israeli soldiers have been killed in the nearly week-long exchange of fire here.

Hezbollah has not intervened on behalf of the Palestinian militants so far. The group has explicitly linked its attacks on Israel to Israel’s targeting of Lebanese territory, and the fighting remains limited to this border region.

Still, the region remains on a knife’s edge.

Multiple reports have suggested that Western diplomats have sought to keep the Shia armed group out of the emerging conflict. The USS Gerald R Ford, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is now stationed in the eastern Mediterranean in what is seen by many analysts as a US attempt to deter that eventuality, which could herald a much more violent phase of this war.

Unlike Hamas, Hezbollah is a regional power. For years, it has participated in several conflicts in the Middle East, including in Iraq and Syria. It is also believed to have materially supported and trained Houthi rebels in Yemen. Its fighters are battle-hardened from fighting on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against Syria’s armed opposition groups, as well as against ISIS and the al-Qaeda affiliated Nusra front. This has given them significant experience in urban warfare.

Hezbollah also has a much more sophisticated arsenal than it had during its 2006 war with Israel, which ended up with no clear victor or vanquished. At the time, many parts of Lebanon were devastated, but Hezbollah foiled Israel’s ultimate plan to dismantle the group, dealing a blow to Israel’s aura of invincibility. Back then, Hezbollah fought mostly with inaccurate, Soviet-era Katyusha rockets. Nowadays, it has precision guided missiles.

In addition to potentially bringing more sophisticated weaponry and fighters into the current conflict, Hezbollah’s intervention could rope in other parties, too. Hezbollah is part of a coalition of Iran-backed fighters who are still stationed in Syria. Their participation could potentially open a third front on the Syria-Israel border, this time alongside Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) who are also present in Syria.

Until the end of the Hamas-Israel conflict, diplomats and observers of many stripes will continue to watch the tinderbox here very closely. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has gone noticeably quiet since the start of the hostilities to the south, adding to the strange relatively tranquil yet incredibly tense atmosphere.

Thursday’s calm on the Lebanon-Israel border – interrupted occasionally by Israeli interceptions of rockets from Palestinian militants – begs many questions. Has the flare-up here ground to a near halt? Or is this the lull before a huge regional storm?

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EXCLUSIVE – Israeli security expert, mother and veteran Sarit Zehavi, who has dedicated her life to protecting Israeli borders, said the terror attacks on Saturday were far worse than what she long considered the “worst-case scenario” for her people, who have made endured a culture of living under constant threat.

“This is something that I never imagined,” Zehavi told Fox News Digital. “I thought that this will be stopped immediately. I didn’t imagine that many infiltrators at the same time, to so many places.”

Zehavi sent away her children to the center of the small country – Israel is slightly larger than the state of New Jersey – since the war between Israel and Hamas started.

“This is the surprise that we had. But in general, the fact that the terrorist organizations on our borders are planning to invade and to launch barrages of rockets, thousands of rockets to the state of Israel, it’s not news. I raised my kids in the north under the threat of these rockets,” she said. “Now my kids, by the way, are not here. I sent them to the center of Israel few days ago because I knew this is coming.” 

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On Saturday, Hamas terrorists committed the worst attack on Israel in its 75-year history, killing at least 1,200, many of them civilians, and taking upwards of 150 hostages. The attack came from Gaza in the south, after Zehavi and others spent years preparing for attacks from the north.

“I didn’t believe that the same thing can happen from the south,” she said.

After spending 15 years in the Israeli Defense Forces, Zehavi founded the Israeli nonprofit Alma, which specializes in educating on Israel’s security challenges along its northern border. She spoke to Fox News Digital from Tefen Industrial Park in Western Galilee, only 12 kilometers from the Israeli-Lebanese border, with constant alerts going off as Israeli residents in her area were told to shelter in place amid reports of an incoming “large-scale” drone attack as other terror groups look to join Hamas.

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“The border of the north is not quiet. Soldiers already got killed. We had few attacks with anti-tanks, with rockets, with the infiltration of terrorists. And if we will not be completely prepared on northern border, we’re going to get the same catastrophe that happened in the south,” Zehavi said.

“Now this is very clear. On the other side of the border is Hamas, there is Palestinian Islamic jihad, and mainly there is Hezbollah,” Zehavi explained. “And the military capabilities of Hezbollah are ten times more… than the military capabilities of Hamas.”

Israelis already witnessed unspeakable acts of terrorism committed by Hamas during Saturday’s devastating attack, and Zehavi is concerned Hezbollah terrorists are even more capable. 

“The terrorists are much more experienced because they were fighting in Syria in the civil war. They are not only trained, they are experienced and motivated… They are also crazy lunatics with high military capabilities, and they’re already starting to shoot at us.”

Zehavi believes Iran is the “the mastermind in this campaign,” and the only surprise was where the assault originated.

Israel requires every Jewish citizen who is over the age of 18 to serve in the IDF. Druze and Circassian men are also required to serve, and Israelis who don’t fall into these groups can volunteer. But for Jewish citizens, serving in IDF is a way of life that most are proud to embrace. 

AT LEAST 22 AMERICANS, OVER 1,200 ISRAELIS DEAD IN HAMAS WAR

“It’s a commitment, we are obliged to serve in the army,” she said. “Many people, those who are not in the Army, volunteer to assist. There is so much that could be done to assist the soldiers, to assist the civilians that are under fire. It’s so important.”

Zehavi is grateful that the United States has stood with Israel, but urged Americans not to forget the atrocities that occurred on Saturday. 

“After we will move from defense to offense in order to eliminate the risk to the state of Israel and to the citizens of Israel — don’t forget how all of that started. Don’t forget why we are doing what we’re doing, because radical ideologies Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad cannot exist next to innocent civilians. Eventually they kill them,” she said.

Fox News’ Greg Norman and David Rutz contributed to this report. 

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When Hamas fires rockets at Israel, advanced warning detectors set off alarms in targeted neighborhoods, civilians flee to an extensive network of bomb shelters, and the vaunted Iron Dome system works to intercept projectiles in the air.  

But in Gaza, none of those high-tech defenses were available to protect Maisara Baroud, 47, when his apartment building was hit by Israeli airstrikes Monday night. The only thing that saved him and his family: A neighbor yelling from the street.  

The neighbor received a call from Israeli military, giving him a heads up that a strike at a nearby residential building was imminent. Still, the neighbor told Baroud and the 15 other family members living in Baroud’s building — including nine children — to get out. 

The first strike wrecked most of the six buildings on the block, including Baroud’s.  

“My building was no longer livable — it was a skeleton of a house left,” he said. “The doors were destroyed, the building’s exterior walls were all gone, the windows shattered.”  

Still, Baroud and others assumed the worst was over and headed back into the building to salvage their belongings. Minutes later, the neighbor received a follow-up call from the Israeli military that a follow-up bombing was coming, and the families fled again. 

A second strike destroyed Baroud’s home, reducing his building and his art studio to rubble. 

This is the reality for Palestinians living in Gaza without the protection of a robust civil defense infrastructure. With no air raid sirens or bomb shelters, the more than 2 million Palestinians living in the besieged territory — half of whom are children — rely on rare phone calls or text messages from the Israeli military to alert them of imminent strikes.    

“In Gaza, we don’t have anything … you have nowhere to go, no bomb shelters, no refuge, you are in the street,” Baroud said. “If you’re lucky enough to even get an alert to tell you to get out of the house, you leave saying, ‘Thank God.'”  

The lack of protection serves as a stark contrast to the civil defense systems of Israel, which has faced intense barrages of rocket fire from Hamas in recent days. Israel boasts elaborate and technologically advanced capabilities — ranging from early radar detection to the Iron Dome — meant to protect its civilians in the event of an attack.  

In Gaza, the call or text alerts are far from guaranteed and — at most — give residents a few minutes to evacuate. Often, it’s just a guessing game.  

Read more about the difficult circumstances for those in Gaza.

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Israel has warned the 1.1 million people living in the north of Gaza to evacuate the area within 24 hours as a “humanitarian step in order to minimize civilian casualties” ahead of the military’s response to Hamas’ terrorist attacks.

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Jonathan Conricus shared the message he said was sent to citizens in Gaza on X, formerly Twitter, Friday morning.

“The IDF calls for the evacuation of all civilians from Gaza City from their homes southwards for their own safety and protection and to move to the area south of the Wadi Gaza, the river Gaza, as shown on the map,” Conricus said.

He explained that telling people to move south of the river makes the directions clear and understandable for everybody, regardless of if they have a map or not.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST UPDATES ON THE ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR

Conricus said the evacuation order is for safety purposes, adding that civilians will not be able to return to Gaza City until another announcement clearing the area is made. He also said to not approach the area of the security fence with Israel.

The United Nations told The Associated Press it received a notice from Israel issuing the 24-hour evacuation warning, and Conricus confirmed communications with the UN.

ISRAEL READIES GROUND INVASION TO ROOT OUT HAMAS WITH AMERICANS STILL HELD HOSTAGE

Hamas operates out of Gaza City in tunnels underneath homes and inside buildings populated with innocent civilians in efforts to use them as human shields.

“Civilians of Gaza City, evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields,” the IDF said in a news release.

The IDF said it will continue to operate significantly in Gaza City and will make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians.

“There are civilians here who are not our enemy and we do not want to target them. We are asking them to evacuate so we will be able to continue to strike military targets belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip,” Conricus said.

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As of Thursday night, more than 2,800 Israelis and Palestinians have been killed and at least 9,800 have been wounded since Hamas launched its attack on Israel on Saturday. The death toll is expected to rise as Israeli forces reportedly prepare for a ground invasion of Gaza.

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A Jewish professor says pro-Palestinian activists’ sympathies with terrorism have been ongoing at American colleges generally – such as when students chant for violent uprisings — but were avoided by administrators with no interest in tackling the problem or who are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

“They really have pulled back the veil on what this is all about,” said Professor Jeffery Lax from City University of New York. Lax explained he believed terror sympathies on college campuses were a massive problem that has been festering for years, but it wasn’t taken seriously until now. 

Israel formally declared war on Hamas Sunday after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas launched a pogrom-style terrorist campaign against Israeli civilians, killing children, burning people alive, raping women, parading dead bodies through the streets, mowing down families and kidnapping little kids. 

At least 27 American citizens have been killed, an unknown number are in Hamas captivity and others remain unaccounted for. Between 100 and 150 children, women and men are believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas. 

AUSTRALIAN PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS CHANT ‘GAS THE JEWS’ AS POLICE WARN JEWISH PEOPLE TO STAY AWAY FROM AREA

Jewish students at American universities told Fox News Digital that they’re “stunned” by pro-Hamas sentiment on their campus amid the terrorist group’s war against Israel. Harvard student groups were criticized by the institution after students signed onto a statement blaming Israel as “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”

Professor Lax said he was not taken by surprise by the response from some pro-Palestinian activists. 

“We’ve been seeing this normalization [of Hamas terrorism] going on for many years on academic campuses. And we see what happens in academia a couple of years before society sees it, but eventually it gets to society,” Lax said. “Now you’re seeing the effort of their work for all these years trying to normalize terrorism.” 

“I think the phony narrative radical Palestinian groups put forward about policy [with Israel] being the issue [is] being exposed. I do think the world is seeing it. And we have to educate and make sure that that message gets really hammered into the conscious consciousness of people, because that’s the only way that true change will happen on campuses and in the world,” he added. 

Lax believes that universities, generally, have not cracked down on the anti-Semitism issues because “the problem is that today the highest levels of the universities are systemically anti-Semitic.”

HARVARD STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS CLAIM ISRAEL ‘ENTIRELY RESPONSIBLE’ FOR GAZA ATTACKS

“And not only will give weak statements, they actually will say things at times in support of these [pro-Palestinian] rallies. And these rallies are literally inciting not just violence, but the most horrific kinds of violence,” Lax said. 

Examples of terror sympathies include, according to Lax, when students chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – considered to be a Hamas cry for genocide against Jews in Israel – and when they chant for an “intifada” – which refers to a terrorist campaign that claimed thousands of civilian lives in bombing attacks in the early 2000s in Israel. 

Lax’s institution, CUNY, has been criticized and threatened with defunding over what critics have said is inertia at tackling an anti-Semitism problem. Students for Justice in Palestine chapters have chanted for “intifada” on its campuses, in many cases causing Jewish students to feel unsafe. 

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Most recently, CUNY Law’s commencement speaker spoke out in defense of the “Palestinian political prisoners like HLF (the Holy Land Foundation) in U.S. prisons.” HLF was a Texas-based charity shut down by the Department of Justice after it uncovered a $12-million dollar terror-financing scheme to Hamas, a designated terror group. 

“I hate to use the words silver lining when we’re seeing such atrocities being committed. But I do think there is one sliver of a silver lining here, and that is that I think we are witnessing before our eyes the death of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.”

BDS is a pro-Palestinian movement claiming that it supports social justice and peace in the Middle East. It calls for the West to bring economic warfare against Israel to pressure it into pro-Palestinian aims. However, critics say the movement is anti-Semitic with the sole aim of delegitimizing Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. 

“If you go on social media now, you’re seeing BDS activists and people of their ilk defending the rapes of Israeli women, defending those women being dragged with blood streaming down their legs in the streets…, and babies being kidnaped and… beheaded. They’re defending that,” Lax said. 

“And what they’re saying [to Israel] is, ‘Well, you know, you have this coming,'” he added. “And so they’re really drawing back the curtain on what their belief system is, because for all these years, they’ve been saying our only problem is with the government policy of Israel. We have no problem with Jews, we’re not anti-Semites, we have no problem with the people of Israel.”

Lax continued, “That’s not what’s happening today all across the world in rallies and on social media, you’re seeing swastikas by BDS movement people, and you’re seeing defense of the most horrific atrocities committed against Jewish people since the Holocaust. And that is really revealing because what they’re really telling the world is we don’t really have a problem with the government policy. We have a problem with Jews being around. We want Jews out.” 

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