الكاتب: kafej

The war in Lebanon, which began one day after the conflict in Gaza, looks and sounds like a militarised version of hide and seek.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, along with a number of other militant groups, use the olive groves and fruit trees for cover as they launch weapons over Lebanon‘s southern frontier.

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The Israelis spy from their towering observation posts which dominate the “Blue Line” separating the two countries. The motorised whine of Israel’s drones provides a constant reminder of their presence.

Every attack is met with a reciprocal response. Hezbollah’s rockets follow Israeli artillery fire. Israeli air strikes follow the militants’ anti-tank missiles.

However, the two sides are not seeking to annihilate each other – or advance into each other’s territory – at least for the time being. Instead, each strike is like a statement of intent, an example of the deadly possibilities.

At the rim of this simmering volcano stands another party that has been attempting to keep the peace on the Lebanese frontier since 1978.

It is called the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) – a multi-national force charged with monitoring and deterring hostile acts.

A detachment of 550 Irish soldiers play a key role in UNIFIL’s mission and Sky News met their commander at “Camp Shamrock”, some 20 minutes or so from the Blue Line.

Lieutenant-Colonel Cathal Keohane told us that recent fighting at the border has been deeply worrying.

“It is fair to say that this is the most fraught period of time in the last 20 years for us.

“While initially in the first few weeks (after 8 October) it was very localised to the Blue Line, more lately, it has escalated, (the attacks are) moving deeper into Lebanon.

“There are a wider range of weapons with great lethality being used by both sides.”

“This is what you are seeing?” I asked.

“This is our observation, and our concern is… that at the top of [the] ladder is all out war and our concern is that we are progressing towards that.”

The Irish operate two isolated outposts on the line separating Lebanon and Israel, and Sky News was taken to visit one of these posts in the back of an armoured personnel carrier – the first journalists to travel to the border with UNIFIL since the conflict began.

These posts now find themselves situated at the heart of the battle zone with hostile fire from both sides landing perilously close.

One soldier showed us pictures of a position enveloped by smoke generated by white phosphorous bombs that had been dropped nearby.

Read more:
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The battalion commander did not want to comment on the use of white phosphorous in this conflict but local residents, as well as the Lebanese Minister of Health, Firass Abiad, told Sky News that the Israelis have destroyed thousands of acres of olive trees – and injured dozens of people – with this incendiary weapon.

The use of white phosphorous is governed by the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), which prohibits the use of airdropped incendiaries within “concentrations of civilians.” Lebanon has acceded to the protocol – Israel has not.

I asked the soldier in charge of one of Ireland’s Blue Line outposts, Lieutenant Dylan Cadogan, whether it was frustrating monitoring a war without having the authority to subdue it.

“It can be frustrating but our mission here is peacekeeping, we can’t enforce peace upon anyone, it has to be wanted on both sides.”

In many ways, UNIFIL’s limited mission in southern Lebanon represents the problems and limitations of the organisation they represent.

The UN has repeatedly failed to reach a united front on the conflict in Gaza with the Security Council reflecting deep divisions on a humanitarian ceasefire and the expansion of settlements in the West Bank.

I asked Battalion Commander Keohane whether he could simply tell the militants and the Israelis to stop – but he said he did not have the mandate.

“A peacekeeping force goes in when both parties are seeking peace and you are there to monitor, report and provide an impartial witness to what is going on,” he said.

“There are peace enforcement missions but that is a different thing entirely, they are structured differently, they are equipped differently and that is not what UNIFIL is…”

An “enforcement mission” would require a level of agreement at the Security Council that is currently unimaginable.

In the meantime, this band of Irish soldiers positioned on the Blue Line will monitor and report and assist in any way they can.

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Luis Diaz’s father was in tears on Thursday after he watched his son score both goals for Columbia in a 2-1 win over Brazil in a World Cup qualifying match.

Wearing a Colombia top and a silver rosary, Luis Manuel Diaz fell on top fellow fans in the stands of the Estadio Metropolitano, in Barranquilla, Colombia and wept next to his wife, Cilenis Marulanda, as he celebrated.

The 58-year-old was held captive for 12 days by the ELN guerrilla group, but was reunited with his son on Tuesday.

“I thank God. He makes it all possible. We have always lived tough moments, but life makes you strong and brave. So is soccer and so is life,” Luis Diaz, who plays his club football at Liverpool, said after the match. “We deserved this victory.”

Diaz got a brace of headers, the first in the 75th minute and the second in the 79th.

It was Colombia’s first win against Brazil in World Cup qualifying in 15 matches.

“He is a friend, he suffered a lot these days. This is beyond football, he deserves it,” said Brazil’s goalkeeper Alisson, a teammate of Diaz at Liverpool.

Read more:
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Armed men on motorcycles kidnapped Diaz’s parents from a petrol station in the town of Barrancas on 28 October.

His mother was rescued within hours by police, who set up roadblocks around the town of 40,000 people near the Venezuelan border.

Diaz and Colombia face Paraguay on Tuesday in the next step of their campaign to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

Putin has said the Avangard hypersonic system is a response to a new generation of weapons developed by the US.

Russia’s rocket forces have loaded an intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with the nuclear-capable Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle into a launch silo in southern Russia, according to a Defence Ministry TV channel broadcast.

President Vladimir Putin announced the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle in 2018, saying it was a response to the development of a new generation of weapons by the United States.

As it approaches its target, the Avangard detaches from the rocket and can manoeuvre sharply outside the trajectory of the rocket at hypersonic speeds of up to 27 times the speed of sound (about 21,000 miles per hour or 34,000 kilometres per hour).

The Zvezda television channel owned by the Russian Defence Ministry on Thursday showed a ballistic missile being transported to a launch silo, slowly raised into a vertical position and then lowered into a shaft in the Orenburg region near Kazakhstan.

Russia installed its first Avangard-equipped missile in 2019 at the same Orenburg facility.

Russia and the US, by far the world’s biggest nuclear powers, have both expressed regret about the steady disintegration of arms-control treaties which sought to slow the Cold War arms race and reduce the risk of nuclear war.

But they are also developing a range of new weapons systems, including hypersonic ones, as is China.

The US casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat, while US President Joe Biden argues that this century will be defined by an existential contest between democracies and autocracies.

Russia says the US’s post-Cold War dominance is crumbling.

Paul Kessler died after falling and hitting his head during duelling protests earlier this month.

A California university professor has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and battery in the death of a Jewish protester during duelling pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel rallies.

Paul Kessler, 69, died after falling and hitting his head during protests over the Israel-Hamas war earlier this month near Los Angeles.

Loay Alnaji, a professor of computer science at Moorpark College, was arrested early on Thursday, Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko later said that Alnaji would be charged with a count each of involuntary manslaughter and battery.

Kessler, who died on November 6, was among a group of pro-Israel protesters who appeared at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Thousand Oaks, a suburb northwest of Los Angeles, the previous day.

Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff earlier this month told reporters that investigators had determined that Kessler fell backwards and struck his head, but video footage did not provide a clear view of a physical altercation between the two men before the fall.

Fryhoff said at the time that investigators had not ruled out the possibility of a hate crime.

The arrest comes as demonstrations continue worldwide over Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel and Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza.

About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attacks, according to Israeli officials.

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 11,500 people, including more than 4,700 children, according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-governed enclave.

Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is doing all it can to minimise civilian casualties in Gaza but had “not been successful”.

The Israeli prime minister was speaking to CBS when he made the comments regarding the thousands of reported deaths since his forces began their operation against Hamas.

Mr Netanyahu laid the blame for the civilian deaths squarely at the feet of the group which attacked Israel on 7 October.

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He said: “Any civilian death is a tragedy. And we shouldn’t have any because we’re doing everything we can to get the civilians out of harm’s way, while Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm’s way.

“So we send leaflets, (we) call them on their cell phones, and we say: ‘leave’. And many have left.

“The other thing that I can say is that we’ll try to finish that job with minimal civilian casualties. That’s what we’re trying to do. Minimal civilian casualties. But unfortunately, we’re not successful.”

Thousands of civilians are reported to have died during Israel’s weeks-long military campaign in response to the attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 people with another 240 being taken hostage.

In the same interview Mr Netanyahu said there were “strong indications” that some of the hostages had been held in al Shifa hospital, but were no longer there when the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) entered the building.

On Thursday, IDF soldiers continued searching underground levels of the hospital, Gaza’s largest, following a raid that began early on Wednesday.

Technicians responsible for running the hospital equipment were detained, the health ministry in Gaza said in a statement.

The military released footage from inside the hospital showing three duffle bags allegedly found hidden around an MRI lab – each containing an assault rifle, grenades and Hamas uniforms.

Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza claim at least 11,500 people have been killed during Israel’s ongoing operation, with more than 4,700 of them children.

Two thirds of the Gaza Strip’s population of 2.3 million have been made homeless by the war.

On Thursday, Israel’s air force dropped leaflets in parts of southern Gaza telling people to evacuate for their own safety.

Israel has also used leaflet drops in northern Gaza to warn civilians to move.

Read more on Sky News:
How does Hamas count those who have been killed?
Hezbollah’s leader threatens escalation
Stop killing women and babies in Gaza, Macron tells Israel

Hundreds of thousands have done so, in a mass displacement that some fear could become permanent.

Tanks and troops crossed the border with northern Gaza on 26 October in what was described at the time as the “biggest incursion” of the conflict so far, almost three weeks after the 7 October Hamas attack.

Gaza has also experienced four mass communication outages since the ground invasion began.