In wake of rocket attacks on Israel, Hezbollah tries to signal it’s ‘in control’
The firing of 19 rockets at open areas near Kiryat Shmona was a calculated step by Hezbollah designed to indicate that it will not “allow” Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon to go unanswered; the scope of Israel’s retaliation will determine the next stage of this controlled standoff.
By Yaakov Lappin
August 6, 2021 / JNS
... Meanwhile, a dramatic and unexpected twist occurred in Lebanon itself, when villagers from the southern Lebanese Druze village of Shwaya discovered a vehicle-mounted rocket-launcher and a Hezbollah operative traveling through their area. Angry villagers quickly surrounded the operative, who was rescued by village elders and handed over to the Lebanese Armed Forces. The LAF later announced that it had arrested four suspects.
“Let the whole world see. Hezbollah is firing from near homes so that it [Israel] hits us,” a Druze villager said on a video posted to social media. The furious response by the villagers indicates that Hezbollah can expect no cooperation from Lebanese Druze in any future attempt to use them as human shields. Such tensions also represent simmering sectarian fault lines in Lebanon, which are becoming more acute as the country continues to experience massive economic and political crises.
“The dogs of Hezbollah are firing from the center of the Druze heartland,” a villager said in the video.
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Lebanese Druze Detain Hezbollah Terrorists Who Fired Rockets at Israel By Yoni Weiss
Sunday, August 8, 2021
Locals accused Hezbollah of launching rockets at Israel from their village and endangering their lives by firing at Israel from civilian areas.
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Roi Kais @kaisos1987 tweeted:
The man in the picture is the bravest man in Lebanon in the last day. Yahya a-Timani, a young Druze who documented on his Facebook page the confrontation between Hezbollah members who fired at Israel and the people of his village Shavia. A news site in southern Lebanon has already accused him of collaborating with the Zionists. At the same time, there are also those who have launched a campaign to support him on social media.
[Aug 7, 2021]
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roi kais @kaisos1987 tweeted:
One of the Hezbollah members who fired the rockets at Israel is received at his home as a hero after his release. Starred in the records of Druze residents attacking the shooters in the village of Shawiya in southern Lebanon.
[Aug 6, 2021]
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ELINT News (@ELINTNews) Tweeted: Ali Kajk, the Hezbollah militant captured by Druze locals after firing rockets on Israel was filmed multiple times before by the IDF in civilian clothes near the Israeli border with Lebanon in order to do surveillance
[Aug 8, 2021]
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IDF reveals: It is a Hezbollah terrorist who fired rockets at Israel - and was beaten by Druze in southern Lebanon
The Arab press reported that the United States had put pressure on Bennett - so as not to jeopardize negotiations with Iran. According to a Western diplomatic source, the pressure not to change the "rules of confrontation" with Hezbollah is intended not to give Tehran an excuse to withdraw from the negotiations - before the return of nuclear talks in Vienna in September
Itai Blumenthal and Roi Kais. 08 August 2021
The IDF spokesman in Arabic, Lt. Col. Avichai Adrei, today (Sunday) revealed the identity of a Hezbollah operative who was part of the cell that fired rockets at Israel on Friday. Shortly after the shooting, a squad of members of the cell was stopped by Druze in a village in southern Lebanon, who beat some of its members until soldiers from the Lebanese army arrived. The organization's operative, Ali Kajk, was documented being put in a car after being beaten by Druze.
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Hezbollah supporters punish Druze for detaining rocket launching crew
Supporters of Shiite group intimidate Druze, threaten prominent sheikhs after community members detain Hezbollah operatives, rocket launcher used to attack Israel.
By Neta Bar and Reuters Published on 08-08-2021
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Daniel Salami (@DanielSal_87) Tweeted: Sheikh Mofek Tarif: "Strongly condemns Hezbollah's attempt to attack Israel from Druze villages.
"The Druze are defending their settlements, and preventing Hezbollah from using them as cannon fodder. There is no room for terrorist organizations within the population. It calls on all Druze to be wary of an Iranian plot to drag the Druze into Lebanon and Syria into ethnic clashes.
[Aug 6, 2021]
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Former Druze battalion commander: "Druze attempts in Lebanon to stop Hezbollah are dramatic"
MK Mofid Marai of White Brush referred to an incident that was documented on Friday and received considerable resonance over the weekend on social media.
Walla! News, Sunday, 08 August 2021
Colonel (Res.) MK Mofid Marai (blue and white), former commander of the Druze battalion, said today (Sunday) that the Druze's attempts in Lebanon to stop Hezbollah's firing at Israel are a "dramatic event." Magal and Ben Caspit on 103FM, referring to an incident that was recorded in Lebanon on Friday and received considerable resonance over the weekend on social media.
The videos that were distributed show a great commotion during which Lebanese residents in the Druze city of Hasbaya gather in protest around a vehicle loaded with Hezbollah rockets, and try to stop it. "Eventually, the Druze villages in southern Lebanon confiscated what was left of the missiles. They prevented the missiles or Katyushas from continuing to fire at the State of Israel," Marai said. "The question is what led Hassan Nasrallah to fire there."
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Lillian H. Mueller (@lill_the_swiss) Tweeted: Following what happened in a Druze village (preventing Hezbollah 2use civilians as human shields in attacking IL) "Hezbollah members have attacked Druze all over Lebanon - it is reminiscent of the beginning of a civil war”, says Dr. @EdyCohen, about the incident last Friday.
[Aug 8, 2021]
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bkmk
Unexpected development
Throwing them from the building where they launched the rockets would have taught them a more lasting lesson.
Israel’s enemies are many.
And none seems to understand Israel can kill all of them at the same time.
Air Dominance. And superior training/CCC on the ground. Intelligence. Logistics. Tactics. Technology embedded. Artillery. Even nukes.
The list is long.
Time for Israel to move in.
Hesbollah have shown the world they are lower than snakes.
Firing rockets from towns they don’t live in. Intentionally putting the women and children and homes of strangers in the line of fire.
They can’t claim honor under sharia law, and their credibility is destroyed. No better than Isil.
Now hang them from a lamp post and feed their bodies to wild hogs.
L
I applaud their stand, and hope the villagers are preparing for the inevitable retaliation from Hezbollah, so they can at least give a good account of themselves. They’ve already inflicted great damage on the reputation of Hezbollah. If they fight they will inflict much more, whether they survive or not.
Friday, 06 Aug 2021
People Confront Hezbollah Fighters Who Fired Rockets From Lebanon
Iran International Newsroom
Hezbollah militiamen who fired rockets towards Israeli forces from Lebanon on Friday were intercepted by locals afterwards, the group said, a rare challenge to the Iran-backed Shi’ite movement as its members passed through a Druze area of the south.
Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets towards Israeli forces in the disputed Shebaa Farms area, saying it had targeted open ground in retaliation for Israeli air strikes that hit open ground in Lebanon on Thursday. Israel responded to Friday’s rockets with artillery fire into Lebanon.
But a video circulating on social media showed local residents from a different religious sect angry to see Hezbollah gunmen with a rocket-launch truck in their territory. If Hezbollah fires from an area, chances are Israel would hit back at the source of the fire, endangering residents.
Hezbollah claimed that as their fighters returned from launching rockets, “a number of citizens intercepted them” as they passed through the Chouaya area.
The social media video also broadcast by Lebanese TV stations showed a crowd of men gathered around a blue, flat-back truck loaded with rocket launchers in Chouaya, a predominantly Druze area of the south.
The Lebanese army said in a statement said it had detained the “four people who launched the rockets and seized the launcher used in the operation”.
In its statement, Hezbollah said the launch had taken place “in a wooded area totally far from residential areas, to preserve the security of citizens”.
Hezbollah said it always took the utmost care to avoid exposing people to harm “during its resistance work” and would continue to do so.
But there are many past instances(link is external) in which Hezbollah was blamed to have launched missiles from residential areas or stored weapons next to homes. Israel also has repeatedly accused(link is external) the Shi’ite militia of using civilians as a human shield.
Walid Jumblatt, Lebanon’s leading Druze politician, urged calm after the incident. “We hope that we all exit this tense atmosphere on social media,” he wrote on Twitter.
Hezbollah enjoys strong support among Shi’ites who form the majority in southern Lebanon, where its fighters helped drive out Israeli forces that occupied the area until 2000.
But its powerful arsenal has long been a point of conflict in Lebanon, where its political opponents say the arsenal undermines the Lebanese state and should be handed over to the army. There is also the confessional system in the country, where every religious sect jealously guards its traditional territory and one wrong move by any group can lead to clashes.
Lebanon’s economy has crashed since 2019 and people from all groups have held many protests against politicians they regard as corrupt and inept. But there have also been anti-Hezbollah and anti-Iran manifestations, since the group dominates the sectarian political system, preventing an effective government to be formed.
https://iranintl.com/en/world/people-confront-hezbollah-fighters-who-fired-rockets-lebanon