386 Days of Genocide: October 27th Newsletter
386 Days of Genocide: October 27th Newsletter
Israel has taken human shields to a whole new criminal level
The use of human shields in war is not a new phenomenon. Militaries have forced civilians to serve as human shields for centuries. Yet, despite this long and dubious history, Israel has managed to introduce a new form of shielding in Gaza, one that appears unprecedented in the history of warfare.
The practice was initially revealed by Al Jazeera but, subsequently, Haaretz published an entire expose about how Israeli troops have abducted Palestinian civilians, dressed them in military uniforms, attached cameras to their bodies, and sent them into underground tunnels as well as buildings in order to shield Israeli troops.
More from Neve Gordon for Al Jazeera.
At least 16 people killed in Lebanon on Saturday
At least 16 people were killed and 59 wounded in Israeli air attacks on Saturday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.
Five people were killed and 23 were wounded in Nabatieh city
Nine were wounded in eastern Bekaa
At least 11 were killed and 27 wounded in the south.
Since the start of the war in October last year, 2,464 people have been killed in Lebanon and at least 11,530 wounded by Israeli attacks. via Al Jazeera.
At least 87 killed in Israeli attack on northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya
At least 87 people were killed or are missing under the debris after an Israeli air attack in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, authorities said.
The overnight raid hit several houses and a multistorey residential building, known as the Beit Lahiya Project, the Gaza Government Media Office stated.
On Sunday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said 87 people were killed or missing under the rubble after the attack, adding that more than 40 people were injured.
Rescue efforts have been hampered by a communications blackout and road obstructions in the north of the enclave, where a 16-day Israeli military siege has cut off access to food, water, medicine and essential services.
Beit Lahiya is a city in the north of the Gaza Strip close to Jabalia and Beit Hanoon. All three cities are severely affected by the Israeli offensive that has also resulted in severed phone and internet access.
More at Al Jazeera.
The West’s hypocrisy is a bottomless pit for Palestinians
At the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted a war against Hamas. After killing 42,500 civilians, displacing the entirety of Gaza’s population and killing prominent Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar, Netanyahu took to his colonial podium again to remind the world that the “war” is not over. Because, according to Zionist colonial logic, genocide can only be over when no Palestinians are left in Gaza.
Israel’s allies in the West hailed Sinwar’s death. Take Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, for example, who described Sinwar as “an enemy of the Israeli people and an enemy of peace-loving people anywhere”. Hamas never internationalised its resistance – it continuously maintained that its anti-colonial resistance is contained against Israel – a right under international law – so why is Albanese attempting to make Sinwar’s assassination relevant to people outside of Palestine? To score points in favour of Israel’s genocide from those already supporting it? The people who understand legitimate anti-colonial resistance will not be swayed, and if international law was truly upheld, there would be no space for Albanese comments, and neither for Israel. For let us remember that the UN declared itself committed to eradicating colonialism, but failed to keep its word.
More from Ramona Wadi for Middle East Monitor.
A blueprint for Israel’s eradication of Gaza
A chilling scenario detailing Israel’s plan to liquidate northern Gaza through starvation and extermination was revealed by +972 Magazine. Originally published in Hebrew by journalist Meron Rapoport, the Israeli magazine outlined a hypothetical operation that bears a striking resemblance to current events in Gaza. Presented as a simulation of Israel’s plan in 2025, the key elements of the extermination plan – from the motives for mass expulsion to specific military strategies – align disturbingly with the ongoing assault on Gaza.
Dubbed “Operation Order and Clean-up”, the plan in Rapoport’s scenario involves ordering the temporary evacuation of all Palestinian residents north of the Netzarim Corridor, ostensibly for their safety. However, the true intention, as openly declared by far-right ministers like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, is to impose a complete siege on the area, cutting off all supplies of water, food and fuel until those who remain surrender or die of starvation.
Disturbingly, signs are that the blueprint for Gaza’s extermination is already being implemented. This week, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced that no food aid whatsoever has entered northern Gaza since 1 October, 2024. WFP has said it is unclear how long remaining food supplies in the north will last, as they have already been distributed to shelters and health facilities.
More from Nasir Ahmed for Al Jazeera.
What does it mean to be humanised: An analysis
To be humanised is to be recognised as worthy of life, respect and the fundamental right to be seen and heard. Yet, for Arabs, this acknowledgement has persistently been withheld, rendering their humanity invisible in the global narrative.
Arabs have long been cast beneath the weight of dehumanising labels—“terrorists,” “violent,” “oppressive,” “uncivilised.” These narratives, woven into the very fabric of Western media and culture, strip away our humanity.
This is the legacy of Orientalism, a concept defined by Edward Said, the Palestinian-American scholar and activist. He described it as the lens through which the West distorts the East, painting us as exotic, backwards and uncivilised, all to justify its own dominance.
The lingering impact of Orientalism remains, and in our desire to dismantle every stereotype the West has forced upon us, we find ourselves yearning to become like it. We believe that if we speak its language, share its educational background and consume what it consumes, we may finally be seen as worthy—perhaps even a little more human. Or so we thought.
More from Hissa Al Thani for Middle East Monitor.
Israel crackdown on Palestinian prisoners, raids cells
Israeli occupation forces have conducted extensive raids across several prisons on the first anniversary of the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood Operation’, which took place on 7 October 2023.
Brutal assaults accompanied the raids on Palestinian prisoners.
A joint report by the governmental Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club provides testimonies from the prisons, confirming that prisoners were subjected to mistreatment and beatings as part of a growing policy of collective punishment since the beginning of the current war of extermination.
The report further noted that the Israel Prison Service (IPS) launched wide scale raids in several prisons on 7 October this year, in line with the collective punishment strategy pursued by the Israeli occupation authorities against prisoners.
Legal reports conveyed by specialist teams revealed assaults and mistreatment of prisoners in several prisons, including Gilboa, Ofer, Damon, Rimonim and Ramon.
Prisoners reported that Israeli forces stormed all sections of Ofer prison, including the children’s ward, sprayed them with gas and physically assaulted them, causing minor injuries, as part of the escalating attacks since the start of the war on Gaza.
More at Middle East Monitor.
Northern Gaza residents rounded up and detained in Israeli ground offensive on Jabalia. Images from the operation show men lined up and separated from women and children, a tactic used by the Israeli occupation forces across occupied Palestine ahead of mass arrests.
UNRWA said 20,000 residents fled northern Gaza after a two-week operation in which at least 450 Palestinians were killed, all remaining hospitals were forced shut and Israeli occupation forces cut off food and water for the 400,000 Palestinians in the north.
Via Middle East Monitor.
University of Melbourne student group Unimelb for Palestine referred the university to the International Criminal Court for its alleged complicity in the war on Gaza.
On 20 October 2023, a prospective University of Melbourne student, Mahmoud Alnaouq, was killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza. Alnaouq won a scholarship to study at an Australian university, and the University of Melbourne was his top choice.
Over the last year, students say they have collected evidence of the university's partnerships with weapons companies that are supplying Israel, and they say their concerns of the university’s alleged complicity in Israel’s war crimes have been ignored.
Via Middle East Eye.
Israeli settler leader Daniella Weiss says Palestinians will 'disappear' from Gaza
“An Israeli settler leader has told a conference on Israel's frontier with Gaza that Palestinians will "disappear" from the territory and said that thousands of people stand ready to move there "from north to south”.
Addressing a conference on Monday also attended by Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Knesset members from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, Daniella Weiss called for Palestinians living in Gaza to be relocated to other countries.
“We came here with one clear purpose: the purpose is to settle the entire Gaza Strip, not just part of it, not just a few settlements, the entire Gaza Strip from north to south,” said Weiss.
Weiss, the leader of Nachala, an orthodox settler movement which organised the conference, said there were six settler groups and more than 700 families looking to settle in Gaza, where more than 42,600 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its war against Hamas in October last year following the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel.
“Thousands of people are ready to move to Gaza now,” said Weiss.”
More from Lubna Masarwa and Peter Oborne for Middle East Eye.
Israel’s siege on north Gaza intensifies as thousands ‘trapped’
Israel's weeks-long siege of northern Gaza, marked by relentless air strikes and mass expulsions, has pushed the area to the brink of starvation, killing at least 640 Palestinians.
Via Al Jazeera.
Israel suspected of using white phosphorus on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon: Report
The Israeli military is suspected of forcibly entering a UN peacekeeping force's base in Lebanon and using white phosphorus in close enough range to injure 15 peacekeepers, The Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing a confidential report from a country that provides peacekeepers to Lebanon.
The report details around a dozen attacks launched on UN troops in Lebanon, including damaging several facilities and injuring troops at border posts in south Lebanon.
The reported incident occurred on 13 October, when the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said two Israeli Merkava tanks broke through the gates of one of its bases. The tanks left after 45 minutes, following complaints from Unifil.
The Financial Times does not specify in its report where the incident took place, but on that same day, two tanks were reported to have hit the post of a Unifil base in Ramya, a town in southern Lebanon. Unifil said its peacekeepers were being treated for skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions.
Within the next hour after the tanks left, several rounds were fired 100 metres north of the Unifil base, and the rounds emitted a "smoke of suspected white phosphorous" that ultimately injured 15 peacekeepers.
More at Middle East Eye.
Israeli air strikes destroy block of flats in Gaza’s Jabalia camp
The Israeli military carried out a major attack on al-Hawaja Street, in the western part of Jabalia, causing a sheer level of destruction. At least a dozen residential buildings were blown up.
Based on an assessment the Civil Defence agency, an estimated 150 people were either killed or wounded. Rescue teams are unable to approach the bomb site to bring the injured to hospital.
These are people who refused to leave the Jabalia refugee camp simply because they are exhausted and the road to evacuate was not safe for them. They haven’t been eating or provided with water supplies. So they’re exhausted and decided to remain in their homes.
via Al Jazeera.
Israeli strike on school-turned-shelter in Gaza’s Nuseirat kills 17
At least 17 people have been killed in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza, as Israeli forces carried out attacks across the enclave.
Palestinian medical officials said the Israeli attack in the Nuseirat refugee camp killed mostly women and children, including an 11-month-old baby, and wounded 42 others.
More at Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera compares and contrasts how Israel tried to justify attacking Gaza's al-Shifa Hospital with its claim that there's a Hezbollah bunker and vault beneath Beirut's Sahel General Hospital.
Israeli military killed 165 children in occupied West Bank in past year: UN
The United Nations says that Israeli forces have killed 165 children in the occupied West Bank over the past year.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported on Wednesday that the Israeli military had killed 36 children in air strikes and 129 with live ammunition, “most in the head or upper body”.
Israeli soldiers shot Abdullah Jamal Hawash, 11, in the chest on Tuesday for throwing stones at an armoured vehicle in Nablus, as reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank.
In videos posted by local media, the boy was seen throwing a stone at an armoured Israeli four-wheel drive in the distance before he was shot, falling to the ground.
Hawash posed “no realistic threat” to Israeli forces, said OHCHR’s office in the occupied Palestinian territory.
via Al Jazeera.
Dutch lawyer Haroon Raza has filed a criminal complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against 1,000 Israeli soldiers, accusing them of involvement in war crimes.
Raza stated that his team have collected over 8,000 pieces of video and photographic evidence, accompanied by texts from Israeli soldiers detailing their actions and timelines.
Via Middle East Eye.
Jabalia: Israeli assault forces Palestinian civil defence to cease operations
The Palestinian civil defence has been forced to suspend its operations in northern Gaza as a result of Israeli attacks on its emergency teams and a fire truck on Wednesday night, leaving the region without humanitarian services.
The agency said that three of its members had been wounded in a “targeted” Israeli air strike.
It also reported that Israeli forces had detained another five first responders in the Sheikh Zayed area and had taken them to “an undisclosed location”.
The organisation added that Israeli tanks shelled the only remaining firefighting vehicle in the area causing it to catch fire.
In Beit Lahia, it said that it had lost contact with three of its members after they were targeted by an Israeli drone strike, adding that their fate is unknown.
More at Middle East Eye.
Fears for six Palestinian journalists after Israel names them as targets
Fears are growing for the safety of six Palestinian journalists at Al Jazeera who Israel has accused, without providing credible evidence, of being fighters in Gaza.
On Wednesday, Israel's military claimed that Anas al-Sharif, Talal Aruki, Alaa Salama, Hossam Shabat, Ismail Farid and Ashraf Saraj were members of either Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
It said it had "documents" that proved that they were fighters, including alleged information about training courses and salaries.
Al Jazeera has strongly denied the claims, calling it "fabricated accusations" aimed at silencing the few remaining journalists in the Gaza Strip.
"These journalists have been steadfastly reporting from northern Gaza, with Al Jazeera being the sole international media presence documenting the unfolding humanitarian crisis resulting from Israel's siege and bombardment of civilian populations," the media network said.
More at Middle East Eye.
New Israeli attacks increase risk of famine in Gaza
Scenes from a bakery in southern Gaza illustrate a recent IPC report that finds 91% of the population of the besieged Strip will soon face 'acute levels of hunger'. The Israeli blockade of the Rafah Crossing has meant flour is extremely scarce and the cost of bread has skyrocketed, for those that can still afford it.
The most recent IPC update on Gaza's food security, published 17 October 2024, said that around 350,000 Palestinians are due to enter 'phase 5' of the food insecurity scale, 'catastrophic hunger', which is where people face 'an extreme lack of food and a high risk of death and malnutrition'.
Via Middle East Monitor.
It was only their machines: on Yahya Sinwar’s last stand
When the Israeli soldiers believed they had found Yahya Sinwar’s body lying before them, they rushed to release the photos. Here, at last, was the image of victory, a portrait of conquest and proof of Israel’s power to reach its enemies and strike down its most determined adversary. In their rush to declare the capture of their cherished prize, the soldiers didn’t appear as conquerors but as a motley assembly of tribal marauders, gathering around the lifeless body of a fallen enemy. Their victory was not one of triumph but of desperation, of an army and a people lost in the fog of conquest clinging to the illusion of power.
Although it remains uncertain, it appears that the photo was released without prior approval and before Israel could carefully curate the narrative of his martyrdom. Despite the power of the military censor and the tight control over information, Israel rushed to leak its success, barely realizing that those images would unravel the very narrative it had spent a year constructing around Sinwar and shatter his portrayal as a cynical leader indifferent to the suffering of his people. The “victory image” instead exposed the fragility of the story Israel wished to tell, designed to render Palestinian leaders as diabolical and project onto them the cowardice and corruption of their own “King Bibi” and to sow divisions within Palestinian society.
More from Abdaljawad Omar for Mondoweiss.
How impunity fuels Israel’s attacks on journalists in Gaza and Lebanon
The apparent targeted killing of three media workers in an Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon on Friday has renewed calls for ending impunity for Israel’s abuses.
Advocates say the mounting death toll of journalists killed by the Israeli military in the expanding conflict is a result of the failure of the international community – particularly the United States, Israel’s top backer – to hold the country accountable.
The killing of media workers in Lebanon came days after Israel baselessly accused several Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza of being members of Palestinian armed groups, raising concerns about their safety.
“The events of recent days are alarming, and should serve as a wake-up call for the US government and other states that have the power to hold the Israeli government to account and put a stop to this violence,” said Rebecca Vincent, campaign director at Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Friday’s deadly attack in Lebanon targeted a compound where several journalists and media workers were staying – in an area removed from fighting. There was no warning before the strike, which destroyed several buildings and left cars marked “press” covered in rubble.
More from Alice Speri for Al Jazeera.
US universities intensify crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism
The University of Michigan "recruited" state attorney general Dana Nessel to prosecute pro-Palestinian protesters advocating for Gaza, according to an investigation from The Guardian published on Thursday.
In a rare move, Michigan’s Board of Regents allegedly "bypassed" local prosecutors, opting to collaborate with Nessel, a political ally with ties to board members of the university, according to the report.
The Guardian reported that this decision, spurred by frustration with local prosecutors who had chosen leniency in similar cases, marks an instance of “forum shopping”, where Nessel’s office could potentially pursue harsher actions against protestors.
According to The Guardian, Nessel’s office charged 85 percent of the arrested protesters, a stark contrast to the 10 percent charged by the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office, while Wayne County dismissed all five Gaza protest cases.
Critics argue that Nessel’s strong ties to pro-Israel donors and political figures, including the university’s regents, reveal potential conflicts of interest.
Six out of eight board regents have collectively donated over $33,000 to Nessel’s campaigns, with some university donors also advocating for pro-Israel stances.
A former prosecutor told The Guardian that taking cases from local prosecutors is legal, but “generates distrust of the justice process”.
Nessel’s office denies that these donations influence prosecutorial decisions, maintaining that the choice to prosecute was based on jurisdictional overlaps.
The University of Michigan's Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs, Colleen Mastony, told Middle East Eye it "strongly disputes any allegation that the university’s board of regents and the Michigan attorney general may have acted inappropriately because of normal, entirely legal contributions and relationships."
"The attorney general represents the people of Michigan and decides which cases to bring. She cannot be hired or recruited by individuals or institutions. Likewise, the university does not have the power to bypass local prosecutors," Mastony said in an emailed statement.
The university says that Nessel reached out to the university in May and offered to investigate and prosecute cases "based on her multijurisdictional authority and expertise in First Amendment principles and law."
Legal experts and advocacy groups, including the ACLU, have voiced concerns about Nessel’s involvement, particularly regarding the criminalisation of non-violent protests.
More at Middle East Eye.
Muslims in Europe facing ‘sharp rise’ in racism and discrimination, EU report finds
Muslims are facing “ever more racism and discrimination” in Europe, the European Union’s leading rights agency has revealed, in a trend unrelated to Israel’s ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
According to a report by the EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) on Thursday, several of the bloc’s member states have reported “a sharp rise” in anti-Muslim sentiment and discrimination within their borders, with almost one in two Muslims in the EU reportedly facing such challenges in their daily life – an increase from 39 per cent that the same Agency found in its survey back in 2016.
Between October 2021 and October 2022, over 9,600 Muslims in 13 EU countries were surveyed by the FRA, with the highest rates of such anti-Muslim discrimination being recorded in Austria, Germany and Finland.
According to the findings, young Muslims born in the EU and women wearing religious clothing are particularly impacted by the rising discrimination, seen especially in the job market where two in five Muslims – or 41 per cent – are over-qualified for their job compared to 22 per cent of people overall.
That hardship in being accepted into higher-level and higher-skilled jobs tends to have a “knock-on effect on other areas of life, such as housing, education or healthcare”, the report stated. The results of that include a third of Muslim households from the respondents struggling to make ends meet, compared to 19 per cent of households overall, as well as making those Muslim households twice as likely to live in overcrowded housing.
FRA’s Director, Sirpa Rautio, stated that “We are witnessing a worrying surge in racism and discrimination against Muslims in Europe”, clarifying that it “is fuelled by conflicts in the Middle East and made worse by the dehumanising anti-Muslim rhetoric we see across the continent.”
More at Middle East Monitor.
Harvard Law School bans 60 students over pro-Palestine protest
Harvard Law School has temporarily barred at least 60 students from its library following a pro-Palestine protest, prompting immediate backlash and further demonstrations, The Harvard Crimson has reported.
The students were notified yesterday morning that their access to the Harvard Law School Library would be suspended until November 2024. The ban came in response to their participation in a “study-in” protest where students displayed flyers condemning Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.
The protest was organised by Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, the group behind a recent 20-day encampment in Harvard Yard.
In response to the suspensions, more than 50 students staged another protest at the library, displaying laptop messages including “Harvard Divest from Death” and “Israel bombed a hospital, again.” Law school administrators attempted to identify protesters, specifically targeting students with signs on their laptops.
Harvard Law School Student Government co-presidents, Déborah Aléxis, and John Fossum criticised the administration’s response, claiming students were targeted “for merely studying while wearing a keffiyeh scarf or having a Palestine sticker on their computer”. They described the University’s space policies as “unintelligible and indefensible”.
The crackdown is part of a broader effort by Harvard to restrict protests in its libraries. The University recently suspended more than 25 faculty members from Widener Library for two weeks after a similar silent “study-in” protest, and previously banned 12 undergraduate students for organising a pro-Palestine protest in the same location.
While banned students retain borrowing privileges and access to other Harvard libraries, some have reported losing ID access to study rooms in other campus buildings.
The protest concluded with students rallying outside the library, where they chanted “In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians” before dispersing to attend classes.
More at Middle East Monitor.
Israel: From Haniyeh and Nasrallah to Sinwar… A strategic failure
History teaches us that ideas and ideologies do not fade and end with the assassination and killing of their leaders and founders but, rather, they rediscover themselves through its members and staff who emerged, trained and acquired intellectual, ideological and even combat expertise and capabilities.
Yahya Sinwar, the architect of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, according to The New York Times, sought to convince Iran and Hezbollah to participate in a qualitative multi-front operation since 2022. This is why the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was delayed by the leader of the Hamas movement and head of the movement’s political bureau. The only Hamas leader who has notable combat capabilities and heads the movement’s political bureau in Gaza and was later elected to the position of head of the movement’s political bureau after the martyrdom of Ismail Haniyeh, the former head of the political bureau, in an Israeli assassination operation at the end of July in the heart of Tehran. This prompted an Iranian missile response in early October to avenge the assassination of Haniyeh and then Hassan Nasrallah.
As Israel prepared for retaliation against Iran, Israeli forces unintentionally assassinated a leader who was more extreme and less pragmatic than his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, on a routine patrol in the Sultan neighbourhood.
More from Dr Abdullah Khalifa Al-Shayj for Middle East Monitor.
UNIFIL accuses Israel army of firing at observation posts in Lebanon
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) announced in a statement that the Israeli occupation army shot at its soldiers on 22 October, while they were at a permanent observation post near the town of Dhayra in southern Lebanon.
UNIFIL relayed in its statement: “On 22 October, peacekeepers on duty at a permanent observation post near Dhayra were observing IDF soldiers conducting house clearing operations nearby. Upon realising they were being observed, the IDF soldiers fired at the post. The duty guards withdrew to avoid being shot.”
The statement added: “The IDF has repeatedly demanded that UNIFIL vacate its positions along the Blue Line and has deliberately damaged camera, lighting, and communications equipment at some of these positions. Despite the pressure being exerted on the mission and our troop-contributing countries, peacekeepers remain in position and on task. We will continue to undertake our mandated tasks to monitor and report.”
“We remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property. Any deliberate attack on them is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Resolution 1701,” it continued.
UNIFIL soldiers have come under fire several times in recent days, resulting in at least four soldiers being injured.
More at Middle East Monitor.
Israeli forces storm last working hospital in north Gaza
Footage from inside Kamal Adwan Hospital shows the devastation after Israeli forces stormed the last operational hospital in northern Gaza, assaulting both patients and medical staff.
The raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital, located in Beit Lahia, began around 2am local time (12am GMT), shortly after Israeli fighter jets carpet-bombed residential buildings in the nearby Jabalia camp and Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Via Middle East Eye.
Generating consent for genocide: The BBC’s complicity in Israel’s crimes in Palestine and Lebanon
On Saturday, October 12, the BBC’s Middle East Correspondent, Lucy Williamson, joined the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on a tour of an unspecified village that they were occupying in southern Lebanon. Footage showed leveled civilian homes and infrastructure, a familiar image for those who have been following Israel’s trail of destruction across Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon over the past year.
Williamson gave the Israeli military, including one Colonel Yaniv Malka, who also fought in Israel’s failed 2006 invasion, free reign to make claims that provided the justification for their actions in Lebanon. They claimed to have found weapons, including mortars, anti-tank missiles, and mines, inside civilians’ homes; and a house’s garage that was used as an equipment warehouse – all for an alleged October 7-style cross-border operation that Hezbollah was planning.
In response, on Monday, seven BBC Arabic journalists suspended their work for the corporation in protest. Hezbollah also condemned the outlet for its violation of “Lebanese land, sovereignty and… law”, calling on the country’s Ministry of Information to take legal action against the BBC.
This is not the first time that the BBC has been caught up in controversy because of its coverage of the ongoing Israeli war on Palestine and Lebanon. Williamson herself went on another IOF propaganda tour last November, a day after Israel first raided al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. On that occasion, she was shown fifteen guns, a bullet-proof vest (conveniently with a Hamas logo on it), and military booklets and pamphlets that the Israelis supposedly found within the hospital. She was also presented with laptops that the IOF claimed had information about Israeli hostages held in Gaza – however, she admitted that she was not actually shown any of the content on them.
More from Sharaiz Chaudhry for Mondoweiss.
And from Wendy Bacon for Michael West Media
Far right Israel lobby group campaigning hard against the Greens in Queensland
Inside the ARC of Israel influence in the Queensland Election
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