Israel Bombs Lebanon After Blowing Up Pagers in “Act of Mass Mutilation.” Is Ground Invasion Next?

Amy Goodman interviews Sintia Issa (editor-at-large at The Public Source, a Beirut-based independent media organization and Ghassan Abu-Sittah (British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon)
September 23, 2024
 

​​Israel attacked more than 300 sites in Lebanon Monday, killing at least 182 people and injuring more than 700 others as fears grow of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah. The Israeli military also ordered residents of southern Lebanon to leave their homes if they live near any site used by the militant group. “At the heart of this is an attempt to manufacture consent and try to portray most southern Lebanese as Hezbolloh operatives,” says Sintia Issa, editor-at-large at the Beirut-based media organization The Public Source. We also speak with Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon volunteering at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, where he has been treating victims of last week’s device explosions that injured thousands of people. He describes the disfiguring injuries from Israel’s booby-trapping of pagers and walkie-talkies, calling it “an act of mass mutilation.”
 
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
 
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Lebanon, where Israel has attacked more than 300 sites today and fears of a broader regional war are growing. Al Jazeera and other media outlets report 100 people were killed in the wave of strikes today, 400 more wounded, as the Israeli army steps up pressure on Hezbollah. United Nations chief António Guterres told CNN he feared, quote, “the possibility of transforming Lebanon into another Gaza.”
 
Earlier today, Israel instructed residents of southern Lebanon to leave their homes if they live near by any site used by Hezbollah. Israel sent text messages, made phone calls to tens of thousands of people in what Lebanese officials decried as a form of “psychological warfare.” This is a Lebanese shopkeeper in Beirut.

LEBANESE SHOPKEEPER: [translated] I say this is the beginning of the war, definitely the beginning of a war.

AMY GOODMAN: This comes after Israel killed at least 45 people Friday in a massive airstrike on a densely populated residential neighborhood of Beirut. The dead include 16 members of Hezbollah, including two senior commanders, Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi. Lebanon’s Transportation Minister Ali Hamieh condemned the Israeli attacks.

ALI HAMIEH: [translated] The Israeli enemy, with all its continued crimes, with the excuse of pursuing Hezbollah, has targeted a residential compound. It has committed a massacre to a residential building, against unarmed children, women at their homes. … The Israeli enemy is taking the region to war.

AMY GOODMAN: Hezbollah responded by firing a barrage of rockets into Israel targeting an air base and weapons factories.
 
Meanwhile, former CIA director, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has accused Israel of terrorism for rigging thousands of walkie-talkies and pagers to explode in a coordinated attack last week that killed at least 37 people, injuring thousands more in Lebanon. Panetta spoke to CBS News.

LEON PANETTA: I don’t think there’s any question that it’s a form of terrorism. This has gone right into the supply chain. Right into the supply chain. And when you have terror going into the supply chain, it makes people ask the question: What the hell is next?

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go to Beirut, Lebanon, where we’re joined by two guests. Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah is a British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon who arrived in Beirut last week to treat some of the thousands of people injured when pagers and walkie-talkies exploded. He’s also worked in Gaza with Doctors Without Borders. Also with us in Beirut is Sintia Issa, editor-at-large at The Public Source, a Beirut-based independent media organization.
 
We’re going to go to Sintia first. Can you describe the latest in Lebanon, this morning’s attacks that we hear killed, what, 100 people, injuring hundreds more, and then make your way back through the weekend?
 
SINTIA ISSA: Thank you for having me, Amy.
 
This morning, between 6 and 7 a.m., as most people were still sleeping, Israel began its largest bombardment campaign of the year in South Lebanon and then gradually it made its way to the Beqaa, reaching all the way north of the Beqaa to the Hermel. That’s about 200 kilometers far from the border. These are locations that were not targeted up until this point in the war. And in fact, this is very reminiscent of 2006. We’re talking about a hundred locations or so, 50 or a hundred locations or so, between villages, towns and various parts of the landscape. Jbeil district, which is not really involved at all in this war, was also targeted, Laqlouq. This is also part of the psychological warfare that we are seeing.
 
And the bombing itself, you know, we saw plumes that were not necessarily the most familiar, so we’re talking about bombs that may have been added to the arsenal for the first time here in Lebanon, or at least used in Lebanon for the first time. The scale is incomparable so far.
 
Later, in the afternoon, at around noon, we had maybe another hundred or 200 strikes in different locations. As you did mention, it seems like there’s a hundred people who were killed already and several hundred more definitely wounded and injured. Sites near hospitals were targeted, in a clear indication that what has happened in Gaza may be coming to Lebanon, as well.
 
In relation to this, as well, southerners, but also different people, reaching Beirut, but mostly in the south, received text messages telling them to leave their homes if their homes contains a missile or a rocket. Israel also infiltrated the landline network in Sour, in the south, and called people and told them to leave if their house contains rockets or if they’re close to any weapons. There’s also a series of videos that Israel has been circulating on social media platforms for propagandistic purposes. These are animations where you can clearly see homes, and inside these homes there are rockets lying there. And the same message is basically telling residents of Lebanon to leave if their homes contains rockets.
 
So, what we’re seeing here is an attempt to manufacture consent for a carpet-bombing campaign that will no doubt, perhaps — let’s see how far it goes, but it promises at least to resemble a little bit what we’re seeing in Gaza.
 
AMY GOODMAN: So, how do people know if they’re near some kind of Hezbollah site?
 
SINTIA ISSA: There is a conflation that’s essentially happening with southerners in Lebanon. There’s a conflation between all civilians and Hezbollah happening at the same time. There is a — if the question is, “Where is Israel attacking right now?” it’s been fairly indiscriminate. We’ve seen that, you know, cities and towns, including the heart of Nabatieh, was bombed. So, the Ghazieh, next to Saida, also the square was bombed. So we’re talking about attacks that are happening in the thick of the towns, densely populated areas, not just in…
 
[READ THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW HERE]