In chilling remarks on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly threatened civilians in Lebanon with “destruction and suffering” similar to what the Israeli military has inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza.
In a video statement, Netanyahu urged the people of Lebanon to fight against Hezbollah, a political group formed in the 1980s to resist Israeli occupation, telling them to “save Lebanon before it plunges into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”
The right-wing leader blamed the entirety of Israel’s current campaign against Lebanon— in which Israel has killed over 1,400 people, injured thousands, and displaced 1.2 million — on Hezbollah, saying: “Free your country from Hezbollah, so this war can end.”
Israel’s leveling of entire neighborhoods in southern Lebanon, he said, is the fault of Hezbollah, which he referred to as “a gang of tyrants and terrorists.”
Netanyahu’s threat that Israel will inflict Gaza-like violence upon Lebanon is particularly horrific, as it is in essence a threat that the Israeli military will commit genocide in Lebanon.
Further, Netanyahu swept aside the fact that Israeli officials can end Israel’s airstrikes and ground invasion of Lebanon whenever they choose. It is Israel’s aggression that is forcing a continuation of the war, as Hezbollah has repeatedly affirmed over the past year that it will stop its attacks on Israel if Israeli forces stop their genocide in Gaza.
Rather, Netanyahu appears, absurdly, to be using Israel’s current bombardment of Lebanon as justification for further aggression; Israel, he says, has a “right to win.” This is yet another tactic from Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as Israeli leaders and U.S. officials have repeatedly blamed Hamas for Gaza’s total destruction by Israeli bombing.
Israeli forces have already begun using their genocidal tactics from Gaza on Lebanon, with human rights groups and experts raising numerous concerns that Israel is committing gross human rights abuses against people in Lebanon.
“We unequivocally condemn indiscriminate attacks by non-State armed groups based in Lebanon that have displaced some 63,000 within Israel,” said a group of UN experts in a statement released last week. “However, Israel cannot use such crimes to justify its own atrocities in Lebanon, including acts of violence intended to spread terror among civilians and indiscriminate warfare. To do so would amount to collective punishment, another grave violation of international law.”
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