Israel Attacks Lebanon Moments After Ceasefire Extension Announcement
On Friday, the US State Department announced a 45-day extension of the April 16 ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. Spokesperson Tommy Pigott called the Washington talks “highly productive.” Moments later, Israeli airstrikes hit the city of Tyre.
The Israeli government had announced their decision to launch these strikes before the ceasefire extension had been announced, however, the ceasefire was already in effect. Israel has already demonstrated that their disregard for ceasefires in the region will continue.
At least seven people had been killed across southern Lebanon today, according to the Lebanese National News Agency. A drone strike on a car in Nabatieh killed Mohammed Ahmed Abu Zaid and Jamal Noureddine, who were collecting humanitarian aid; three ambulances were damaged in the attack. Two were killed in Tabeen. In Harouf, a strike directly targeted the Islamic Health Committee’s centre, killing three paramedics and critically wounding a fourth. Israeli strikes on the Tyre district wounded a further 37 people, including six hospital staff, nine women and four children, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health. One strike levelled a primary health centre. Another damaged the neighbouring Hiram Hospital.
The UN counted more than 10,000 violations of the previous Israel–Lebanon truce before it was entirely thrown away by Israel. The country has now admitted to over 500 attacks during this current ceasefire period, and with the extension less than a day old, has shown us that they will continue to operate in this manner.
For Lebanon, it is trapped in this circle. The country has no ability to sustain a conflict with Israel, and they are aware that Israel will break the ceasefire. The country is faced with the option of a couple of attacks per day, or face the same destruction caused during the Gaza genocide.
The fresh ceasefire violation has not been covered in the major outlets like Reuters, NYT, WSJ and others at the time of writing. In the English-speaking media, we can only find Al Jazeera coverage. So we can also assume that the strategic ignorance of the media will follow us through this extension.
We may all understand a ceasefire to be an agreement by both parties to stop firing on each other. Unfortunately, for many countries and indeed news outlets, ceasefire has a more explosive definition in the context of Israel, and Israel alone.