As I reported recently, I returned to Europe from Canada on August 12. My intention was to join the final leg of the voyage of the Boat to Gaza.
The boat, called “The Handala”, was scheduled to depart from Malta on August 15.
Handala delayed
Unfortunately, the Freedom Flotilla’s mission has been delayed indefinitely. The aging vessel has travelled all the way from Norway. Unsurprisingly, it has encountered technical problems.
In addition, the organizers have encountered unresolved challenges in finding a qualified crew to pilot the vessel to its final destination.
Nonetheless, our determination to complete the mission remains iron-clad.
My return to Lebanon
In the interim, I decided to return to Lebanon.
The events unfolding here are of momentous importance, first and foremost to the long-suffering people of Palestine, but also to global peace.
This is my fifth visit to Lebanon since the beginning of 2023, and my fourth visit since Israel launched its genocidal rampage in October of last year.
I arrived in Lebanon as a major war loomed over West Asia, due primarily to Israel’s increasingly provocative behaviour.
Israel’s latest escalations occurred on July 31, when it assassinated Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukr, and the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh. It carried out the second of these assassinations in Iran. This constituted yet another Israeli violation of Iranian sovereignty.
I’m currently in the south of Lebanon, a few kilometres from the border with Israel. Conditions are extremely tense.
Israel’s assassination of Khalil Maqdah
Yesterday, as my guide (Lebanese journalist Hadi Hoteit) and I were videotaping a report on the banks of the Litani River, Israel’s airforce launched several airstrikes on targets in our vicinity.
Hours earlier, Israel assassinated Khalil Maqdah, a leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Israel ‘eliminated’ Maqdah by a drone strike in the city of Saida, which is situated on the southern coast of Lebanon.
I’ve posted below my report from the banks of the Litani. That report includes footage and commentary from Saida, which we visited hours after Maqdah’s killing.
The truth about Israel’s ‘precision airstrikes’
On the prior day (August 21), I reported from the site of the assassination of Fuad Shukr, in the southern suburb of Beirut known as “Dahiyah”. As I explain in that report, ‘precision airstrikes’ do more damage than we are led to believe.
I’ve also posted below my report from Dahiyah.
I intend to remain in south Lebanon for a few more days, assuming that conditions permit us to remain here. This morning, the Islamic resistance fired numerous missiles into northern Israel. We heard many of the resulting explosions.
Israel’s response is likely to be significant.
Moreover, following Israel’s assassination of Maqdah, China today urged its citizens to leave Lebanon ‘as soon as possible’.
As of this moment, Iran and Hezbollah have not yet launched their promised retaliation for the killings of Haniyeh and Skukr, but that retaliation could come at any moment.
My report from the banks of the Litani is here:
My report from Dayiheh is here:
