Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday on social media that Hezbollah’s pick of Naim Qassem to lead the Lebanon-based political and paramilitary group would be “temporary” – a remark seen by many as an assassination threat.
Hezbollah tapped Qassem, its longtime deputy chief, to lead the group following Israel’s assassination of former Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last month.
“Temporary appointment. Not for long,” Gallant said on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, in response to Hezbollah’s move.
Temporary appointment.
Not for long. pic.twitter.com/ONu0GveApi— יואב גלנט – Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) October 29, 2024
The state of Israel’s official Arabic X account said Qassem’s “tenure in this position may be the shortest in the history of this terrorist organization if he follows in the footsteps of his predecessors.”
“There is no solution in Lebanon except to dismantle this organization as a military force,” the account added.
Since earlier this month, when Israeli forces launched a ground invasion accompanied by a massive ongoing bombing campaign against Lebanon, nearly 2,800 Lebanese have been killed and more than 12,700 others injured, the country’s Ministry of Health said Tuesday. The ministry added that 82 Lebanese have been killed and another 180 injured over the past 24 hours alone.
Since shortly after October 7, 2023 – when Hamas led the deadliest single attack on Israel in its history – Hezbollah has been launching rockets and other projectiles at Lebanon’s southern neighbor, killing and wounding scores of Israelis.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands is currently weighing whether to approve Prosecutor Karim Khan’s application for warrants to arrest Gallant – who responded to the Hamas-led attack by ordering a “complete siege” of Gaza that has been blamed for the starvation and sickening of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians – and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Khan also sought ICC arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders, at least two of whom have been assassinated by Israel.
Over 388 days, Israeli forces have killed at least 43,020 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children. At least 101,100 others have been wounded. More than 10,000 Palestinians are also missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the ruins of Gaza. Almost everyone in the embattled Gaza Strip has been forcibly displaced, often multiple times.
Responding to Gallant’s threat, Somali-Australian journalist Najat Abdi said on X that “the road to your arrest and The Hague won’t be long either, you genocidal war criminal.”
Gallant’s remarks came amid reports that Israeli and Hezbollah negotiators are “in the advanced stages” of hammering out cease-fire agreement that would lead to Israeli troops withdrawing from Lebanon, where they have been suffering high casualties at the hands of Hezbollah fighters.
One important unanswered question is whether Hezbollah will accept a deal to end hostilities with Israel without a cease-fire in Gaza.
Brett Wilkins is is staff writer for Common Dreams. Based in San Francisco, his work covers issues of social justice, human rights and war and peace. This originally appeared at CommonDreams and is reprinted with the author’s permission.
Why need Hezbollah even name their leader "out loud" ? Either make it an anonymous title ("a new Great Commander is appointed") or invent a personality out of whole-cloth, who doesn't exist and therefore cannot be killed ? Who does things and goes places, emerges unscathed from IDF airstrikes, personally wipes out a dozen IDF invaders, is living legend because he's just that ? Let the ASI chase a ghost ?
He may not be the real leader.
Ah ! The unwanted role of “official missile magnet”.
A decoy would be a good idea. The fewer that know, the better…
It worked for Saddam (to a point). He had a duplicate who’d travel around and live in his palaces and make appearances. I don’t think even his sons (Udon & Queequeg ?) knew where he was at any given time.
Wise, as I recall reading that, if the US had held off their illegal & unjustified invasion of Iraq by, like, a month, Ulfberht & Quagmire likely would’ve assassinated their own dad to seize control (they’d been plotting a while).
Assuming they off’d the right one.
"He may not be the real leader."Kind of like Biden?
Or, is he more like Trump, the flack catcher?
"Reports" about any "ceasefire agreement" between Hezbollah and Israeli are the same delusional bullshit as the "negotiations" between Israel and Hamas.
Here is what is really going on:
1) Gallant is "claiming success" – just as Netanyahu did with the failed Israeli strike on Iran – saying that Israel has Hezbollah on the run and that the IDF has achieved all its objectives in southern Lebanon. None of which is true for the retarded…
2) Netanyahu is now telling the US that it will abandon Southern Lebanon after Gallant's "success" provided that the US imposes a land/sea/air blockage of Lebanon so that Hezbollah "won't rearm".
Israel offers to halt Lebanon op for US blockade on Hezbollah
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Israel-offers-to-halt-Lebanon-op-for-US-blockade-on-Hezbollah/62947084
3) The actual purpose of these two moves above are to entice the US into Lebanon under the guise of defending Israel from a "defanged" Hezbollah. Netanyahu knows that the instant the US tries to impose a blockade on Lebanon, Hezbollah will attack – and attack effectively – US ships, planes and ground troops, thus forcing the US to attack Hezbollah for Israel – which is Netanyahu's (and the US neocons') goal.
Need to catch up, Antiwar.com.
Which would endanger Russia.
The U.S. assists Israel to kill off all resistance (men, women, children, babies), then full attention (and money) would focus on Ukraine/Russia.
I would think that Russia would figure that one out. There is no end to the resolve of the U.S. to interrupt BRICS. Even to the edge of WWIII.
My view.
Correct, except that the full attention is likely to go to China, since Russia has already defeated the West (not that the West will stop trying on a lower scale.)
Conforming our coverage/analysis to your fantasies wouldn’t be “catching up.”
Gallant, and Netanyahu must think they are 8' Frankenstein monsters they are the leaders of the Frankenstein monster nation and they can f*** any American president they want, regardless of sex or name.
Eventually these groups will implement Qisas.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin for lifting Ukrainian children out of the dangerzone of battlefield operations pretty quickly. They experience apparently a lot more, a whole lot more difficulties issuing arrest warrants for genocidal maniacs who delight in massmurdering children on an industrial scale.
Is the ICC then after all just "built for Africans and whoever the West designate their current arch-enemy?" It seems so. It really does very convincingly seem so.
The ICC arrest warrant for Putin was issued more than a year after the invasion — and the day after the United Nations Commission of Inquiry designated removal of Ukrainian children to Russian territory as a war crime.
The very day after indeed. Is the hold up that the United Nations Commission of Inquiry hasn't yet designated the deliberate and targeted mass slaughter of children in Gaza a war crime?
The hold up is mostly that the US, which treats Israel as a special entity entirely unbound by international (or any other) law, constantly whines about and threatens a court it is neither a member of nor recognizes the jurisdiction of.
Not that an ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu would likely result in his arrest. In Putin’s case, some ICC states have ignored their obligation to arrest him when he visits, while others have just asked him not to visit.