Military Veterans and Patriots

Tag: Hezbollah

  • Ceasefire? Updated – Signed Today

    Ceasefire? Updated – Signed Today

    There are reports out of Israel that indicate a 60 day ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon is imminent. This will see an – at least temporary end – to the hostilities that started more than a year ago. The news of this deal comes amid a backdrop of increased Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon as they further degrade Hezbollah’s combat power.

    According to the Times of Israel, the Netanyahu security cabinet is set to meet this evening to approve the deal.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene the high-level security cabinet in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening to approve a 60-day ceasefire with the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon after more than a year of war, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Monday.

    At the same time, the official stressed that Israel was accepting a cessation of hostilities, not an end to the war on Hezbollah.

    The deal calls for an immediate 60 day cessation of hostilities. It would see Israel leave southern Lebanon and Hezbollah retreat north of the Litani river. If that sounds familiar, it’s because that was what was supposed to happen at the end of the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war. The Lebanese Army is supposed to move into southern Lebanon alongside UNFIL troops to ensure Hezbollah fighters leave the area.

    The deal is supposed to be administered by the US and France, although French participation was not worked out until the last minute. French president Macron angered the Israelis with a call for an arms embargo. That difficulty was overcome by France not committing to effect the ICC’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Gallant.

    Update:

    https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1861489234940514756

    Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced the ceasefire has been signed in a televised statement to the Israeli people.

    “Citizens of Israel,

    I promised you victory, and we will achieve victory.

    We will complete the task of obliterating Hamas, we will bring home all of our hostages, we will ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel and we will return the residents of the north back home safely.

    The war will not end until we realize all its goals, including the return of the residents of the north safely home. And I tell you, it will happen, just like it happened in the south. 

    My friends, residents of the north, 
    I am proud of you, I am proud of your perseverance, and I am totally committed to your security, to the rehabilitation of your communities, to your future.

    To date, thanks to the bravery of our fighters in the IDF, the Israel Security Agency, the Mossad and Israel Police, we have made great inroads into the seven fronts of the “War of Redemption.”

    These achievements are a source of awe and admiration across the globe, and they are projecting Israel’s might throughout the Middle East:

    First, the head of the octopus—Iran. We destroyed major parts of Iran’s air defense system and missile-manufacturing capabilities, and we demolished a significant component of their nuclear program.

    I am determined to do anything needed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. That threat has always been my top priority and is even more so today, when you hear Iran’s leaders state over and over again their intention to obtain nuclear weapons. For me, removing that threat is the most important mission to ensure the existence and future of the State of Israel.

    In Gaza, we dismantled the Hamas battalions and killed close to 20,000 terrorists. We killed Sinwar, we killed Deif, we killed senior Hamas officials and we brought 154 hostages back. We are committed to bringing them all home, the 101 hostages still in Gaza, those who are still alive as well as the dead, and end the terrible anguish of their families. We are of course committed to completing the annihilation of Hamas.

    In Judea and Samaria, we are taking out terrorists, we are destroying terrorist infrastructure and we are operating in all of the terror strongholds. There is no place out of our reach.

    In Yemen, we attacked the Houthis’ Port of Hodeida forcibly, which the international coalition had not done.

    In Iraq, we successfully thwarted, and are still thwarting, many drone attacks, and we have many challenges ahead.

    In Syria, we are systematically blocking attempts by Iran, Hezbollah and the Syrian army to transfer weapons to Lebanon. Assad must understand that he is playing with fire.

    And now, for the seventh front—Lebanon. Hezbollah decided to attack us from Lebanon on October 8th. A year later, it is not the same Hezbollah. We have pushed them decades back. We eliminated Nasrallah, the axis of the axis. We have taken out the organization’s top leadership, we have destroyed most of their rockets and missiles, we have killed thousands of terrorists and we demolished their underground terror infrastructure abutting our border, infrastructure they had been building for years.

    We have attacked strategic targets throughout Lebanon and we have brought down dozens of terror hi-rises in Beirut’s Dahieh. The ground in Beirut is shaking.

    Citizens of Israel,
    Only three months ago, this all would have sounded like science fiction. But it isn’t. We did these things.

    At every moment of managing this campaign, I observe all fronts simultaneously. That is what I did at the beginning of the war when I decided to focus on Gaza and not open a broader front in Lebanon. That is what I did several months ago when the conditions ripened to go north, and then we decided to focus on Hezbollah.

    That is what I did after the missile attack from Iran, when we meticulously decided on the time and nature of our response.

    And that is what I am doing today. I observe all the fronts simultaneously and see the broad picture. I am determined to give our courageous soldiers every resource to keep them safe and bring us victory.

    Therefore, this evening I will bring a ceasefire  outline for the cabinet’s approval. 

    The length of the ceasefire depends on what happens in Lebanon. 

    With the United States’ full understanding, we maintain full freedom of military action. If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack. If it tries to rebuild terrorist infrastructure near the border, we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck carrying rockets, we will attack.

    I hear the claim that if we enter into a ceasefire, we will not be able to attack and will not be able to renew the war. I remind you, that is exactly what they said when we had a ceasefire in Gaza to release the hostages. They said we wouldn’t go back to fighting, but we did. 

    They tell me Hezbollah will be quiet for a year or two, grow stronger and then attack us. But Hezbollah will be in violation of the agreement not only if it fires on us. It will be in violation of the agreement if it obtains weapons to fire at us in the future. And we will respond forcefully to any violation. 

    I know there are people who don’t believe we will do that. But many also didn’t believe we would enter Gaza on the ground, and we did. They didn’t believe we would go into Shifa and Khan Younis, and we did. They didn’t believe we would go into Rafah and the Philadelphi corridor, in the face of all the international pressure. Not only did we go in, we attacked, and then some. Many didn’t believe that we would attack in Lebanon, and we did that too. We attacked with force and sophistication that surprised the whole world.

    So after all that, maybe we should start believing? Believe in our determination, believe in our path, in our commitment to victory. 

    Why should we have a ceasefire now? For three main reasons:

    The first reason is to focus on the Iranian threat, and I won’t expand on that.

    The second reason is to give our forces a breather and replenish stocks. And I say it openly, it is no secret that there have been big delays in weapons and munitions deliveries. These delays will be resolved soon. We will receive supplies of advanced weaponry that will keep our soldiers safe and give us more strike force to complete our mission. 

    And the third reason for having a ceasefire is to separate the fronts and isolate Hamas. From day two of the war, Hamas was counting on Hezbollah to fight by its side. With Hezbollah out of the picture, Hamas is left on its own. We will increase our pressure on Hamas and that will help us in our sacred mission of releasing our hostages.

    Citizens of Israel, 
    In the past year, we turned the tables. We were attacked from seven fronts and we fought back with might. We are changing the face of the Middle East. We are doing all this thanks to our brave soldiers, thanks to your tenacity and thanks to the resolute and smart management of the war.

    I have said many times, a good deal is a deal that is enforced, and we will enforce it. 

    With God’s help, we will establish security, we will rehabilitate the north and continue, united, until victory.”

  • Israel – Hezbollah Update

    Israel – Hezbollah Update

    I mentioned the Israel-Hezbollah/Hamas/Iran conflict in yesterday’s World News Roundup, well here’s some more info that came in after that piece went to press.

    As I mentioned in yesterday’s piece, the IDF has been playing whack-a-mole with the Hezbollah leadership. Every time someone new is appointed to a leadership position, they get smoked. Since I last wrote about what Hezb and Hamass leaders got planted, several more have been killed.

    Hashem Safieddine, who was named the head of Hezbollah after the untimely demise of Hassan Nasrallah got his comeuppance in an Israeli airstrike in early October. Naim Qassem, who was next in line seems to have fled Lebanon, and is currently unaccounted for.

    Today we get news that the Hezbollah media relations – read main propagandist – Mohammed Afif was killed in an Israeli airstrike in downtown Beirut. Afif publicly and loudly bragged that Hezbollah was behind the drone strike that hit the residence of Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu.

    https://twitter.com/Osint613/status/1858115047047712926

    It was only a matter of time before he got his 72.

    It gets better. Iran, knowing that Trump takes office in 62 days, has instructed Hezbollah to seek a ceasefire even if it means retreating behind the Litani river.

    If the name of that river sounds familiar and you’re wondering why, there’s a simple explanation. UN resolution 1701, dating back to the end of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, required Hezbollah to leave the region of Lebanon south of the Litani among other things. It also required the UNFIL to confiscate any weapons not belonging to the Lebanese Army. That included arms held by any militia or paramilitary group regardless of religion.

  • World News Roundup

    World News Roundup

    It’s week 142 (two years, eight months and three weeks) of Putin’s 3 days to Kiev invasion of Ukraine. For all of the 700,000 casualties*, 3558 tanks, 1744 Infantry Fighting Vehicles, 4986 Armored Fighting Vehicles, ~1000 APCs/Engineering Vehicles/Command Post Vehicles, 1282 Artillery pieces, 477 MLRS, and sundry Hundreds of other vehicles and equipment, the Russians only control about 5% of Ukraine. Hell, they don’t even control all of the Oblasts they ‘annexed’ last year, in fact they control less of Kherson Oblast than they did when the sham referendum was held.

    It’s gotten so bad for Putin the Russian army is using North Korean troops as cannon fodder in Kursk Oblast to try to stem a Ukrainian incursion into that part of Russia. Around two brigades of North Korean troops were sent to far eastern Russia for training and equipping about 6 weeks ago. The first Nork casualties were reported last week, and several have reportedly defected to Ukraine.

    I feel I should mention that if, and as of right now it’s a big IF, any of these NK troops get back to NK, they are headed directly to a camp for the rest of their miserable lives. Why? because they’ve seen how the rest of the world lives. The information control in North Korea is complete. If the State does not want you to know something, you do not know it. The 10,000 or so Norks in Russia however. . . What’s the saying about genies and bottles?

    The Norks have also sent around 100 self-propelled artillery pieces for the Russians to use. The issue with the Nork arty is that it’s a different caliber, 170mm, than anything the Russian tubes use. It also takes forever and ten minutes to emplace, aim, fire, and unemplace. In other words, it is highly susceptible to counter-battery fire and drone strikes. In other, simpler words, nearly useless in the current Ukraine battlefield.

    Speaking of Kursk Oblast, the UAF have taken several thousand square kilometers of territory, including the Gazprom natural gas pumping facilities at Sudzha. The Russians and their NK allies have tried very hard to take that territory back in the past few days/week. While they have managed to regain some land, the majority of the attacks have been defeated. A total of 500 vehicles and several thousand men were lost on 3 consecutive days in meat wave attacks.

    Frankly, I’m still of my old Cold War mindset that the only good Russian is a dead Russian, and wish the Ukrainians all the luck in the world. I am also of the mindset that as long as there are no US boots on the ground there, we should be helping them as much as possible. This is an existential threat to a country we are treaty-bound to aid in the case of an invasion. I realize that some of you hold differing ideas about the war in Ukraine, and that’s your prerogative. We can disagree and still be friends.

    *The 700,000 casualty number is on the low side of the estimated range. I have seen numbers as high as 1.2 mm and as low as 650,000. It includes what the Russians call gruz 200 (cargo 200 or deceased soldiers), severely wounded and sick troops who are unable to return to the front. Since WWII, the accepted ratio of KIA to WIA is about 1-4. The appalling lack of battlefield triage and care on the Russian side puts that number closer to 2-3. The US had a ratio of about 1-10.7 during the GWOT for reference. This casualty rate has, of late, exceeded the replacement rate, that is there are more Russian casualties occuring in Ukraine than births across Russia. That is a demographic disaster in the making.

    Israel is still absolutely curbstomping both Hamas and Hezbollah. Every time either appoints new leadership, Israel plays a game of Whack- Fuck with them. Of late, the IDF has been taking out Hezb figure who were involved in the Beirut Barracks bombing. Good on them. . .

    Since my last piece about that particular shit sandwich, we’ve found out that one of the targets Israel hit in Iran was a clandestine nuclear weapons facility. It seems the facility in question was some sort of assembly area and it is now all but completely destroyed.

    We also found out that the Israelis managed to take out all of Iran’s relatively modern air defense systems. I say relatively, because the bulk of the Iranian ADA was Russian built S-300 system. Prior to the Israeli/Hamas conflict, Iran has four of those systems, now, well, they have exactly zero.

    The CCP has been flexing a bit in the Pacific. In the weeks leading up to the US elections, they repeatedly violated the Taiwanese ADIZ and circled the island with their navy and coast guard. Meanwhile, the US just approved $567m in new military aid for the Taiwanese.

    They also attacked a Philippine naval vessel trying to resupply the Philippine ship/base at Second Thomas shoal. Second Thomas is part of the Spratly chain and inside of the Philippines exclusive economic zone. The Chinese claim it as theirs based on the name of the body of water, the South China Sea, and not much more. I’m sure most of you have seen the 9 dash map.

    The entire claim is ridiculous. Under international law, coastal countries have sovereign control out to 12 miles and an exclusive economic zone of up to 200 miles. Under Maritime law, and World Court rulings, none of China’s territorial claims are valid. Sooner or later it’s going to wind up in a shooting match. I just hope we’re ready.

    On the lighter side, the famous deer in Nara park in Japan are in the news. The deer, much accustomed to people, are starting to get aggressive with tourists. The park, a 502-hectare sanctuary designated as a national treasure, is home to around 1,400 free-roaming deer, and some of the city’s most famous landmarks, including Todaiji Temple. Last year there were 5 documented injuries caused by the deer, this year there have already been 35.

    “We do not think the deer are becoming more aggressive towards people, but there has been an increase in incidents,” said Yumiko O’Donnell, of the Nara Prefectural Government’s Tourism Bureau. “More tourists are coming back to Nara Park after the pandemic. So it is possible that after a relatively quiet time, the deer have been surprised to see many more people”. Nature, red in tooth and claw. Even in the Land of the Rising Sun.

    This next, and last, item is a bit um, gross. While trying to get to the bottom of a completely unrelated topic your editor ran into an odd set of facts. One I really wish I hadn’t, but one that explains a lot. Consanguinity, that is inbreeding or cousin marriage is far more common across the Ummah, or Muslim world than it is in any other region. By a lot.

    Pakistan leads the way with 61% of marriages being between first cousins. Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, the Sudans and Afghanistan are all at 50%. Mauritania, Iraq, Iran and Yemen are all in the 40% range, with most of the remainder in the 25-39% range. The numbers fall in the far eastern Muslim states like Indonesia where they have a consanguinity rate of less than 15% and Malaysia with less than 5%.

    For reference, America’s hat, Canada, has a 1.5% consanguinity rate, while the US has a less than 0.1% rate.

    But what does it mean? Consanguinity is linked to a whole host of issues. Children of consanguineous marriages are twice as likely to have genetic disorders than children of non-related couples. These disorders include thalassaemias (a blood disorder), cystic fibrosis, Down’s syndrome, and infantile cerebral palsy. Consanguineous births are also at a higher rate of congenital malformations, such as congenital heart diseases, renal diseases, and rare blood disorders.

    Plus the eeeewwwww factor.

  • IDF Tells Lebanese Where To Find Hezbollah Loot

    IDF Tells Lebanese Where To Find Hezbollah Loot

    IDF Spokesman RADM Daniel Hagari

    I’ve been trying to keep y’all up to date with all of the bigger news items out of the Levant since last October 7th. You can read some of my previous reportage here, here, here and here.

    Today’s story is somewhat humorous. The IDF has been going after Hezbollah finance centers and ‘banks’ in their latest round of strikes. The aim is to cripple the terrorist group by restricting their ability to pay fighters, buy arms and provide payments to ‘martyrs’. The problem is, much like the Hamass animals to the south, Hezbollah has hidden some of its facilities beneath hospitals and other sensitive civilian infrastructure.

    The Israelis have come up with a clever way to deal with the banks though. They made a public announcement detailing the location of millions of dollars.

    https://twitter.com/JoeTruzman/status/1848425437115936929
    https://twitter.com/JoeTruzman/status/1848446087939698914

    A couple of weeks ago I wouldn’t have thought anything of this announcement. However, given the scenes coming out of Lebanon over the past week or so, I think there is a really good chance some enterprising Maronite or Druze will become exceedingly rich in the next few days.

    What scenes you might ask, and rightfully so. There have been a bunch of videos of the Lebanese Army actually beating up Hezbollah thugs in the streets. I’ve also seen videos of the local police doing so as well. It looks like Hezbollah is currently rudderless and drifting.

    https://twitter.com/NiohBerg/status/1848377832562463033

  • One Year On

    One Year On

    It’s been one year since the animals of Hamas attacked several areas across southern Israel killing more than 1200 and taking 251 hostage. At least 60 live hostages and the remains of 30 more are still being held by the terrorist group in Gaza.

    We all remember the images of that day. Corpses strewn on the roadside, houses burnt, the heartbreaking images from the Nova music festival.

    https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1719035668733526358

    Since that day, Iran’s proxies in the region, Hamas and Hezbollah, have suffered incredible losses.

    The IDF has eliminated most of the senior Hamas leadership in Gaza. Hamas political leader Ismael Haniyeh was killed in a bombing in an IRGC Tehran safe-house. Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza has not been seen in months. And the vast majority of Hamas fighting units have been destroyed.

    Hezbollah, the Lebanese analog to Hamas, started launching rockets into northern Israel on October 8. A few weeks ago, Israel finally responded with a complex pager attack. This was followed up by a series of air-and-missile attacks that took out all of Hezbollah’s senior leadership. Their replacements do not seem to have a very long shelf-life either.

    https://twitter.com/DrEliDavid/status/1842130782870986917

    The Israelis aren’t done yet. As I write this (1800ish Sunday evening on the East Coast) the Iranians have closed all of their airports and their airspace in anticipation of an Israeli strike. Whether or not that is going to happen remains to be seen.

  • What’s Next in the Middle East?

    What’s Next in the Middle East?

    That’s a question many in the ‘smart set’ are asking themselves in the wake of the complete decapitation of Hezbollah at the hands of the Israelis. The problem is, they didn’t expect what happened already, so they are Ill-prepared to formulate any cogent answers to any follow-on questions about the next stages in the Middle East. Here’s my take as a less-than-disinterested observer.

    An important thing to note is that the current war in the Levant was never solely about Gaza or Apartheid or Palestinian rights, it was about the Islamic Republic of Iran’s desire to destroy Israel. The Palestinians are nothing but a convenient tool for the Ayatollahs in their quest for that aim.

    Most of you were aware that Hezbollah and Hamas are Iranian proxy groups. The Ayatollahs, starting with Khomeini and continuing to today, have used these groups as a shield as well as a sword against Israel and the collective West.

    Tehran has spent decades building up proxies to surround Israel with the explicit target of taking over the region and destroying Israel. The point of building up those terror proxies was to wait for the right time and strike, and serve as a deterrent from Israel taking them on directly.

    While the Ayatollahs are more than willing to sacrifice every last one of them to further their aims, they miscalculated badly this time. Tehran wasn’t counting on is Israel would fight these wars to win. In less than a year since 10/7 the Israelis have mostly eliminated Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and decapitated Hezbollah. Hezbolllah was the Ayatollahs shield and now it is gone.

    Today we get news that the IDF struck Houthi controlled ports and other facilities in Yemen. This was partially done as retaliation for several Houthi ballistic missile attacks in the past few days. There was little damage done by these launches, the Iron Dome intercepted all of the incoming. I said partially, because frankly, the strikes, especially the one on the oil terminal at Hodeidah port are a stark warning to the Tehran. A strike like that on just one of their oil terminal ports would cripple the Iranian economy for months.

    I feel that the Ayatollahs have to respond, but with Hamas in tatters and the entire chain of command of Hezbollah dead, I don’t know what exactly they could do. The Houthi might try something major, but I’m not convinced they have the materiel to do so. The same with the Iraqi PMF militias.

    There has been some palaver about enforcing UNSC resolution 1701. The problem is, that resolution has been in place since 2006 and still has not been fully implemented.

    I’m not one for predictions unless I have enough data for a quality analysis. And right now, I do not have enough. That said I think we can expect a few things in the next week leading up to the one year anniversary of the 10/7 attacks.

    We’ll see a continued low volume rocket and missile attacks from Hezbollah and the Houthis. I think I can safely say you’ll see some drones or rockets from the PMF in Iraq as well. The vast majority of these will be intercepted by the Israelis.

    I would also expect to see the IDF targeting more Hezbollah sites and personnel. I do not think the Israelis are done knocking of Hezbollah leadership quite yet. It seems pretty clear to me that Mossad has Hezbollah deeply and thoroughly penetrated.

    As a closer, there’s this little tidbit:

    https://twitter.com/JewishWarrior13/status/1840454643488575945

    As of now, that is unconfirmed, but it’s also too good to check.

  • It’s Lonely at the Top

    It’s Lonely at the Top

    I’m speaking (metaphorically of course) of the top leadership of Hezbollah. As of this writing, nearly all of the senior Hezbollah military leadership has been offed between the pageritis and the on-going airstrikes across Lebanon and parts of Syria.

    https://twitter.com/mdubowitz/status/1838621205513015539

    Additionally, Ibrahim Qubaisi, who was in charge of Hezbollah rockets, missiles and drones, was killed in an airstrike in Beirut.

    https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1838588196549988640

    That leaves General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah, Ali Karaki, the Hezb southern front commander and Ali Abu Rida, the Badr force commander. Nasrallah hasn’t seen the light of day in several years, and will be difficult to target. The IDF leveled Karaki’s home yesterday and there were some reports that he’d been eliminated in the strike. So far there hasn’t been official confirmation though. Rida is, I’m confident, next on the list.

    It gets worse for Hezbollah though. You can be 110% sure that Mossad and Shin Bet are looking at all the social media in Lebanon and seeing who got blown up by a pager and tracing their contacts.

  • Eliminated

    Eliminated

    The IDF announced that Ibrahim Aqil, the #2 man on Hezbollah’s Jihad council and head of the elite Radwan force was killed in a strike yesterday. Aqil was one of the planners behind the 1983 Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut.

    https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1837168487418270170

    In the 1980s, Aqil, also known as Tahsin, directed the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon and held them there.

    On July 21, 2015, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Aqil pursuant to Executive Order 13582 for acting for or on behalf of Hizballah. Subsequently, on September 10, 2019, the U.S. Department of State designated Aqil as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist pursuant to Executive Order 13224, as amended. There was a $7 million reward for Aqil.

    It is being reported the Israelis targeted a meeting of senior Hezbollah leadership after taking out the majority of the terrorist org’s communications network.

    https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1837159658215125076

    The strike on the Hezbollah meeting wasn’t the only one yesterday. The IDF hit more than 100 targets across southern Lebanon yesterday. The targets included ammo storage, rocket launch facilities and other Hezbollah targets.

  • And Here We Go

    And Here We Go

    Or at least that’s the way it’s looking right now. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, the IAF is reportedly attacking Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon.

    https://twitter.com/no_itsmyturn/status/1836839509540884496

    This, unlike the pager and walkie bombs of the past two days, is looking like a large scale air operation. It is being reported that more than 70 targets have been struck.

    https://twitter.com/Archer83Able/status/1836838985370308658

    The current round of strikes comes after a Hezbollah rocket killed 2 IDF troops and wounded several others. I doubt the strikes were in retaliation for the rocket attack. I’m of the opinion that the strikes are a part of a larger op that includes the pager and walkie bombs.

    https://twitter.com/JewishWarrior13/status/1836824310842863890
    https://twitter.com/JSchanzer/status/1836837036223058271
    https://twitter.com/MosheReports/status/1836774716083761482
  • Oops, They Did It Again

    Oops, They Did It Again

    Featured image credit: Matan Samsi Twitter

    Yesterday, I told you about the exploding pagers in Lebanon. Today, the Israelis are back at it. This time they detonated a bunch of Hezbollah walkie-talkies.

    https://twitter.com/manniefabian/status/1836408258459820232
    https://twitter.com/manniefabian/status/1836409624053928426

    As of this writing, there are an additional 3 confirmed deaths and scores of injured. One of the locations was a Hezbollah funeral in the Bekaa valley.

    https://twitter.com/NiohBerg/status/1836411895915413509

    The walkies that were detonated today were part of the backup comms system for Hezbollah.

    https://twitter.com/BarakRavid/status/1836413344930005057

    There have been reports of Hezbollah members walking around with walkies with the batteries removed.

    There are explosions being heard all across Beirut today as these devices detonate.

    https://twitter.com/Archer83Able/status/1836423167339876751

    Like yesterday, this is a developing story and may be updated.