'I guess they made a mistake': Israelis returning to north after Hezbollah demolished
Mount Tsifya, Israel — From an observation post overlooking the breathtakingly beautiful mountains on Israel's border with Lebanon, Lt.-Col Jordan Herzberg points to a scarred hillside where a town used to be.
Article content
Article content
Lebanon's Kfar Kila was badly thumped during an Israeli offensive against Hezbollah, and further reduced to rubble by construction contractors engaged by Israel to largely wipe it from the Earth; it is now essentially a few roads with intermittent piles of rocks and vague outlines of what used to be houses.
Article content
Article content
Herzberg said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) found what were essentially 'fake homes' there, filled with missiles and soldiers' rations and uniforms. It was the same story in settlements all along the Lebanese border, including in Christian towns that were essentially occupied by Hezbollah.
Article content
Article content
The destruction done to southern Lebanon by the IDF's assault on Hezbollah last fall is devastatingly clear, but Herzberg wants a group of visiting Canadian journalists to understand the Israeli message: the war was not with Lebanon but with the terror group that had effectively colonized Kfar Kila and much of southern Lebanon.
Article content
The Montreal-born Herzberg has the unique seriousness of purpose of an Israeli soldier proud of the Jewish state army's capacity for killing its enemies. He looks like an accountant who runs marathons but speaks with the swagger of a warrior, sometimes against his country's own leadership. The army was embarrassed by October 7, and is determined not to be caught flat-footed again.
Article content
Article content
Israel learned quickly from its inattention early on October 7, taking no chances in the north; two hours after Hamas invaded the south, the army sent troops to the north to counter any threat from the better-armed Hezbollah. Israel has since spent the last 19 months ensuring it is defanged.
Article content
Herzberg said Hamas are bunch of pikers who got lucky — he calls them 'a junior varsity team' while Hezbollah is 'a professional sports team.' But by hesitating when Hamas acted, Hezbollah lost the opportunity to seize an advantage. They sent their first rockets into northern Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, sparking a back-and-forth and a full-scale Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Globe and Mail
2 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Iran set to reject U.S. nuclear proposal over uranium enrichment demand, report says
Iran is poised to reject a U.S. proposal to end a decades-old nuclear dispute, an Iranian diplomat said on Monday, dismissing it as a 'non-starter' that fails to address Tehran's interests or soften Washington's stance on uranium enrichment. 'Iran is drafting a negative response to the U.S. proposal, which could be interpreted as a rejection of the U.S. offer,' the senior diplomat, who is close to Iran's negotiating team, told Reuters. The U.S. proposal for a new nuclear deal was presented to Iran on Saturday by Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, who was on a short visit to Tehran and has been mediating talks between Tehran and Washington. After five rounds of discussions between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, several obstacles remain. Iran says it could survive if U.S. nuclear talks end without a deal Among them are Iran's rejection of a U.S. demand that it commit to scrapping uranium enrichment and its refusal to ship abroad its entire existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium - possible raw material for nuclear bombs. Tehran says it wants to master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and has long denied accusations by Western powers that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. 'In this proposal, the U.S. stance on enrichment on Iranian soil remains unchanged, and there is no clear explanation regarding the lifting of sanctions,' said the diplomat, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. Araqchi said Tehran would formally respond to the proposal soon. The White House encouraged Iran to accept the deal. 'President Trump has made it clear that Iran can never obtain a nuclear bomb. Special Envoy Witkoff has sent a detailed and acceptable proposal to the Iranian regime, and it's in their best interest to accept it,' White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. 'Out of respect for the ongoing deal, the Administration will not comment on details of the proposal to the media.' Tehran demands the immediate removal of all U.S.-imposed curbs that impair its oil-based economy. But the U.S. says nuclear-related sanctions should be removed in phases. Dozens of institutions vital to Iran's economy, including its central bank and national oil company, have been blacklisted since 2018 for, according to Washington, 'supporting terrorism or weapons proliferation.' Trump's revival of 'maximum pressure' against Tehran since his return to the White House in January has included tightening sanctions and threatening to bomb Iran if the negotiations yield no deal. During his first term in 2018, Trump ditched Tehran's 2015 nuclear pact with six powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy. Iran responded by escalating enrichment far beyond the pact's limits. Under the deal, Iran had until 2018 curbed its sensitive nuclear work in return for relief from U.S., EU and U.N. economic sanctions. The diplomat said the assessment of 'Iran's nuclear negotiations committee', under the supervision of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was that the U.S. proposal was 'completely one-sided' and could not serve Tehran's interests. Therefore, the diplomat said, Tehran considers this proposal a 'non-starter' and believes it unilaterally attempts to impose a 'bad deal' on Iran through excessive demands. The stakes are high for both sides. Trump wants to curtail Tehran's potential to produce a nuclear weapon that could trigger a regional nuclear arms race and perhaps threaten Israel. Iran's clerical establishment, for its part, wants to be rid of the devastating sanctions. Iran says it is ready to accept some limits on enrichment, but needs watertight guarantees that Washington would not renege on a future nuclear accord. Two Iranian officials told Reuters last week that Iran could pause uranium enrichment if the U.S. released frozen Iranian funds and recognised Tehran's right to refine uranium for civilian use under a 'political deal' that could lead to a broader nuclear accord. Iran's arch-foe Israel, which sees Iran's nuclear programme as an existential threat, has repeatedly threatened to bomb the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Araqchi, in a joint news conference with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo, said: 'I do not think Israel will commit such a mistake as to attack Iran.' Tehran's regional influence has meanwhile been diminished by military setbacks suffered by its forces and those of its allies in the Shi'ite-dominated 'Axis of Resistance', which include Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iraqi militias. In April, Saudi Arabia's defence minister delivered a blunt message to Iranian officials to take Trump's offer of a new deal seriously as a way to avoid the risk of war with Israel. (Additional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Jeff Mason in WashingtonWriting by Parisa Hafezi, Editing by William Maclean and Rod Nickel)
CTV News
3 hours ago
- CTV News
Iranian official says U.S. nuclear proposal is ‘incoherent and disjointed,' as sources warn talks momentum is collapsing
A senior Iranian official told CNN the new nuclear deal proposal presented to Tehran in recent days is 'incoherent and disjointed,' as sources familiar with the progress of the talks said the momentum behind negotiations to secure a new deal appears to be collapsing. The private pessimism contrasts with U.S. President Donald Trump's public optimism last week that the administration was 'very close to a solution.' CNN has also learned that the US has shifted position on the issue of uranium enrichment in the new proposal, in comparison to what officials had said publicly. It suggests the US could invest in Iran's civilian nuclear power program and join a consortium that would oversee the enrichment of low-level uranium inside of Iran for an unspecified amount of time. That consortium is expected to include Middle Eastern nations and the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Previously, senior US officials have said no enrichment inside Iran could take place under a new deal, and top US officials demanded that Iran stop enrichment and only import the material – a suggestion Tehran firmly rejected. The prospect of allowing continued low-level enrichment in the country would likely enrage Iran hawks in the US and Israel and hearkens back to the 2015 nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew. However later Monday, Trump said that the Iran deal will not allow uranium enrichment. 'Under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM,' the president wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. Iranian officials have repeatedly said that they are open to the idea of an enrichment consortium but have insisted Iran must be able to keep control of its own enrichment capabilities. The senior Iranian official on Monday denounced the new proposal, saying that at 'at first glance, is assessed as incoherent and disjointed, very unrealistic, and with excessive demands.' They argued that the primary barrier to progress was the US' inconsistency. 'The fact that the Americans constantly change their positions has so far been the main obstacle to the success of the talks and now makes the work more difficult than ever,' the official added. The official also alleged the latest text directly contradicts prior understandings. 'The text is clearly in conflict with the latest agreement reached during the fifth round of negotiations,' the official stated. They reaffirmed Tehran's uncompromising stance on a critical issue, saying, 'Iran's position on enrichment is firm and steadfast.' Iran and the United States concluded a fifth round of high-stakes nuclear talks in Rome on May 23 amid growing skepticism in Tehran about the chances of a deal. After that round of talks, the two sides 'agreed to meet again in the near future,' a US senior administration official said at the time. Now, however, the next round of talks is very uncertain and may not happen at all, the sources familiar said.
CBC
4 hours ago
- CBC
Palestinian boy, 11, sole survivor of strike that killed his father and 9 siblings. Still, he smiles
Adam, 11, smiles brightly in the face of unimaginable horrors. The Palestinian boy is recovering in Gaza's Nasser Hospital from injuries sustained in a May 23 Israeli airstrike on his home that killed his father, who was a doctor, and all nine of his siblings. "Adam is doing remarkably well. He is much, much better than I thought he would [be]," Dr. Graeme Groom, the British orthopaedic surgeon caring the boy, told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. "He has an angelic little face and it lights up in the most gorgeous smile." Adam and his mother, a pediatrician who was working at Nasser when her husband and children were killed, are now their immediate family's sole survivors. And their situation, says Groom, is not remotely unique in Gaza. 'Like a crushed can of sardines' Adam's father, Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar, died on Saturday from brain and internal injuries sustained in the strike on his home in Khan Younis. His nine other children — Yahya, Rakan, Ruslan, Jubran, Eve, Rivan, Saydeen, Luqma and Sidra — were all killed in the same strike. When their mother, Dr. Alaa al-Najjar, heard about the airstrike, she ran on foot from the hospital to her home, Hamdi's niece, Sahra Al-Najjar, told CBC News last week. But she was too late. When she arrived, her home was reduced to rubble, and her children's bodies were so badly burned, she couldn't tell them apart. "Who were you targeting? Kids?" Sahra said. "This is your strength? WATCH | 9 children, all siblings, killed by Israeli airstrike: Airstrike kills 9 children of Gaza doctor as Israelis demand end to war 8 days ago Duration 2:11 The Israeli military says it's reviewing an airstrike that killed nine children of a doctor working at a hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, as patience with the war grows thin among some Israeli citizens demanding an end to the fighting and a return of the remaining hostages. The youngest of the slain children was six months old, and the oldest was 13, according to Al-Najjar's brother, Ali Al-Najjar. He, too, rushed to the scene of the bombing that day. "The house was like a crushed can of sardines," he told CBC News the day after the strike, while his brother was still in intensive care. The Israeli military has confirmed it conducted an airstrike on Khan Younis that day, but said it was targeting suspects in a structure that was close to Israeli soldiers. The military is looking into claims that "uninvolved civilians" were killed, it said, adding that the military had evacuated civilians from the area before the operation began. Sahra says there's no good reason her uncle and his family should be targeted. "He was very straight," she said. "He was very famous in the medical field. He had nothing to do with any political movements." Dozens of Palestinians marched in Hamdi's funeral in Gaza on Saturday. Doctor has served in 14 wars, but none so bad as this Groom says he's been in regular contact with Adam's mother, though their conversations have focused on her surviving son's health. "She's poised and professional," he said. "She is keenly interested in Adam and his progress." Groom says whole families being nearly wiped out has become par for the course in Gaza. He works for the charity Islamic Help U.K., and says he's served in 14 global conflicts. "If we put all the others together, it would not come close to matching this," he said. "The number of injured, the appalling nature of their injuries, the inevitable long-term disability outstrip anything we have encountered to date — and I've had a long career looking after the wounded of many wars." Just last week, he says, he operated on a seven-year-old boy who lost both of his parents and all of his siblings but one. At night, he cried out for a mother who was already gone. "Every operating [room] has stories like that," he said. "When I speak to Palestinian friends and colleagues about this, they shrug and say, 'This is our life.'" Israel began its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies, and saw 251 taken as hostages into Gaza. Israel's campaign has devastated much of Gaza, killing more than 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan tallies, and left huge swaths of the territory, including schools, hospitals and residential buildings, in ruin. The International Court of Justice is investigating whether Israel's actions in Gaza constitute a genocide, an allegation Israel strongly denies, and which has been repeated by human rights group Amnesty International. Last month, Canada joined Britain and France in threatening Israel with sanctions if it does not stop a renewed military offensive in Gaza and lift aid restrictions. That smile again As for Adam, Groom says he's making a remarkable recovery. When the child first arrived in the operating room just over a week ago, he was filthy and badly wounded, his body peppered with penetrating wounds from the force of the explosion. He was bleeding from both ears, the result of a cranial nerve injury, and his left arm and wrist were broken. Groom says they thought they would have to amputate his arm, but in the end, they were able to save it. Adam speaks English well, says Groom, so he's able to communicate clearly with him. But he's not sure how much the boy understands about what's happened to his family. "Our conversation is at a functional level. I try to make friends with him. I try to make him confident when he sees me," he said. "And I have an absolutely certain way of producing this glorious smile that he has by offering him a chocolate bar."
