Latest news with #Hizbullah
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Israeli army used laser weapons for first time to down Hizbullah drones
With so many people serving in the army – particularly since the start of the Gaza war - it's difficult to keep military secrets in Israel . Before last November's ceasefire in Israel's war with Hizbullah , soldiers who served on the northern front reported that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were intercepting projectiles fired from Lebanon using lasers. This week the military censor allowed the story to be published. The technological breakthrough was described by military analysts as a game-changer and the aim is to have the laser interceptors enter IDF operational use by the end of the year. The lasers' ability to down an aerial threat without launching anything kinetic, such as bullets, missiles or explosives, is unprecedented. 'This is a new era on the battlefield. The laser era,' said IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir. READ MORE All the laser system requires is electricity. The most striking advantage is the cost. Whereas the cost of each existing Iron Dome interceptor missile is estimated to be at least €35,000, the cost of a laser interception is just €5. Research and development has been taking place for more than a decade. The laser was not considered ready when the Hamas attack took place on October 7th, 2023; however, as so often in Israel's history, a war acted as a catalyst and the IDF, facing an unprecedented seven-front conflict, moved to come up with solutions in real time. The first successful laser interception occurred in late 2023, when a drone that Hizbullah fired at the western Galilee was downed by a laser cannon operated by troops from a new tactical battalion in the Israel air force's air-defence unit. A total of 40 interceptions, mainly of Hizbullah drones, were recorded before the ceasefire with Lebanon went into effect at the end of November. [ Hamas says US ceasefire plan for Gaza backed by Israel fails to meet demands Opens in new window ] The IDF plans to deploy the laser system along Israel's borders and around sensitive installations in the coming years. The next stage of development aims to use the lasers to protect tanks and armoured personnel carriers from anti-tank missiles. Airborne lasers, already in development, will be installed on fighter jets or drones, capable of targeting missiles that are approaching Israel, striking ground targets and conducting aerial dogfights against enemy aircraft. [ Branding those opposed to Netanyahu policies as anti-Semitic is 'slander', says Michael D Higgins Opens in new window ] The main disadvantage is that lasers are less effective when visibility is limited, such as on cloudy days. Because of this, the lasers will be used in conjunction with conventional air defence systems, already in use, such as the Iron Dome, David's Sling, Arrow missiles and the US-supplied Thaad batteries that were recently deployed in southern Israel. Another disadvantage, for now, is that the maximum laser range is approximately 10km, compared to Iron Dome's 40km.
Memri
5 days ago
- Politics
- Memri
Lebanese MP Camille Chamoun: I Want Peace with Everybody - War Is Futile, Israel Will Not Be Annihilated; Hizbullah's Weapons Threaten Both Lebanese and Israelis Alike; I'm Not Sad Nasrallah Is Dead,
Lebanese MP Camille Chamoun said on Spot Shot on YouTube on May 16, 2025, that as long as Hizbullah maintains its weapons, Israel considers itself under threat and the war continues. 'We Lebanese feel threatened by Hizbullah's weapons, so what do you expect from the Jews?' he said. Chamoun said that Christians in Lebanon carry weapons because they have been threatened and persecuted ever since Jesus Christ visited this holy land. He said that Lebanese Christians are used to bearing arms and defending themselves, and that otherwise they would have been annihilated like the Christians of Iraq and the majority of Christians in Syria. In response to a question about whether he wants peace with Israel, Chamoun replied: 'I want peace with everybody. I want to put an end to war.' He explained that since the age of 18, all he has known in Lebanon is war — wars he described as 'futile' and leading nowhere. He dismissed talk of removing or annihilating Israel as nothing more than empty slogans. On the assassination of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Chamoun said he felt no sadness, describing Nasrallah as 'more Iranian than Lebanese.'
Memri
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Memri
Bronx Anti-War Coalition - Which Endorsed D.C. Shooter Elias Rodriguez - Holds 'Glory to the Resistance Axis' Rally on May 3: They Taught Us What We Need to Do; Liberation Is Carried out Through Armed
This clip is from the May 3, 2025 'Glory to the Resistance' march and rally in support of the Iran-led Resistance Axis, held in Queens and organized by the Bronx Anti-War Coalition — a group that has celebrated Elias Rodriguez's May 21 attack at the D.C. Capital Jewish Museum, where he murdered two staffers at the Israeli embassy. A masked speaker, wearing a shirt featuring Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Badreddine Al-Houthi, urged attendees to follow the example of armed struggle led by 'resistance groups' in West Asia — the term used by Iran for the Middle East. He stated: 'They taught us what we need to do […], they are teaching us how liberation is actually carried out in real time - it is through armed struggle, OK.' He also declared: 'We need to have a revolution right here, right now, to save ourselves from death from the U.S. war machine.' The speaker criticized what he called superficial opposition to Zionism, stating: 'Anti-Zionism is not just criticism of Israel's policy, no, no, no.' The video then cuts off. Participants in the rally carried a large banner featuring images of U.S.-designated terrorist leaders: Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah; Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyah; Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Ubaida; IRGC Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani; Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Badreddine Al-Houthi; and Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Marchers also waved flags of Hizbullah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) military wing Al-Quds Brigades, the Houthi Ansar Allah movement, and Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades. The video was posted by the World Workers Party on Instagram, which also issued a statement expressing understanding for Rodriguez's attack, declaring: 'Acts of resistance, even individual acts, are inevitable and deserve support and defense.' The group also shared Rodriguez's manifesto outlining his justification for the attack. On April 27, 2025, the Bronx Anti-War Coalition co-hosted a panel with the Workers World Party, The New School Alumni for Palestine, the United National Anti-War Coalition, and Black Intifada.
Irish Times
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Lebanon begins drive to defang militant groups
Lebanese authorities are pushing to disarm Palestinian refugee camps as part of a drive to defang Hizbullah and other militant groups, potentially ending a decades-long Palestinian armed presence in the country. Visiting Beirut in recent days, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas – whose Palestine Liberation Organisation and Fatah party have a powerful presence in Lebanon's impoverished refugee camps – agreed with Lebanese prime minister Nawaf Salam on 'completely closing the file of Palestinian weapons outside or inside the camps'. In a joint statement with President Joseph Aoun, Abbas agreed that the 'time for weapons outside the authority of the Lebanese state is over'. Abbas does not control Lebanon's most heavily armed factions, which include Hamas and smaller Islamist groups. But Lebanese and Palestinian authorities hope their official joint stance will pile pressure on factions reluctant to disarm, in a country whose army has long been a relatively weak entity rivalled by powerful militant groups. READ MORE Lebanon – which has been devastated by Israel's latest military campaign against Hizbullah, while battling an economic crisis – needs foreign backing to rebuild, but donors such as the US want to see Hizbullah and Palestinian groups defanged. The country has also faced continuing Israeli air strikes targeting Hamas members since Israel's ceasefire deal with Hizbullah, adding to pressure to push militants to disarm. 'Abu Mazen [Abbas] has no say over Hamas's weapons. But Abu Mazen is the legitimate president of the Palestinians before [international bodies] ... any Palestinians who rebel are then seen as rogue,' said Hesham Dibsi, a former PLO leader and director of the Tatweer Center for Studies. '[The official Palestinian position] grants the Lebanese authorities the right to suppress anyone who goes against it.' Some see the focus on Palestinians as a deflection from the thornier issue of weapons held by Hizbullah, a powerful military and political force. But Lebanese authorities hope a push to disarm refugee camps – established after Palestinians were forcibly displaced by Israel's creation in 1948 – could show they mean business on Hizbullah. They also hope it would prevent Hizbullah from citing the existence of other armed groups in pushing back against calls for it to surrender its weapons. 'This is basically a test for what comes later. It's what we have to do with Hizbullah. That's how the Lebanese are seeing this,' said Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Center in Beirut. Armed Palestinian factions have run security in refugee camps since a 1969 agreement between Beirut and the PLO under which Lebanese forces withdrew from the camps. The PLO's leadership was forced into exile by the 1982 Israeli invasion and its members handed over heavy weapons to the state in the early 1990s as Lebanon's bloody civil war, in which they played a major role, came to a close. The organisation long ago gave up on using Lebanon as a base to resist Israeli occupation. Today, its cadres in Lebanon busy themselves with local governance in refugee camps, their light arms used mainly in clashes with other factions. Groups backed by the Assad regime in Syria, such as the PFLP-General Command, maintained a heavier armed presence. A third set of Palestinian factions – Islamists such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and smaller groups aligned with Iran's so-called axis of resistance – have grown powerful in recent decades, bolstered by Tehran and Hizbullah. Hamas, IJ, and the leftist PFLP sent fighters to back Hizbullah's side in its latest war with Israel. That war ended with a ceasefire deal in which the Lebanese government agreed to disarm Hizbullah and implement a 2006 UN resolution calling for disarmament of non-state groups. Lebanon's president and prime minister have both said it is their mission to 'restrict weapons to the hands of the state'. While Hizbullah has allowed much of its arsenal south of the Litani river – about 30km from Lebanon's southern border – to be dismantled, it has resisted handing over other weapons. The group, weakened by its conflict with Israel, has said relinquishing more weaponry would require 'dialogue' and could not begin before a full Israeli withdrawal. In the meantime Lebanese authorities are seeking to defang Palestinian factions they view as a source of instability, now without cover from Assad and Hizbullah. After the fall of Syria's Assad regime in December, the Lebanese army was quick to take over military bases held by Syria-backed Palestinian factions. The government has also taken a tougher stance towards Hamas. It blamed the group for two rocket launches from Lebanon into Israel in March and warned 'against using Lebanese territory for anything that impacts Lebanese national security', threatening 'strict measures' for noncompliance. Hamas has handed over all but one suspect in the attacks to Lebanese authorities. Factions wary of disarmament insist any deal on weapons must include civil rights for Palestinians, who are banned from most jobs and from owning property outside camps. Fatah leaders maintain the two issues can be handled separately. Ali Barakeh, head of national relations for Hamas, urged a 'comprehensive approach' to Palestinians in Lebanon, calling on Beirut to discuss social rights alongside security with all Palestinian factions. He warned against 'restricting the discussion to the security framework'. Many factions reluctant to disarm entirely have taken a similar tone. In the PFLP offices in the tiny Beirut refugee camp of Mar Elias, political chief Abdullah Dinan said his group would support 'regulation' of their weapons in exchange for civil rights. But he opposed handing them over. Yet Fatah cadres are hopeful. Wearing a PLO scarf, Mohammad Rachid Abu Rachid, who heads the committee on governance in southern Lebanon's Burj Shmali camp, was confident Abbas would push for improved conditions. 'Weapons are not the fundamental issue for us, rather it's the right to own property and basic civil rights,' he said. Yet the Lebanese are unlikely to amend those laws, with Lebanon's sectarian powersharing system stigmatising anything seen as including majority-Sunni Palestinians. Beirut has promised to create conditions for a 'dignified life' for refugees, without offering details. Another potential issue are small Islamist factions in the Ein el Hilweh camp in southern Lebanon, where fighting between them and Fatah in 2023 displaced thousands. Showing the scale of the disarmament challenge, the plans have already sparked fiery rejections – even from groups relatively unknown to security services. A group calling itself 'Fatah-The Storm-The New Line' in Ein el Hilweh on Friday released a statement calling camp weapons 'a red line' and denouncing efforts to remove them. Lebanese and Palestinian authorities set up a joint committee on implementation and hope to start disarmament this summer. But it remains unclear what that will look like. Anis Mohsen, a Palestinian analyst and editor in Beirut, said: 'What's the plan? There's no plan. So what's being said now is purely a cover for the inability to implement something else ... to cover up their inability to take away Hizbullah's weapons.' − Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
Irish Times
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Lebanon ‘intense and unpredictable' say troops welcomed home at Dublin Airport
A group of Irish soldiers have returned home from a six-month peacekeeping mission in Lebanon amid increasing tensions in the region. On Friday, 170 Irish troops from the 125th Infantry Battalion with United Nations Interim Force Lebanon (Unifil) returned to Dublin Airport . Commanding officer Lieut Col Shane Rockett said the tour was 'probably the most kinetic tour of duty I've been on in my career, and I've had nine tours of duty to date'. Lieut Col Rockett said one of his first tours was in 1996 during Operation Grapes of Wrath, a campaign by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) against Hizbullah . This period was 'quite a bad situation', but modern-day events are '10 times worse', he said. READ MORE Last week, Irish troops reported being observed in Lebanon amid 'aggressive postures' by the Israeli army. Anna Cunningham waiting for her dad, who was among 170 Irish troops returning home after deployment in Lebanon. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 'It's occurring daily out there,' Lieut Col Rockett said. He said the IDF has accused Unifil troops of 'protecting Hizbullah out there, which is not the case at all'. At the same time, Hizbullah has said of the Irish troops that they were 'spying on behalf of Israel', and that's also 'not the case'. 'The UN and Unifil are neutral. The Irish Defence Forces are neutral out there, and we don't take sides.' [ Irish troops to remain part of Unifil mission in Lebanon for another year, Harris to announce Opens in new window ] Lieut Col Rockett said the ceasefire agreed by Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hizbullah last November is 'fragile', and the situation remains 'intense and unpredictable'. 'My main priority as a commander is to make sure we get everyone back home safe and sound, and we've done that, so I'm very relieved in that regard.' Company sgt John Rooney, uncle of late peacekeeper Seán Rooney. Photograph: Órla Ryan Company Sgt John Rooney, uncle of peacekeeper Seán Rooney (24) , who was killed while serving with a Unifil mission in 2022, said he wanted to make his family proud while on this mission. 'Sean always looked up to me and I know he is looking down on me. I know he's proud of me, and I'm proud of him,' he said. Capt David Hobbs, returning from his first deployment overseas, was greeted by his fiancee, Capt Chloe McMahon, who previously served a tour of duty in Lebanon. Capt David Hobbs was greeted by his fiancee, Capt Chloe McMahon. Photograph: Órla Ryan She said the fact she had done her tour first helped put her 'at ease'. 'I knew exactly where he was going, I know what his role is over there.' Capt Hobbs said the tour was 'tough at the start' due to the 'uncertainty' in the region, 'but through the training and the procedures that we followed, we were able to stick to our mission'. After deployment with Unifil in Lebanon are granddad John Grant with baby Rua (nine weeks), uncle Aaron Grant, and mother Chloe Grant, of Dublin. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw The couple got engaged when Capt Hobbs returned for a break in February. 'He left me at home to plan it all, very clever,' Capt McMahon joked. Also waiting in terminal 2 were Orla Doran and her three-year-old daughter Ellie, from Co Wexford, there to welcome home Fergal Doran, Ms Doran's husband and Ellie's father. Ms Doran said she was 'so excited', especially about Ellie's reuniting with her father. The family does regular video calls, but Ellie kept asking where he was. Orla Doran and her three-year-old daughter Ellie, from Co Wexford, were at the airport to welcome home Fergal Doran. Photograph: Órla Ryan 'She'd think he's inside the phone. She kept asking me if he was at home – every day. Now we can finally say he is home.' Mr Doran turned 36 on May 17th, while the couple's first wedding anniversary was on May 4th, so there are big celebrations planned for this weekend. Máirtín Heraty, the youngest member of the battalion, is from Killybegs in Co Donegal. The 19-year-old said the first two months in particular were 'very stressful'. 'It was tough at the start, but we kind of got used to it. Then we got into a routine. We knew what we were at. It was just a matter of getting six months done. He said he is 'buzzing' to be home.
