Since last week’s article, fire damage in Israel has continued, though this time mainly in the north. Rocket salvoes began on Wednesday with a rocket strike on Israel from Lebanon for which initially no group claimed responsibility. According to the Jewish News Service, “The attack does not bear the hallmark of Hezbollah but does fit the pattern of a Lebanese-based Palestinian armed cell, possibly belonging to Hamas, firing on Israel. … [as] the establishment of Palestinian cells terrorizing northern Israeli communities, possibly with Hezbollah’s knowledge, is beginning to take hold.”¹

By Friday, according to a Reuters report, a spokesman for Hezbollah (one of Iran's major allies in the Middle East) said it had fired dozens of rockets on Friday into open ground near Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms border area, in response to the Israeli air strikes on Thursday.² Remarkably, on the same day a large crowd of Druze men surrounded a multiple-launch rocket system as it drove through the village of Chouya in southern Lebanon and then seized a Hezbollah terrorist. Some angry villagers were heard shouting, “Film this, film this, so that the whole world sees how Hezbollah is firing rockets from between our homes so that Israel hits us back.”³ This illustrates the cynicism of these Islamist activists (‘Hezbollah’ means ‘Party of Allah’). Worryingly, on the very same day, the newly-inaugurated President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, hosted the leaders of various terror groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, saying, “Palestine has been and always will be the number one issue of the Muslim world”.⁴

Lebanon cynically used by terrorists

Sadly, the United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are failing to fulfil their mandate, which amongst other things includes, “Assist the Lebanese Armed Forces in the establishment between the Blue Line [Israel’s northern border] and the Litani River [well inside Lebanon] of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons except those of the Government of Lebanon and UNIFIL”⁵ [my emphasis]. This is despite deploying troops and personnel of over 10,000 and an annual budget exceeding $500 million.⁶ According to World Israel News on August 9th, increasing numbers of Lebanese civilians and public figures are openly saying that they are fed up with Hezbollah‘s presence in their country. On Sunday, Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, leader of a primarily Lebanese ethnoreligious Christian group called the Maronites, who make up about a third of the population, said that most citizens, “… do not want to involve Lebanon in military operations that provoke devastating Israeli reactions. … We are sick of wars, killing, destruction, and displacement.”⁷ This, of course, is all in the context of declining government power in Lebanon in the face of economic collapse, particularly following last year’s devastating explosion, in which Hezbollah was implicated.

Two nature reserves set on fire

Also on Friday, Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip launched a number of incendiary balloons into Israel, sparking four brush fires in the Kissufim forest and in the Be’eri forest, two nature reserves located near Israel's border with the Palestinian territory. Gaza’s balloon unit ‘Ahfad An-Nassar’ claimed the launches, saying it attacked Israel “in solidarity with Lebanon.”⁸

 It’s important, too, for us to remember that, bad though the harm is to nature reserves, agricultural land is also damaged. Recalling the arson of winter 2016/2017, an article in Israel National News said, “over 10,000 fruit trees were destroyed … All those trees – every single one – had stood for many years and were producing fruit which was sold all over the world. … Not only were those trees destroyed, the livelihood of many families who worked with those trees were destroyed as well. The computerized drip-irrigation systems were burned and the damage was so intense that the farmers have spent the last two months just clearing debris and cleaning the soil. It was horrible.”⁹ In a time of food insecurity in many countries, the vandalism of agriculture is particularly despicable.

Helping the replanting effort

Replanting is expensive and labour-intensive. Various organisations are helping, for example, the Jewish National Fund UK. There are also several Christian groups, such as ‘Hayovel’¹⁰ who organise volunteer spells in Israel and welcome donations. To see what is involved on the ground, a short video of a Texan group at work can be seen at: Re- Planting in the Heart of Israel - YouTube. So, as well as making these issues matters of prayer, for wisdom and protection, our readers might consider contributing to such programmes. Above all, let us continue to ‘watch and pray’!

Notes

¹Palestinian faction again likely to be behind rocket fire from Lebanon (jns.org) 04 Aug 2021
²Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel trade fire amid Iran tensions, Reuters, 06 Aug 2021
³e-mail news, Christians United for Israel, 06 Aug 2021
⁴'Victory for Palestine is near,' Iran's new president tells terror chiefs, World Israel News, 8th August 2021
⁵unifilpresskit.pdf (unmissions.org) undated
⁶https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/06/15/debating-un-peacekeeping-in-lebanon/ 15 Jun 2020
⁷https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/ 06 Aug 2021
⁸https://worldisraelnews.com/lebanese-religious-leader-criticizes-hezbollah-we-are-sick-of-wars/ 09 Aug 2021
⁹Planting the new and replanting the old - Israel National News 08 Feb 2017
¹⁰Fire and Replanting – HaYovel (serveisrael.com)