A photo of the inside of the warehouse taken shortly after Netanyahu’s allegations were aired.
The Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement has taken journalists from local and international media outlets on a tour of a warehouse in a Beirut neighbourhood to prove Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was either lying or gravely mistaken during his address to the UN General Assembly.
Hezbollah’s media officer Muhammad Afif escorted dozens of reporters and photojournalists as they visited the site in the Jnah neighbourhood on Tuesday evening, just hours after Netanyahu made the sensational claims.
No evidence of missiles or their production were seen at the facility. The journalists, including AP and AFP photographers, also confirmed no weapons of any kind were stored there.
“The tour was organized for members of the press to visit the site and to dismiss the Israeli prime minister’s allegations of a missile depot in Beirut,” Afif told reporters.
He added, “The tour reveals that the site has nothing to do with storing weapons. It is an industrial facility belonging to a Lebanese man, and there are no missiles inside it.”
Afif declared that all of the accusations made by Israel against Hezbollah were “false and fabricated,” adding that “Netanyahu’s remarks are meant to provoke the Lebanese nation against Hezbollah and are part of a psychological war.”
Maybe ‘reality TV’ can be used for good, instead of evil…
He added that Hezbollah invited journalists to the alleged site due to the gravity of the situation in the aftermath of the deadly August 4 Beirut port explosion, which killed some 200 people, wounded thousands more and destroyed or severely damaged many buildings in surrounding residential neighbourhoods.
“Whoever wants to go can go now. If Hezbollah is storing missiles in this facility, then there is not enough time to remove them,” Nasrallah said shortly after Netanyahu made the accusations. “We don’t store missiles at the port or near gas facilities. We know where to store missiles.”
“We will allow media outlets to enter the facility so that the world knows that Netanyahu is lying,” he added.
Reporters quickly converged on the location, located in the Jnah neighbourhood in south western Beirut. A quick tour of the building proved that it was a factory for gas canisters.
As the journalists were touring the warehouse, Hezbollah supporters gathered outside, chanting their support for the Hezbollah chief and shouting, “We are your rockets!” LINK
A #Hezbollah sponsored tour for the media arrived at one of the locations Netanyahu charged was a part of a 'missile factory' in #Beirut. #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/P9Ws2ztZ9R
— Joe Truzman (@Jtruzmah) September 29, 2020
The factory’s owner, Muhammad Rammal, told The National reporter Sunniva Rose that he was surprised by Netanyahu’s accusations, adding that the factory has been operating for five years, and that he is proud of Hezbollah’s achievements.
I just spoke to Muhammad Rammal, the owner of the iron factory that we just visited with #Hezbollah – to prove there are no weapons here.
He says that his factory has been open for the past 5 years, that he was "surprised" by Netanyahu's accusations, but is proud of #Hezbollah. pic.twitter.com/YwpXyfMo75— Sunniva Rose (@Sunniva_Rose) September 29, 2020
Meanwhile, in Israel Defence Ministry director-general Amir Eshel spoke at a conference on Tuesday night of the challenges Israel would face in a future war with Hezbollah and the likely strategies they would employ.
He argued that it would take the Israeli military months “to truly clean out Hezbollah from its strongholds in any future conflict” and “establish order” in occupied areas.
In what he said was a best-case scenario, Israel might be able to successfully strike around 80% of Hezbollah’s estimated 150,000 rockets.
This would mean around 30,000 rockets raining down on Israel, causing a scale of physical and economic damage, as well as a much greater loss of life, than the country has experienced even during major wars.
Given this probability, Eshel concluded that while Israel must still strive for as short a war as possible, the resiliency of the civilian home front in the face of rocket attacks must be improved.
He also stated that another key trend in warfare would be growth in Israel’s use of autonomous weapons and vehicles.
Echoing Netanyahu’s now discredited claims that Hezbollah has hidden weapons in residential areas, Eshel stated that Israel would be obliged to hit civilian areas as well as Lebanon’s infrastructure in any future war.
Eshel said that all during this time [of any future conflict] the IDF would also be forced to strike civilian areas where Hezbollah’s weapons are hidden.
Despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s presentation at the UN General Assembly Tuesday night on Hezbollah’s weapons being hidden improperly in civilian areas, he said Israel would still take a major hit to its legitimacy for expected Lebanese civilian casualties – however unintended.
To avoid this dark scenario, Eshel said that Israel needs to make multiple major changes in the way it fights wars.
He said that Israel must “understand the change” in the inability to win wars decisively “and must understand the limits of its military power.”
Qualifying these remarks, Eshel said the inability to win wars decisively is not the result of a “change in our abilities. It is not that we cannot hit hard,” noting that the IDF can still strike “very hard.”
He said using Israeli force in a way that quickly ravages and destroys Lebanon’s infrastructure is much more likely to get Hezbollah to a ceasefire than playing the old-style game of chasing its concealed guerrilla fighters.
Hezbollah, he said, is much more afraid of a long period of having to rebuild that infrastructure than it is of extended guerrilla fighting and firing rockets against the Israeli home front. LINK
Now that Netanyahu’s accusations before the General Assembly that Hezbollah is producing and storing strategic weapons in residential areas have been definitively disproven, the promotion of perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity (i.e., attacking heavily populated civilian areas) as a legitimate military strategy is especially troubling.
Israel must not be permitted to use such accusations as a pretext to destroy Lebanon’s infrastructure again. If Israel has such suspicions in future, it must demand internationally verified inspections, by independent experts that are not simply Israeli, US or other pathologically anti-Hezbollah, anti-Syria scientists for hire (recalling the now debunked OPCW claims that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons).
On the spot verification by the local and international media also appears to be the best way to dispel doubts and ongoing false claims. There appears to be a large supply of scientists and other experts who will say whatever they are told to say by their paymasters.
Moreover, in such an event, Israel must also open suspect facilities to inspection; it would be only fair to allow Hezbollah to nominate an equal number of facilities for international inspection on the Israeli side.
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Bibi making fool of himself yet again. Now let us ñook at israeli secret nuclear program..
Wishful thinking. As soon as israeli nukes are mentionned, it has a magic power to summon…crickets….no one dares to even talk about it.
I agree with you 100%
but they still threaten the world with these very same nukes, incessantly and something needs to be done about it. say close down the jewish state and send them into the second diaspora – they deserve no land and have earned another diaspora many times over,
Lmao..this reminds me animal saudis declaration after khashoggi murder..they said”We didnt kill him,Just play reverse in camera records you will see that Khashoggi is leaving consulate”….result is:The Texas Chainsaw Massacre…
heh, good one..
ahahaahahahah ı hate saudis….
the saudis are there thanks to the disunited states of A and once the jews are ready, the saudis will be gone, nuked out of existence by the jews eventually. much easier to finish off the saudis than doing the same with Iran.
Well it could be true. The Saudi Royal family is a very big one and sometimes the one hand dont know what other hands do. Its no defence for it.
It look likes a cleaning.
lol fuck you no weapons found, they took them to a different locations and refused to show the media what exactly is hidden. Doesn’t matter, when our bombs start falling there, no lie would help them as they will be blown into tiny pieces. Patience.
Muh yellowcake
What the fuck do Jews like you actually want. It seems you really want war and destruction.
Its well descriebed what all of You want in that region since before 1948. Its boring to read already asked questions again and agian.
the agreement between the jews and uae and bahrain (and eventually saudi arabia when king salman dies) is a ruse by kushner to destroy those very same minions and strengthen the jewish position in the middle east, making them richer beyond their dreams. a feint within a feint you might say.
Exactly.. Even the blind could see this.
Your on pretty shaky ground, considering your country’s nuclear program and whatnot.
Im sure the people of manhattan would be interested.
I see this as the pot calling the kettle black!
That has nothing to do with things can be removed from that planned inspection. I see the same for the used gas. None others then the Russians could come where it was – if it was – but they made a lot of time to remove any evidens.
U piece of ju shit just can’t get over Putin and the great Russian freedom fighters. Maybe Putin is your father… Ask your mom.
What a stupid argument.
Care to explain why the british cant make their own novichums, it has to be russia??
U jew scumm of humanity are the children of lucifer
Are You mother or wife to Lucifer?
None. I’m the man who F ucks your wife as she says u ju type are born dick dead, small and dried up and homos.
It must be my mother. She died many years ago.
Don’t be so dramatic, you can go with them to hell too.
go defenestrate your self right away and do not pass go!
So that was the equivalent of “Darquzabad” in Lebanon? Hee hee!
What this lunatic Eshel says is nothing new. Israeli military always attacked civilians in every war, no exception, but more evident and outright war crimes in a few times they invaded Lebanon. The same tactic used by the British and perfected by American military. They don’t have what it takes to face the warriors and try to pressure them by attacking ordinary people.
The only difference is this time it seems the cowardly IDF plans to murder the majority of civilians in the southern half of Lebanon and they are trying to prepare the world’s public opinions.
They probably think Hezbollah won’t attack their own civilians like the last time, but Hezbollah’s strategies evolve and change over times based on the Israeli ones.
The amazing thing is Netanyahoo’s domestic critics. When it comes to the murder of Shi’as, they have no problem eating his lies out of his hand.
Israeli mentality is some strange thing. Most of them claim to be not religious, but in dealing with outsiders, they follow some parts of their religion, specially the parts which doesn’t exist in the original scripture like zealots. And even in the original scripture there’s no shortage of invite to carnage and genocide…
Well, they found the Promissed Land so……………… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4fb4d4b5b662dbeb99ab3c22657ad2e93068720fb302e720bcfdc6534f11e939.jpg
Turkey still think Turkey is in Syria.
yep, the lebanese seabed is vital for the jews to get the gas they are stealing from the palestinians to europe via pipe across, yes that seabed. without such access no stolen gas to europe by pipe. pompeo tried to secure such right of passage in the spring but was turned down and now it seems discussions between the jews and lebanese government will take place under guidance by the morons in the white house.
Because the missiles werent there, doesnt mean they have not been there.
Hezbollah could have moved the WMD missiles out in only one hour, cleaned it all up and invited the world press to a fake “we are innocent” event.
Very very smart trick by Hezbollah but not smart enough! The WMD missiles are hidden somewhere in the neighbourhood and they refuse to say where!
more likely that netanyahu, as usual, lied through his teeth. we’ve seen it before and the more gullible pro-jew news-media will report it as proven facts,