On October 15, the US announced that it would send Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems and 100 American soldiers to Israel, supposedly to prepare for a potential attack from Iran. This comes as US President Joseph Biden hypocritically speaks about “de-escalation” or reducing tensions in the region, resulting from Israel’s aggression in Lebanon and its ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The US supplied Israel with arms amid increasingly heinous war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. Its most recent atrocities include the bombing of a refugee tent city in Deir al al Bahar in central Gaza Strip on October 14. At least four patients were burned alive after they were forced to transfer to the area from a nearby hospital which Israel had previously bombed. Hours earlier, Israel bombed a school sheltering refugees in northern Gaza, killing 22 people, 15 of whom were children. In Jaballah, Israel shelled Palestinians queuing for flour aid, killing 10 people.

Israel has already killed 42,603 people in Gaza, 700 in the West Bank, and 2,309 in Lebanon. In Lebanon, one of its most serious crimes was the bombing of 80 homes in Beirut on September 27, which killed Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah. Six buildings were destroyed, and 33 other people were killed. The wave of bombings displaced 1 million people, including 400,000 children. On October 1, Israeli troops invaded the southern part of Lebanon, where they met resistance from Hezbollah fighters. Israeli troops repeatedly and deliberately attacked the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) camp, among others. Israel uses banned cluster bombs and white phosphorus that results in extensive and brutal damage on civilians.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah forces are intensifying their defense of their sovereignty and people. Hundreds of its fighters are confronting 70,000 Israeli troops, tanks, and aerial bombers that Isreal used in an attempt to invade southern Lebanon starting last September 30. Hezbollah has inflicted heavy casualties against the advancing troops, as well as on Israeli military camps and positions in various parts of Israel. Like the Palestinian fighters in Palestine, Hezbollah is prepared for a long and bloody war of attrition against the US-Israeli occupation forces.

A Lebanese military report said that since October 1, at least seven Israeli tanks that attempted to cross into the country were blown up. Fifty-five Israeli troops were killed, and more than 500 were injured. Two Hermes 450 drones were also struck while flying towards Lebanon.

Every day and almost hourly, the Hezbollah is launching waves of rockets targeting Israeli military camps and positions to disable the so-called Iron Dome, Israel’s missile defense system that is fully funded by the US. Many of Hezbollah’s rockets struck their targets. On October 13, a drone strike successfully hit a military camp in Haifa, killing four Israeli soldiers and injuring 67. These are similar to the Iraqi missile attacks on October 1 that hit the Mossad headquarters in the center of Tel Aviv. Unlike Israel, Lebanon and Iran focus their strikes only on legitimate military targets.