also another objective that there is, another goal is to put pressure on the on the people of the resistance, the supporters of resistance to the extent that they reach a state of despair and perhaps would maybe based on their terms, israeli terms that they would stop supporting the resistance, and we see more pressure being put from the us based on this to try to get some political gains in lebanon, that is exactly right now, given the growing regional support for groups like is bolah and particularly after recent israeli actions, how do you think the resistance is gaining strength politically and military? maria, well, it's it's difficult to say when it comes to political terms, we can see that there is of course lot of support on the popular front, the people, whether in north america, south america, europe, and those countries where the governments are completely pro. israel we see that there is

more support from the popular level, but when it comes to the politics, it might take a little time. now it seems, as hazbillah secretary general had said, it seems that what really dictates the future now of the of the region, what dictates, even how things move and how things are drawn in the region and lebanon and ghaza and all and everything else, is basically what's happening on the... frontlines: the israelis had in the past, of course, used the issue of air force and their supremacy in the air, they can do that, they continue to do that, they can target and destroy, that's obvious, they can kill as many civilians as they want, they can target ambulances, hospitals, schools, and that that is very clear, they can do that, but the the really significant issue is, can they stop hezballah's rockets for being fired towards the israeli settlements, can they bring back?

back the israeli settlers that were occupying north uh occupy northern occupy palestine, so these are very significant questions that the israelies have said that this is what they want to achieve from this this war and this continuous aggression, and it seems that up until now they do not have that, because hezballah is not only capable so far of still launching their rockets with the fact that we know they do have strategic rockets, the medium range and long-range rockets which which have not been touched. based on the last speech of hazballah's deputy secretary general sheikh naim qasim, but we also see that they they have the upper hand and the supremacy when it comes to ground combat, face to face combat, and we even know based on the military analysis of the israelis saying that even hazballah's fighters are not shooting when they're shooting with their maybe machine guns, not from far away, they're getting close to the israeli force, making sure that they inflict direct casualties. sorry to interrupt you, we now

have robert fantina joining us, author and journals from kitchen ontario. mr. fantina, uh, you've been patiently waiting, thank you for joining us. my first question to you is exactly the same question that i asked mariam a few minutes ago. um, the regional support for the israeli side is increasing, from, resistant groups like hisbollah and hamas, particularly after recent israeli actions. uh, how do you think the resistance is gaining a strength politically and militarily? the resistance is certainly gaining. i have contacts in lebanon who say that uh, within lebanon itself, there were people who were not particularly favorable to hezballah, who are now uh strong supporters of hezbulah, the resistance is growing there, also the resistance in other countries uh through the area in in yemen, in uh syria, they are seeing what's happening to lebanon, they're seeing the... injustice of it, the

the fact that israel has decided to to bomb lebanon, bombing residences, uh, schools, uh, refugee centers, places where people have gathered, uh, bombing uh uh, any anyone, innocent people, telling people to leave, than bombing the the roots that they were told to leave, same model they used uh in the genocide and continue to use the genocide in gaza, so people uh around the world certainly... out the middle east, but in of other parts of the world too, are seeing this, they're seeing the brutality, the injustice of the of the zionist regime, and they are supporting the resistance more and more, yesterday i marched in demonstration in toronto here in canada, tens of thousands of people supporting uh supporting the uh the palestine support the resistance in general, there were palestinian signs and palestinan flags and the flags of lebanon, so these are people who are some of them have been active of

before, many of them are just horrified at what's happening and said they have to do something and so they come out to the streets, so we're seeing that in different places around the world, israel is losing it what was left of it. national reputation, it's losing support of countries everywhere. france has said that macron has said that he doesn't want does the people need to to create arms embargoes and stop sending shipping weapons to israel, so the the resistance uh at home is growing, the resistance uh throughout the middle east around the world is growing, and we're starting to see some countries taking a stand, it's late for them to be doing so, but better late than never. mr. fantina staying with you, why do you think the international community is silent and uh they give the israelis everything they want uh in the face of what is happening? the entire issue with israel and it's many crimes against humanity, violation of international law goes back to

the united states, the existence of israel serves the united states uh for number of reasons, one is it gains intelligence from israel, another is it's a a check. against russian or chinese influence throughout the middle east, so other countries throughout the world are able to be bribed basically, to put it very bluntly, the united states will promise them additional foreign aid, additional military contracts, additional military military protection and coordination, whatever it takes to get them to be silent about israel's war crimes, now we are seeing a break in this now, as i mentioned with france, canada, justin trudeau has made some... timid remarks uh saying that there needs to be cease fire, israel needs to be held accountable, not strong at all, but there is something, and initially he was uh just condemning the resistance and praising israel, so that's been a change, it's slow to come, but it is happening, but as long as the

united states is willing, the united states government is willing to let their cities crumble, let crime and and homelessness and so on run rampant, let the drug problem throughout the united states go unchecked and use the money that could be going to help people the united states to send other countries so that they will excuse israel's war crimes, we won't see a change, but these these are policies that must change and it's going to take other countries to to do it, the united states isn't going to do it, other countries must pressure the united states and pressure israel to to end this this aggression, this genocide and this constant destabilization throughout the... east right uh now let's switch back to mariam do you think that israel is trying escalate to to level that it will lead to much bigger war what is the end game of the israeli side here well it's as we've had always in the past

they want to get everything uh for to get lot of gains when it comes to the politics and to having hebigemy over the countries and the surrounding to perhaps take also expand their their power a lot of the territory in lebanon and even other arab countries, but they do not want to pay that price, that very heavy price. now we see somewhat of a change when it comes to how they deal with issues related to wars. in the past, it was always decisive, rapid wars that would not exceed more than a month or so, um, now we see the israelis going for a war that would last longer than year in ghazza. now also extending this war, maintaining their genocidal war on ghazza, but also going for another aggression uh on lebanon and other attempts of incursions continuous call for more funds to from the united states uh in order to continue with that war despite the fact that they do have

their own manufacturing of weapons and so on, but there there's of course very specific needs that they require that are given to them by the united states, specifically for example the warplanes, the fighter jets and uh "a lot of the ammunition also is very significantly coming from the united states and it's seemingly also the illegitimate weapons that are being used uh in in various areas we have cluster bombs and those uh those those weapons that are be that are band internationally uh but they are given by the united states based on the premises that the us will continue to protect israel when it comes to issues of impunity when it comes to issues of justice and so on especially the court" the international courts and so with that also in mind um they are attempting to get some gains on their own, but also you have the us which is right behind them, we cannot really separate between the stance of

israel and the stance of the us, especially in light of what's happening, if we do hear something which is contradictory, it's only role playing, because that is what obviously we see even when these there's a lot of talk about fact that there's disagreements, let's say, for example, between the secretary of defense and the israeli war minister, and then they say that one of them was the us secretary of defense was snapped. his counterpart and he was not willing to go for that stance, but you also have the fact the israelis are escalating to the extent that they have violated every single rule of the book. they assassinated deep in the heart of the capital of tehran, they killed members of the diplomatic mission of iran inside syria, they assassinated also the backbone of the resistance sayid hasan nasaralah and we have... also these continuous attempts, in addition to the killing of civilians, the targeting of hospitals, the killing of

paramedics, the fact that now they are boasting and saying that we are targeting the the ambulances because they are being used by fighters, and so you have that continuous boasting, but the the end game for them is really, it's really just more hegemony, more expansion of land, more theft of land and so on, and they felt that it was in the last 17 years especially after 2 si we saw the resistance inside palestine really gaining ground, getting leverage and more support among its people, hamas won the elections, it was getting stronger inside gaza was taking control of all of the gaza strip, we had hizballah also gaining ground politically in lebanon and also having allies within all communities in lebanon, the strongest ally being christian and today also their candidate is one of their strongest ally uh who is also christian they did not want want to see that, they did not want to see hezball gaining ground. the us of course was doing it its job as a us embassy in lebanon, pulling

all the strings that it can inside lebanon to push for boycotting of the elections of a president with its uh with its tools in lebanon, actually with those political factions that are pro west and pro-us, it was pulling all the strings that it can politically, but at the end of the day they've reached a dead end, they could not continue and now the us and israel believe that this is a an opportunity for them, they went for those attacks, the the detonation of the pageers and the walkie talkies, assassination of commanders and the secretary general of hazdallah, thinking that by this they can weaken the resistance and targeting of course the civilian population, the supporters of the resistance, thereby they can really now get some more gains from lebanon, put more pressure on the government, on the political factions to elect a president that only the us chooses, and so these are just some of the... prices that the us and israel want to gain from lebanon. absolutely right. now let's switch back to

mr. fantina. mr. fantina, you were talking about france and how they threaten that they will stop their support, somehow they are going to stop their support for the israeli regime. um, when that come time comes, will they finally be able to stop the zinist regime? how is that going to turn out? well, the france at this point doesn't provide israel with with any uh... weapons of war, but says that there should be embargos, but france could, france needs to pressure the united states more than israel, the united states is pulling the strings, it's providing all the the weapons necessary for israel to commit genocide in palestine, and now uh in lebanon with this rampet killing of civilians, unchecked slaughters of of innocent people, so france is perhaps the first, but other countries have to start saying the same thing and and those that are shipping weapons must cease. now the german

government has stopped about 30 shipments of about 300, over 300 that it is approved, so all the remaining shipments are going. they just stopped some that they thought might be used uh for illegally in in gaza, but other countries have got to stop uh, have got to realize that they're complicit in genocide, they're complicit in constant violations of international law. if these countries say, that they support international law, they are all members of the united nations, and yet they they disregard everything the un says, they disregard the international criminal court, uh, the international court of justice disregard their findings, so it's completely hypocritical, if they want this to stop, the united states could have stopped this, this the slaughter and prevented what's slaughter in gaza and prevented what's happening in lebanon any time last year by simply cutting off the supply of weapons to... israel, it's so hypocritical for president biden and vice president harris to say that the us is

working tir tirelessly for a cease fire when they are providing the weapons that are being used uh in this in this genocide, completely hypocritical, so other countries have got to stop, they've got to stop sending weapons, they've got to stop, they've got to sanction israel and sanction the united states, lot of them relying the united states for military protection, for uh economic trade and so on, but there's there comes a time when international law has to be respected, it has to come before power and profits and these countries have got to make those decisions, the united states won't, it impacts their economic system somehow or the power that the country has. now israel, the israeli government has has learned and has proven again and again that it doesn't care what the what the united states says it will continue to do whatever it wants to do regarding killing people, stealing land, whatever it might be, so the united states is going to

react is going to respond, other countries throughout the world must. absolutely right, with that in mind. "do you think that these strikes will rally more international and regional support for the resistant movements, especially given the increased tensions between the israeli side and its neighbors? it it definitely will, the the resistance is only growing, what israel, united states don't recognize is that when you kill people, you don't endear their relatives to you, you only make more people who are going to join the resistance, we're going to fight against those people have slaughtered their..." ones who are stealing their land, who are depriving them of education and livelihood, who are killing their children, this resistance is going to grow throughout the middle east and throughout the world, those countries that have normalized relations with israel over the past several years have got us, some of them, bahrain has has outlawed

any proposian demonstrations, but eventually this the anger in these countries is going erupt and "the result is not going to be favorable for those governments, they need to change their policies now uh before the the uh before revolution occurs, before continued destabilization and and accelerate destabilization throughout the whole area, because the resistance is the people and the people uh are strong and they are not going to give up. that is absolutely right, that was mr. robert fontina, author and journalist from kitcher, ontario, thank you for your time and expertise. thank you, right now..." as you can see on the bottom of your screen uh uh you can see uh hafa the occupied territories of hafa being hit by hisbullah missiles. miriam, are you still with us?

as you can see on your screens, it seems that some areas in hefa occupied territories have been hit by hisbolla missile rocket strikes on hafa, at least five israeli settlers are injured because of it. as it seems there are faddy one hezbulah missiles that they were hitting uh the al-karam uh station military station in southern hafa these are the pictures of the ramifications of that strike as you can see

at least five israeli settlers injured after this hisbollah missile and rocket strikes on haifa. mariam, are you still with us? yes, i am. all right, what are your initial thoughts in this hisbullah missile and rocket strikes on hafa? what is happening? well, if this is based on hazballah statement, they said that they launched a fad one uh salvo fad one rockets uh tour. the south of hyfa, but specifically the military base of al karmel, and if this is correct, then of course this could probably be if there are maybe casualties among the areas which are considered by the israely civilian, then this is probably as a result of the israeli defenses, which leads sometimes to the fact that the rockets might be might move away

from their position, or some rockets of course the rockets have landed in the... base the caramel uh, but we might see of course, as a result of the shropnal of the israeli defenses, the iron dome system and other systems that are used to stop and intercept those rockets, we've seen a lot of examples of that in the past, especially when has using more uh medium range and long range rockets where the israeli results of the interceptor rockets also led to damages and sometimes even the killing... their own soldiers and even people that in the majd shams incident that occur before the assassination of how the israeli defense rocket directly. landed in football field killing children that were uh playing in a football game and that was in against of course the arab population in that area and

the israelis took it and used it as a pretext in order to strike the southern suburbs of beirout and that was the first time that they struck the suburbs by assassinating fuachukot and killing several civilians along with him. um of course in addition to that we know that this is also the result uh the fact that the israeli's defenses are not successful in stopping hazballah's missiles has said that this is this operation is one of the series of operations um which is they did not say specifically this is in retaliation for the assassination of salah but this is one of the several operations that they launched where they say that this is it would the with the slogan of means this is a pledge that we give to say that we will continue the fight and one of the very few times when they conclude

the statement saying that the resistance will continue to fulfill its duty of defending lebanon and to and is always ready to defend the people of lebanon, the oppressed people of lebanon and the heroic people of lebanon and stop the israeli arrogant barbaric aggression, as they are saying, i'm translating of course directly from that statement, and that god is the witness to what we are saying, and so hazball is stressing through this, that the resistance remains strong, it remains intact, that when it comes to the issues related to the command and control of the any military, maybe sometimes militaries when they are defeated, they have to surrender, you have an... when it comes or their commanders for example are assassinated, you have issue when it comes to the command and control, and we see that now

based on also the statement of deputy secretary general, he said that he wants to assu everyone that the command and control is still intact, it is still strongly what what basically helps the resistance continue with these operations and launching of rockets and today's operation. is very clear example of that uh that the resistance is so ready to launch rockets and retaliation for the israeli aggression and also ready to deter the israeli forces at the border. that is exactly right, the israeli s thought that by killing the top commanders they are going to paralyze the resistance, especially the uh resistant movement, but as it seems the firing of missil. rockets, they are still going on, uh, does this mean that israeli side have failed in what they wanted to achieve? well, they they have of course

failed when it comes to that objective specifically, or maybe the attempt of doing something that was different than before before they would launch, like we said direct aggressions, uh, targeting, and assassinating, the assassinations is something old, but the issue of the... covert operations, which we learned day by day, we're getting information of that on the issue of the pagers and the walkie talkies, and now it seems that we're getting also reports that it is not just the walkie talkies and the pagers, every single device that is not made in lebanon or not made by h that has come from outside of lebanon and used perhaps by hazballah and by the way is not only a resistance, it is also a political part. it has a medical body as well, medical associations, clinics, there are many doctors that help people because they worked in the

time of the economic crisis, making sure that the people are in state of poverty get medical care, in addition to other assistance when it comes to to food and social support and financial support, and so there is there's also a civilian body and social communities and social association. within hazbulah, they're considered part of the community of hazbullah, and this is why we see that it was mostly the those who who were victims of the pagers were among the civil civilian population and not the fighters that are on the battlefield, and so the israelies thought that by this wave, this terror wave and the detonation of pages and then the walkie talkies and then the assassinations of the commanders and the primarily the backbone the resistance. has secretary general sasanlah that through this they would be able perhaps to enter or to attempt incursions and new occupation of lebanon in a in a way that

perhaps would not be met by lot of resistance, or maybe similar to what has happened in ghazza that they would be able to launch their incursion and perhaps be met later on with resistance operations, but the resistance has surprised them uh in a manner where they have not even allowed them to come and pave the way for invasion, because as we know based on military terms, those officers that are elite officers of the egos and the... the commandos elite forces as well, their job is to pave the way for the occupation and for the ground forces to enter after they had already for example purified or cleaned the area from all resistance fighters and the anti-armor and rocket force of hezballah. seemingly what is happening here is that those elite forces along with the accompanying soldiers are directly being

killed by the resistance fight. is they engaging in face to face combat, and as i was saying earlier, hazbillah's resistance fighters seem to not be assured to fight or to shoot at them from a far, although they seem to also be shooting them precisely, based on some witnesses it seems from the israelis, hezballah's fighters are getting very close and as close as they can to the israeli force to make sure that they have inflicted direct. and precise casualties among the israeli soldiers and the officers, and for the first time, i think in all of the last year of confrontations we had last two days, hazvolah mentioned precisely that the resistance fighters were able to liquidate and execute at least 17 israeli officers and soldiers a very, very close range, and i believe they were even using their machine guns and not only rockets or guided missile.

and even the explosive devices that went on against one of the elite forces in audi for example, and so we can see that the resistance is still quite strong, and so that yes definitely we can say that the israelis could not achieve their objectives. we also have another state out by hizballah just now, after midnight, right after midnight hizballah targeted the nimra base, which is one of the primary bases in the northern region, which is in the west. of tiberius and just before that we learned from israeli media that there was at least one critically injured soldier that reached the rambam hospital, i believe, from as a result of this hisbullah attack on tiberius. thank you, mariam, that was press tv's mariam sole, our correspondent in beirut. thank you, mariam and stay safe. now joining us tonight to help us navigate through the complexities of this

rapidly developing. story we have shabi rasvy, our he's a political analyst from london. mr. razi, thank you for coming on, i hope you are well. my first question for you is this: look at the looking at the humanitarian situation, how are the resistant groups are managing to maintain their popular support under such difficult circumstances and what role does their ability to defender people playing this? hello, good evening. first condolences to all the matters and their families in gaza, west bank, lebnon, and all the axes of resistance that are really giving a bloody nose to the zionist entity. look, this question is quite a interesting question, and it has been posed by both friends and for, what i would like to say, just like your colleague from lebanon

was report. mariam saleh that the resistance does not really depend on individuals, of course there have been so many personalities, individuals, key figures who have been martered, and of course, i think nearly 200 ordinary citizens in lebanon who have been martered since the last two weeks, what this shows is that the ordinary people world, they want dignity, this is the key factor, and i think all the people in lebanon, although as we all know, lebanon is society which is often described as confessional politics, people support their religious identity, and in parliament, the structure has been made in such a way that the speaker is shia, the

president is sunni, the prime minister is sunni and the president is christian, when the french left, they left, made that kind of constitution, but the reality is that um hizbullah and the... resistance itself has deep roots in society, again just to sort of refer to your colleague saying that it's so deep rooted because for the last 40 odd years the resistance in lebanon has been doing social work, community work, setting up hospitals and of course after 2006 when tahya was raised to the ground virtually and not as sort of brutally as on this occasion, but there were huge buildings which were destroyed, but it came back again and hisbullah supported. i was in marjayun in 2000, after the south was liberated, and

marjayun was town in that area where there were lot of collaborators, particularly christian, and of course some of other confessions as well, but the people of lebanon. the followers of sayyad nasrullah and those who follow the line of resistance when the collaborators who did not escape to israel when they were caught, the sort of instructions from the leadership of the resistance game, do not harm any of these people, hand them over to the authorities, ie the lebanese police, the lebanese legal system, so the ordinary people have a... certain respect for the leadership, because the leadership has put their lives online. these are not leaders who sort of send their children to miami and and sort of get their own uh...