Elizabeth Tsurkov
@LizHurra · Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Yemen
Elizabeth Tsurkov is a Russian-Israeli researcher of Iraq and Syria who was held hostage by Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq for over two years until her release.
Some footage from inside the tunnel complexes dug into the Ali a-Taher Ridge, totalling 5.4 KMs. Notably, the Israeli Army is marketing the capture & destruction of these facilities as the completion of the mission & establishment of the "buffer zone". This indicates Israel does not intend to go after nearby Hezbollah complexes dug into the Rayhan Mountain, Jarmaq or under Srifa, or to occupy Nabatiyeh City (a major worry of residents there).
The demolition of the two tunnel structures dug by Hezbollah into the Ali a-Taher Ridge https://t.co/HnVFFnW6Qa
Residents of the town of a-Sharqiyeh in the Nabatiyeh district asked the Lebanese Armed Forces to deploy to the town. This followed a similar large-scale call by resident of the city of Nabatiyeh for the LAF to deploy there, and such a call by the Imam of Nabatiyeh, Sheikh Abdul Hussein Sadeq https://t.co/kT5zrs4h6M The calls stems from the realization, which is spreading among the Shia community, that Hezbollah is unable to hold ground in the face of the Israeli Army. And the realization, among some Shia, that Hezbollah's weapons and decisions have brought disaster on the community. The LAF responded to the call & deployed to Nabatiyeh city, but official sources informed the Lebanese paper al-Modon that the LAF will not do anything in the city to disarm Hezbollah. This move is in line with the general conduct of the Lebanese state under Aoun and Salam - making important symbolic steps, but struggling with implementation whether due to desire to avoid conflict with Hezbollah or the infiltration of Hezbollah loyalists into state organs that ought to be implementing the decisions of the Lebanese gov. https://t.co/GN9kMGiAJv The consequences of this pattern for Nabatiyeh itself may be negligible. Israel has not indicated that it intends to occupy Nabatiyeh & previous pushing by the Israeli Army (& leaking to the media) of the political leadership to occupy Nabatiyeh (described as a major Hezbollah hub by the Israeli Army), have not produced a green light. As long as Hezbollah doesn't escalate, Israel will remain constrained by the US from being able to expand its territorial control. The overall consequences of this Lebanese policy (no actual moves to disarm Hezbollah), coupled with Israeli sense of paranoia and impunity post Oct 7, are dire: an open-ended Israeli occupation of the south and continued depopulation of dozens of Shia villages and towns (and a "life" regulated by Israeli movement restrictions for the Sunni, Christian & Druze residents of the deep south).
Channel 15: Today (Thursday), the Israeli army will complete booby-trapping Hezbollah facilities dug inside Ali al-Taher Hill. The decision on the timing of the detonation lies with the political leadership. Hezbollah is pressuring Tehran to retaliate if the facilities are detonated, and therefore Israel may postpone the detonation until after the Jewish New Year holiday (until Monday), so that possible Iranian missiles do not disrupt the celebrations.
Translated from ArabicThread of what being in solidarity with Gaza should mean: listening to what Gazans are saying & respecting their political choices and perspective. They are the ones who bore the brunt of both the Israeli war machine & Hamas' disregard for their lives.
Today on Channel 14's main edition: They are chasing a random bespectacled man in Ramat Gan and asking him why he refuses to apologize for the story in Haaretz.
Translated from HebrewA new opinion poll in Palestine conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center (JMCC) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation shows the following: 55.8% support peaceful negotiations as "the best way to achieve the goals of the Palestinian people to end the occupation and establish a state," while 13.3% support armed resistance, and 17.8% support peaceful resistance. If elections were held today, 27.5% would vote for the Fatah movement, and only 7.6% would vote for the Hamas movement, while 40.2% would not vote. 50.1% of Palestinians believe that the October 7 attacks harmed Palestinian national interests, while 15.7% believe they served them. Political factions they trust: 55% trust no one, 22.3% trust the Fatah movement, and 6.7% trust the Hamas movement.
Translated from ArabicNew poll in Palestine by the Jerusalem Media & Communications Center (JMCC) & Friedrich Ebert Stiftung showing: * 55.8% support peaceful negotiations as the "best method to achieve the Palestinian people's goals of ending the occupation". 13.3% support armed resistance. 17.8% support non-violent resistance. * If elections were held today, 27.5% would vote Fatah, only 7.6% would vote Hamas, 40.2% won't vote. * 50.1% of Palestinians believe that the Oct 7 attacks harmed Palestinians national interests, 15.7% believe it served them * Which political factions you trust? 55% trust no one, 22.3% trust Fatah, 6.7% trust Hamas. https://t.co/CfrVLvUJBF
Those expecting official Emirati confirmation of Haaretz’s exposé are in for disappointment. The UAE is trying to conceal its direct relationship with Netanyahu (as a reminder, it published a false statement denying his visit there during “Operation Roaring Lion”) and its security cooperation with Israel. The Emirati television networks, Sky News Arabia and Al-Mashhad, are not reporting on the exposé, even though they regularly report based on Israeli media outlets. The same is true of the Emirati English-language newspaper The National.
Translated from HebrewNames of the hostages who were killed in captivity in Gaza or died due to a shortage of medicines, whom Hamas had been willing to release at the start of the war according to the revelation in Haaretz (under the age of 18 and over 50): Kfir Bibas (9 months), Ariel Bibas (4), Amiram Cooper (85), Yehudit Weiss (65), Aryeh Zalmanovich (85), Alex Danzig (75), Chaim Peri (80), Yoram Metzger (80), Nadav Popplewell (51), Avraham Munder (79), Yossi Sharabi (53)
Translated from HebrewA group of residents of Nabatiyeh and southern Lebanon call on the Lebanese Army to deploy in the city without seeking to accommodate Hezbollah, to spare the city from destruction and possible occupation.
The Syrian source is mistaken. According to several of my sources in Suwayda and my monitoring of helicopter flights, the last time such aid was provided was in January 2026. The Druze community in Israel and the Golan continues to provide money to purchase humanitarian aid for displaced people inside Suwayda, and al-Hajri's militias are looting a large part of the aid. In light of the fact that it was discovered in Israel that some of the militia commanders are selling the weapons Israel supplied to the Bedouins, I doubt they will renew the military aid. Al-Hajri's statement, in which he claimed that the Druze religion is connected to Israel (despite its having existed for hundreds of years before the establishment of the State of Israel) and that Israel supports Suwayda's independence, did not result from encouragement by official Israeli figures. Quite the opposite. Israel is determined to prevent any future harm to the Druze in Syria and to ensure that internal security in Suwayda remains in Druze hands, but it does not support the idea of a Bashan state, and this position was made clear to al-Hajri and his associates.
Translated from HebrewAnother infringement on freedom of speech in Syria: The head of the Aleppo Municipal Council, Talal al-Jaberi, filed a case against the media activist Abdul Rahman Ismail, accusing him of incitement to murder. Ismail had published Facebook posts criticizing corruption & unnecessary spending by local authorities in Aleppo. An arrest warrant was issued for him based on this ridiculous complaint, but due to a major wave of expressions of solidarity with Ismail by Syrian revolutionary activists, Syrian authorities abrogated the warrant, but the complaint is still standing.
9 members of the Farhat family were killed in Kafr Ruman in southern Lebanon. Among them Hezbollah operatives Hussein Muhammad Farhat and his bother, Hajj Hassan Muhammad Farhat. In addition to them, Maryam Hussein Farhat and her brothers Abdullah (pictured) and Abbas (all children) were killed. Their mother Zahraa was killed alongside them (pictured). The children's cousin Fatima Hassan Farhat was killed as well. Another relative, Muhammad Naim Farhat was killed as well.
Israeli Ch 16: Sources within the IDF report that a greater number of soldiers are participating and assisting settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, "sometimes entire units" over which the Israeli Army "lost control".
Residents of southern Lebanon are fleeing, once again, after Hezbollah launched an FPV drone at Israeli forces occupying Ali a-Taher Ridge overnight, prompting Israeli airstrikes across the south.
Lacking a political mandate and will, the LAF has not moved forward on Hezbollah’s disarmament. “The LAF has no plan whatsoever on disarmament: Zero,” a U.S. diplomatic source told @amal_is_hope https://t.co/OSKOE6oE9B
An American named Cameron Mofid who traveled to every country in the world says the visit that changed his view of humanity the most was to Iraq, because of the people's generosity and love for the guest, despite the suffering the Iraqi people have endured
Translated from ArabicLiterally a daily occurance in the Israel-occupied areas of southern Syria
Ch 11: Israel is drawing troops down from Lebanon after the capture of the Ali a-Taher Ridge. The surprising part of the report: Israel plans on establishing a line of military outposts 2-4 KMs deep into Lebanese territory, and will withdraw from the rest of the occupied territory. The plan hasn't been approved by the political echelon but I believe it stems from US pressure on Netanyahu. Israel would only withdraw due to such pressure. Seems unlikely to me the plan would be approved and implemented before the elections, as it would be damaging to Netanyahu politically.
The problem goes beyond a form (it has been removed). The training of soldiers too contains Sunni Islamic religious instruction. The Syrian Army should be a national institution, where all of Syria's citizens feel comfortable serving: Christians, Druze, secular Syrians, etc.
100%. A strong Lebanese state is the only real threat to Hezbollah, as it is the only one that can disarm it. An Israeli occupation of south Lebanon isn't an existential threat to the militia, but rather justifies holding on to its weapons, despite them proving ineffective.
This is the criticism heard from many Lebanese, because of previous reports that Israel had agreed to let the Lebanese Army take control of the base inside the ridge, and Hezbollah refused. In general, since Israel announced the capture of the tunnels dug inside the ridge, discussion in Lebanon has focused almost exclusively on this development — on social media, in the mainstream media, and in various podcasts. This is despite the fact that Israel has not yet released the video footage from inside the base. The issues that had been at the center of discussion before the Israeli announcement — the release to Lebanon of five detainees held in Israel, as well as the surge in generator electricity prices, which rose by more than 20% in August — have fallen off the agenda. Hezbollah’s opponents are exploiting the event to criticize Hezbollah, as Makhzoumi is doing, and to demonstrate the militia’s weakness and its failure to protect even its bases, let alone southern Lebanon. Hezbollah supporters, by contrast, who had turned Ali al-Taher Ridge into Stalingrad by glorifying the fighters’ bravery and steadfastness, are suddenly presenting the base as an unimportant place, far smaller than Hezbollah portrayed it, supposedly as part of a Hezbollah deception operation.
Translated from HebrewVery informative thread on the financial crunch Hezbollah is suffering, illustrated through its unlicensed bank, al-Qard al-Hassan
New details in a “Maariv” report about how Israel occupied the two Badr Unit facilities dug into Ali Taher Hill: - The Israeli army used robotic systems to scan the tunnels and kill some Hezbollah members inside the tunnels in the operation, which lasted for weeks. - 15 bodies of Hezbollah members were found inside the tunnels, while others managed to flee. There were no members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the tunnels. - The decision to lift the secrecy surrounding the operation came after it was realized that Hezbollah was trying to exploit the loss of this strategic asset to lure Iran into a direct military confrontation with Israel, confirming that revealing the operation’s completion deprives Iran of the justification and legitimacy to intervene militarily
Translated from Arabic
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