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Hezbollah stores weapons among civilians in Lebanon, US says its not sharing intel with IDF

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Hezbollah stores weapons among civilians in Lebanon, US says its not sharing intel with IDF

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The fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has drastically escalated over the last month as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has begun targeting the terrorist network’s hot spots and military storage units, all of which are strategically embedded within civilian villages.

Images and videos provided to Fox News Digital of the recent strikes in southern Lebanon show precision missiles hitting what have been deemed civilian buildings.

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Hezbollah’s use of civilian infrastructure has not only created a sophisticated network of meeting houses, weapons storage units and well-hidden missile launching positions across southern Lebanon and in the suburbs of Beirut, it has ensured a war with Hezbollah cannot be conducted without immense collateral damage. 

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Hezbollah rockets are stored in a building somewhere in Lebanon. (IDF Spokesman’s Unit. )

Since Monday, more than 1,800 casualties have been reported and at least 560 people are believed to have been killed, including 50 children and more than 90 women, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. 

On Thursday, the U.S. again urged Israel to agree to a cease-fire in Lebanon, and deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed with reporters that the U.S. is not aiding Jerusalem militarily or with intelligence in its Lebanon-based campaign.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the international community’s calls for a cease-fire and instead instructed his troops to continue fighting “with full force.”

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday warned Israel that it “cannot without consequence just expand its operations to Lebanon” as commanders on the Israeli-Lebanon border ordered its troops to “prepare” for a possible ground invasion. 

No invasion has been ordered at this time, though Israeli and U.S. security experts have told Fox News Digital that the network Hezbollah has established on the foundation of everyday life within Lebanon means war with the terrorist network will likely be even more costly in terms of human lives than what has been witnessed in Gaza.

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes on villages in the Nabatiyeh district, seen from the southern town of Marjayoun, Lebanon, on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

According to the Israel-based Alma Research and Education Center, a nonprofit organization that researches Israeli security challenges along the border with Lebanon, Hezbollah has long relied on the use of civilian infrastructure to serve its needs. 

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“The phenomenon of renting houses, rooms, warehouses within the Shiite civilian areas by Hezbollah is well known since the beginning of the 2000s,” Tal Beeri, head of the research department at Alma, told Fox News Digital, adding that the terrorists also rent structures in non-Shia areas of Lebanon as well.

“Evidence of this matter was found in looted documents and investigations of Hezbollah operatives during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Since then, Hezbollah has only accelerated the phenomenon and estimates are that every third house in southern Lebanon has been used by Hezbollah for its needs,” he added. 

Beeri shared research with Fox News Digital that showed findings from 2021 breaking down the sophisticated system in which Hezbollah has intertwined itself in the everyday running of local villages across the country. 

A man displays photographs as people sift through the rubble of a building in an area targeted overnight by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon’s town of Saksakiyeh, on Sept. 26, 2024. Israel flatly rejected on Sept. 26 a push led by key backer the United States for a 21-day cease-fire in Lebanon, as it vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah militants “until victory.” (Photo by MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images)

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Hezbollah officials dubbed a “Rabat” – loosely translated to “the liaison” – are installed in villages across Lebanon and serve as the representative of the terrorist group, facilitating the needs of the villagers in coordination with the hyper-localized operations of Hezbollah.

The Rabat, which can oversee multiple villages, reportedly establishes relationships with the residents by facilitating requests for aid such as money, food and even with localized disputes.  

“In places where Hezbollah decides to expropriate or lease civilian land or properties from the residents for the purpose of its military activities, the ‘Rabat’ conducts the expropriation or leasing procedure vis-à-vis the relevant resident,” Beeri found. 

The report, based on documents seized following the 2006 war with Hezbollah, found that the Rabat also recommended to local Hezbollah units the best locations in each town that are “suitable to serve the human shield tactic” based on the storage requirements surrounding concealment, infrastructure type and weapons placement. 

Images show civilian buildings used by Hezbollah in Lebanon to store weapons. (Photo provided by Israel Defense Force)

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The Rabat then coordinates the logistics between the terrorist organization and the local property owner. 

“The ‘Rabat’ strengthens Hezbollah’s grip on the Lebanese village residents’ day-to-day life, their property, and needs, allowing Hezbollah to turn them into human shields on a wider scale,” the report found.

Hezbollah’s control over local communities and its ability to stockpile and transfer weapons throughout the country through a sophisticated tunnel system signifies that the UN Resolution 1701 passed in 2006 to prevent a third war between the terrorist network and Israel has failed. 

 

While it remains unclear if U.N. Security Council members are looking to revamp the resolution to counter the terrorist group’s movements and stop Israeli operations in civilian areas, the international community has called on Netanyahu to cease his campaign – many leaders from both adversary and allied nations, have fervently warned against invading Lebanon.

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Netanyahu is set to address the U.N. body on Friday during what has been described by the Israeli ambassador to the U.N. as the most “hostile” environment he has seen in his roughly 10 years of attending the top summit.  

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Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane Present Ravi Muppa’s ‘Incognito’ as New YouTube Shorts Channel Launches (EXCLUSIVE)

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Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane Present Ravi Muppa’s ‘Incognito’ as New YouTube Shorts Channel Launches (EXCLUSIVE)

Indian auteurs Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane have joined forces again to spotlight writer-director Ravi Muppa’s short film “Incognito,” the debut release on shorts-only YouTube channel titled Oh Flip Shorts that is launching July 15.

The channel arrives courtesy of producer Ranjan Singh, with Kashyap serving as curator. The plan calls for a fresh short to premiere on the platform each month, with the goal of building an audience and community around independent short-form work.

“Incognito” stars Vikram Singh, Ayushi Nema and Dev Chauhan. The story follows a motel receptionist short on money who makes extra income selling hidden-camera footage of guests, then finds himself torn between self-preservation and intervening after filming a woman who appears to be a trafficking victim.

The short has already made the festival rounds, screening at more than 20 international events, among them the Oscar-qualifying Palm Springs International ShortFest.

“I’ve always loved short films as they are the first stepping stone for a director to test their storytelling style and give an actual practice to them of shooting a story,” Kashyap said. “Continuing the same, this is our effort to showcase some excellent short films, curated by me and presented by filmmakers whose work I look up to. We’re glad to begin with ‘Incognito’ by Ravi Muppa, and very hopefully that it’ll be liked by the audience.”

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“‘Incognito’ is gripping and beautifully atmospheric, a true blue genre short with an out of the box ending. Congratulations to Ravi and his team and I’m so happy that we can present this to the audience,” Motwane added.

As revealed by Variety, plans for a feature-length version of “Incognito” are already underway, with Invention Studios joining Flip Films and Campfire Studios as co-producers. Kashyap, Nicholas Weinstock, Divya Souza and Singh are attached to produce.

Muppa, whose earlier development credits include “Stree” (2018), “Bala” (2019) and “The Family Man” (2019), said: “The film has been an incredibly special journey, and I’m deeply grateful to the producers, collaborators, and champions who believed in it and helped carry it forward. I’m especially excited that this is just the beginning, as we now look ahead to expanding ‘Incognito’ into a feature,” Muppa said.

Singh, who produced the short through his Flip Films banner, added: “We are thankful to Anurag for the curation, and Vikram and other directors to lend their support to the same. Every month we’ll be premiering one new short on the channel and hope that we’ll be able to make a community very soon.”

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Four Americans caught in horrific Mexico highway pileup that killed at least 10

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Four Americans caught in horrific Mexico highway pileup that killed at least 10

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Four Americans were reportedly caught in a fiery multi-vehicle crash in Mexico that left at least 10 people dead and about 10 others injured. 

The massive pileup happened Sunday after a tractor-trailer crashed into multiple vehicles on a highway in the western state of Jalisco, according to the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection of Nayarit. 

While the agency reported 10 deaths, Mexico’s Army, Air Force and National Guard said nine people were killed.

Jalisco Civil Protection told Reuters that four Americans suffered minor injuries and were transported to a local hospital.

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A vehicle was left charred and mangled following a massive multi-vehicle pileup in Jalisco, Mexico, on Sunday. (Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection of Nayarit)

“Four patients in minor condition, all U.S. citizens, were transferred to the Arboledas Hospital in Guadalajara by a private ambulance from the highway,” Jalisco Civil Protection said.

Reuters reported that two of those killed were minors.

Another two of the injured were identified as National Guard members who suffered serious injuries and were taken to a hospital in Guadalajara, according to Reuters. 

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Videos circulating on social media appeared to show several vehicles engulfed in flames along the highway connecting Guadalajara and Tepic, sending multiple plumes of black smoke into the air. 

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A firefighter works to douse the smoking engine of a destroyed vehicle after a devastating highway collision in Jalisco, Mexico, on Sunday. (Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection of Nayarit)

According to Mexican officials, the crash happened when a tractor-trailer apparently suffered a brake failure and slammed into a line of vehicles that had stopped because of an earlier accident. 

“According to initial reports, a trailer reportedly suffered a failure in its braking system and ended up crashing into several vehicles that were stopped due to a prior incident,” Mexico’s Army, Air Force and National Guard said in a post on X. 

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The initial accident reportedly involved a rear-end collision between two tractor-trailers. As emergency crews responded, a third tractor-trailer crashed into the scene, according to the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection of Nayarit. 

“As a result of this second impact, three private vehicles and two tractor-trailer trucks were completely destroyed by the fire,” the authorities said. “Additionally, two other private vehicles and an official Dodge Charger unit belonging to the National Guard sustained material damage. “

Mexican authorities inspect the incinerated frame of a tractor-trailer on a highway connecting Guadalajara and Tepic in Jalisco, Mexico, on Sunday. (Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection of Nayarit)

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Firefighters later extinguished the blaze, officials said. 

Local outlet El Financiero reported that the driver of the tractor-trailer was detained by the National Guard. 

Reuters contributed to this report. 

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At least 27 dead as fire engulfs popular Bangkok pub near Chatuchak market

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At least 27 dead as fire engulfs popular Bangkok pub near Chatuchak market
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At least 27 people were killed and 63 injured, many critically, after a fire ripped through a popular pub in Bangkok. Authorities are investigating whether the pub, located near the iconic Chatuchak Weekend Market, had adequate escape routes.

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