The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out a wave of airstrikes against southern Lebanon on Thursday, just two days after thousands of pagers, believed to have been rigged with explosives by Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, exploded, injuring thousands of people.The attacks mark what Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant describes as “a new phase” in the conflict with Hezbollah.
Tuesday’s blasts killed at least 12 people and injured more than 3,000, many of them civilians. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called the attacks a “declaration of war”. The incident was followed by more explosions on Wednesday, this time targeting walkie-talkies, bringing the death toll to 37, including two children.
Although Israel has not officially claimed responsibility for the blasts, US, Israeli and Lebanese sources indicate that the Mossad was behind the sophisticated sabotage targeting Hezbollah’s communications units. According to these reports, Mossad had hidden small explosive devices in the pagers and radios used by Hezbollah members throughout Lebanon and in parts of Syria.
Shift in focus
Following the blasts, Defense Minister Gallant announced that Israel was now focusing its military efforts on Hezbollah, signaling a shift from its previous focus on Hamas in Gaza. Thursday’s airstrikes, which targeted Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, mark the beginning of a “new phase” in the nearly year-long conflict, the defense minister said.
During the airstrikes, it was also confirmed that Ibrahim Aqil, a senior commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, was killed in a precision strike in Beirut. Aqil was known for his responsibility in Hezbollah’s military operations and was a key figure in several attacks against Israel. His death is seen as a major blow to the Hezbollah leadership.
International reaction has been strong, with growing concern that the already tense situation in the Middle East could escalate into a wider regional conflict.
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A large number of extreme Jewish settlers attacked an Israeli military base in the occupied West Bank on Sunday evening. According to the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), vehicles were vandalized, property was set on fire, graffiti was sprayed, and soldiers were attacked.
The attack is described as one of the most serious incidents where settlers have turned against their own country’s security forces. The violence follows several similar attacks targeting Palestinian villages and communities, and growing anger over Israeli authorities arresting several of those responsible.
On Wednesday, over 100 settlers invaded the town of Kfar Malik, set fire to property and opened fire on Palestinians trying to defend their homes, according to Najeb Rostom, head of the local council. Three Palestinians were killed after Israeli military intervention. Five settlers were arrested in connection with the attacks.
– No civilized country can tolerate violent and anarchic acts of burning a military facility, damaging IDF property and attacking security personnel by citizens of the country, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
במהלך הלילה, מספר אזרחים ישראלים הציתו והשחיתו אתר ביטחוני ובו מערכות המסייעות לסיכול פיגועים ולשמירה על הביטחון במרחב חטיבת בנימין.
פגיעה באתר מהווה סכנה לבטחון התושבים.
צה״ל מגנה כל גילוי אלימות כלפי כוחות הביטחון, ומצפה מכוחות הביטחון למצות את הדין עם הישראלים הפוגעים בכוחות… pic.twitter.com/yKlVZRps6I
Images in Israeli media show young, religious men associated with “hilltop youth”, a militant settler movement long accused of systematically attacking Palestinians and their property. The movement often establishes illegal outposts in the West Bank and has become a symbol of the most violent branch of the settler movement.
“Jewish extremists”
Security forces used stun grenades to disperse the crowd at the military base north of Ramallah, and the military published images of damaged infrastructure, which was reportedly used to prevent attacks and maintain security.
Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Jewish Power party) – himself previously convicted of racist incitement and supporting terror groups – unusually condemned the attack:
– Attacking security forces, security facilities, and IDF soldiers who are our brothers, our protectors, is a red line, and must be dealt with in full severity. We are brothers, he wrote on X.
Opposition leader and centrist Yair Lapid was much more direct:
– These are Jewish terrorists, gangs of criminals, who feel backed by the (governing) coalition, he said on Israel Army Radio.
Over a hundred Israeli settlers rioted outside the Headquarters of the Binyamin Regional Brigade last night near Ramallah in the West Bank, damaging military vehicles and attacking officers as well as soldiers with pepper spray and rocks. This riot follows several days of… pic.twitter.com/2veRJ6EJhM
Settlers attack West Bank’s last Christian village
Ben-Gvir has long defended settler violence, and his influence has grown under Netanyahu’s leadership. Critics argue this has legitimized increasingly extreme violence – even directed at the country’s own authorities.
Defense Minister Israel Katz promised to crack down on the violence and urged settlers to immediately start respecting their own country’s soldiers.
Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War in 1967. Palestinians claim these areas for a future state. Today, about three million Palestinians and 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, but the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law.
Recently, The Nordic Times reported how residents in the last entirely Christian village in the West Bank warned about constant shooting from militant settlers. The newspaper has also highlighted how settlers openly advocate for complete ethnic cleansing in Gaza and consider even Palestinian children to be terrorists.
Montage. Photos: Avash Media/CC BY 4.0, Magnus Liljegren/Government Offices of Sweden
According to the leader of the Sweden Democrats it is fundamentally positive if the bombings continue - and escalate - so that the Iranian regime falls.
Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats party, supports the US and Israeli attacks against Iran – and would like to see more of the regime’s leaders eliminated through continued bombing.
– I believe this is the only way to achieve political change within any reasonable time frame, he claims.
During an appearance at Almedalen Week (an annual Swedish political forum) in Visby, he commented to Swedish news agency TT about the American bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities.
– It has both positive and negative aspects. And we’ll have to see what happens. But fundamentally, I think it’s good.
According to the Sweden Democrats leader, “evil must be fought with harsh measures”, and he assesses that the Iranian regime has been significantly weakened by the attacks.
Jimmie Åkesson (SD) framför ett tydligt och kraftfullt ställningstagande när det gäller Sveriges relation till Israel och synen på den iranska regimen. Han uttrycker ett starkt stöd för Israel som en demokratisk rättsstat i en konfliktfylld region, samtidigt som han markerar… pic.twitter.com/zckWkb5wYK
His hope is that the bombings will continue – but with a focus on eliminating leading representatives of the Iranian state – the same approach advocated by Netanyahu’s government and Israel’s military.
– The best outcome would be to follow through with this to achieve change in Iran after almost 50 years of oppression.
– Now they have primarily destroyed these nuclear facilities, which is of course very good. But certainly, continued bombing, continuing to eliminate leaders of this Islamist regime, that’s a very effective way to bring about change.
“Israel is defending itself”
Regarding the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Åkesson also gives his support to Netanyahu and Israel’s actions, claiming that the Israeli regime is acting in a way that is directly necessary and “doing what needs to be done”.
– Of course, this should be done within the framework of international law. Israel isn’t perfect, they’ve surely made mistakes in various contexts, but overall, the right to self-defense is completely reasonable, he says and continues:
– They’re defending themselves in a war not against a state but against a terrorist organization that doesn’t follow any international laws of war.
“Seems more loyal to Israel than to Sweden”
However, not everyone is impressed by Åkesson’s nearly unlimited support for Israel, and Gustav Kasselstrand, leader of the nationalist party Alternative for Sweden, writes on X that “Åkesson seems more loyal to Israel than to Sweden”.
“Now he wants to see a new globalist war in the Middle East, this time against a sovereign state like Iran – which hasn’t attacked another country throughout its existence. But the regime must be changed as it disturbs American-Israeli interests in the region, and it should preferably be done with bombs; as if we don’t have enough horrific examples when this was done in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya”, he notes.
Åkessons Almedalstal är verkligen en uppvisning i självförnedring inför Israellobbyn. Åkesson tycks mer lojal till Israel än till Sverige.
Nu vill han se ett nytt globalistiskt krig i Mellanöstern, denna gång mot en suverän stat som Iran – som inte attackerat ett annat land… pic.twitter.com/aqYN6h4wid
— Gustav Kasselstrand (AFS) (@gustavkassel) June 24, 2025
Kasselstrand, who has a background as chairman of the Sweden Democrats’ youth organization, also points out that the wars and regime change operations in the Middle East have almost without exception resulted in massive refugee flows and Muslim mass immigration to Europe – phenomena that the Sweden Democrats themselves claim they want to stop.
“How can it be ‘fighting Islamism’ to start a new devastating war with gigantic refugee flows of Muslims entering Europe?” he asks.
Donald Trump’s harsh criticism of Israel and his call for the country to stop bombing Iranian targets has not been well received by the influential and bellicose Israel lobby.
American-Israeli opinion maker and lobbyist Emily Schrader is one of those calling for the hostilities to continue, going so far as to claim that Trump “is in bed with Qatar”.
Although the stated goal of the Israeli and then US attacks on Iran was initially claimed to be to eliminate the country’s ability to develop nuclear weapons, a long line of Israeli and neoconservative American voices have quickly shifted focus and are now demanding that the Iranian regime be overthrown – with US help.
After Trump criticized Israel in harsh terms and ordered the country’s military to stop bombing Iran, the Israeli lobby’s anger was not long in coming – and several of the figures who recently praised Trump for bombing Iranian nuclear facilities are now trying to discredit the president and portray him as an enemy.
One of those most upset that Trump has taken a stand against Israel’s bombing is Emily Schrader, who has long been involved in two issues: overthrowing and replacing the Iranian regime and increasing US support for Israel.
The lobbyist, who has both US and Israeli citizenship, claims that Trump “is in bed with Qatar” because he has demanded that the bombings stop.
Trump literally bombed Iran — he did that! — for this country’s government.
The next day, if he doesn’t obey the next order they make up for him to do, Netanyahuists say he’s part of the Qatar World Conspiracy. Clockwork.
She also states that Iran’s leadership must be overthrown – and claims that no other alternatives are acceptable.
“The only way to ensure peace in the region is a regime change in Iran. It doesn’t have to be done through war, but it must be done. Trump is painfully naive as to the ideology and motivating factors of the Islamic regime in Iran”, she claims.
In another angry post, she claims that “In the last 24 hours, Donald Trump guaranteed a future war”.
In the last 24 hours, Donald Trump guaranteed a future war.
Critics point out that the Israel lobby is never satisfied – regardless of the concessions and efforts the US makes to appease Tel Aviv – and that they are only interested in supporting Trump if they can exploit him for their own purposes.
“Trump literally bombed Iran – he did that! – for this country’s government. The next day, if he doesn’t obey the next order they make up for him to do, Netanyahuists say he’s part of the Qatar World Conspiracy”, says Curt Mills, executive director of The American Conservative.
“If this isn’t evidence they’ll discard and mock him once he’s no longer president and they’ve used him, nothing is”, he continues.
AIPAC endorsed 362 candidates and won in every primary we had a candidate on the ballot!
We helped our friends win and defeated 11 anti-Israel candidates.
The Nordic Times has previously highlighted the remarkable influence of the Israel lobby over American politics – and, among other things, pointed out how AIPAC, the largest pro-Israel lobby group, openly boasted during the last election that almost all the candidates they had financed won their respective elections.
“AIPAC endorsed 362 candidates and won in every primary we had a candidate on the ballot! We helped our friends win and defeated 11 anti-Israel candidates”, they proudly declared.
President Donald Trump is beginning to realize that Israel does not want peace – but is doing everything it can to drag the US into a major war with Iran. This is the conclusion of Middle East expert and political scientist Trita Parsi.
“If Trump wants peace and for the US and Iran to strike a deal, he has no choice but to FORCE Israel to accept that America has to put America first”, he emphasizes.
In a widely shared video clip on social media, President Donald Trump launches a fierce attack on Israel shortly after the country intensified its bombing of Tehran just hours after Trump announced that the parties had agreed to a ceasefire.
– Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out, and they dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I’ve never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen. I’m not happy with Israel. When I say, ‘Okay, now you have 12 hours’, you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So, I’m not happy with them.
– I’m not happy with Iran either. But I’m really unhappy if Israel’s going out this morning because of one rocket that didn’t land that was shot, perhaps by mistake, that didn’t land. I’m not happy about that. We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the [bleep] they’re doing. Do you understand that? said the visibly upset president to a journalist.
WOW!
The longer video in which Trump says Israel and Iran “don’t know what the FUCK they are doing” is really important to watch.
He is really unhappy with Israel because as soon as a ceasefire was struck, Israel used the last hours of the war to massively attack Iran.
Even on his own platform, Truth Social, Trump sharpened his tone toward the Israelis and ordered them to stop the bombings.
“Israel. Do not drop those bombs. If you do it is a major violation. Bring your pilots home, now!” he wrote.
Photo: facsimile/Trump/Truth Social
Continued bombing
In a later post, Trump claimed that “Israel is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly ‘plane wave’ to Iran”.
“Nobody will be hurt, the ceasefire is in effect”, he promised.
Shortly thereafter, however, Iranian news agencies reported that Israel had carried out attacks in the western part of the country. According to ISNA, explosions were heard near the cities of Babol and Babolsar, while the Mehr news agency said the projectiles struck an empty, uninhabited area.
Israeli officials told The Times of Israel that the IDF had carried out “a minor strike” against an Iranian radar north of Tehran in response to an earlier attack by Iran.
“The US must put its own interests first”
Swedish-Iranian political scientist and Middle East expert Trita Parsi has reacted to Trump’s tone towards his closest ally and believes that Trump seems to be beginning to understand that Israel is not interested in creating peace in the region – and will do everything it can to drag the US into the war.
“Trump is also starting to discover the core of the problem: Israel doesn’t want peace and doesn’t want to allow the US to stay out of the war Israel unnecessarily started. If Trump wants peace and for the US and Iran to strike a deal, he has no choice but to force Israel to accept that America has to put America first “, he writes on X, continuing:
“If he doesn’t, Netanyahu will make sure that Trump puts Israel first and drags the US into an endless war with Iran. There are no other choices”.
In an interview with Democracy Now, Parsi elaborates on his reasoning. He believes that Trump is very frustrated that Israel is ignoring US directives and doing everything it can to escalate the conflict – and ensure that the US also intensifies its military involvement.
– Israel wants to continue this war. Israel wants only unilateral ceasefires in which it is allowed to continue to bomb the countries in question. That’s exactly what it has done in Gaza, that’s what it has done in Lebanon, and they wanted the same thing here. And they wanted to make sure that the United States could not keep itself out of the war that Israel unnecessarily started, Parsi assesses.
As Trump lashes out at Israel for continuing to strike Iran even after his announcement of a ceasefire, analyst @tparsi says the core problem the U.S. president is encountering in his Middle East diplomatic efforts is that “Israel does not want peace.” pic.twitter.com/xAYuHingsc
He believes that Trump is genuine in his desire to reach a sustainable ceasefire agreement and put an end to the fighting – but that the president has chosen the wrong path and methods.
– I think he was genuine about getting the ceasefire, staying out of this. We have seen the revolt that has taken place in large parts of his own base. And now, he’s discovering that the Israelis, at the end of the day, wanted to drag him to this point in order to keep him in the war, not allow him to get out of the war or not allowing a peace or a ceasefire to break out.
Initially, the bombing campaign against Iran was said to be about preventing the country from acquiring nuclear weapons – a message repeated by neoconservatives and Israeli voices for over 40 years.
However, Israeli representatives and Republicans soon began declaring that the Iranian regime must be overthrown, by force if necessary, and replaced with a more pro-Israel and Western-friendly government. Even Trump has expressed support on social media for forcing regime change in Iran, which has led to harsh criticism from his own voter base.
