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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Well, the United States has said it launched new strikes on southern Iran, targeting Iranian missile sites and boats attempting to place mines. This is all happening as peace talks continue between the two countries. And all of this also has an impact on what is happening in Lebanon.
Alex Crawford is a special correspondent for Sky News and she's currently reporting in Lebanon and has seen at first hand the impact that this war is having. Alex, good morning to you. I was watching those extraordinary videos last night on Sky News from Lebanon about the double tap attacks on emergency workers. Perhaps you could just talk us through what we've seen.
Chapter 2: What recent military actions has the US taken against Iran?
Well, there is a pattern of the Lebanese paramedics, first responders who are racing to strikes, Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon in particular, being attacked as they arrive at the scene of the strike. That has been caught on camera. It's been filmed by Local people, it's now all the emergency crews are filming it themselves on GoPros. And not just double taps.
In at least one case, there's been a triple tap where the emergency crews have turned up to try and help people who are trapped in. They get attacked. Then another emergency crew turned up and they too attacked.
Chapter 3: How are peace talks between the US and Iran progressing?
were attacked. Actually, one of the people that we interviewed a couple of weeks ago, who said he wouldn't give up his job, he was in hospital at the time, he put on his flak jacket, walked straight out again, and two weeks later, he was one of those who was killed in that triple attack.
It's led to more than 20 first responders and paramedics being killed within the time of the apparent ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon. That's since April the 17th.
Chapter 4: What impact is the conflict having on Lebanon?
More than 20 first responders have been killed in that period. And to many people on the ground in Lebanon, there is no ceasefire, particularly in South Lebanon.
And you have asked the Israeli government why these ambulances are being attacked in this way. What response did you get, Alex?
Well, they don't answer it directly. They say that they take all precautions to avoid injuring civilians. However, the evidence on the ground seems to contradict this. And they also give very different, particularly in this one case where it was filmed. You saw the medics on the ground in Der Renun beckoning civilians.
They'd arrived to tend to a Syrian father and his young daughter who'd been hit in an Israeli drone strike. You see them wearing their neon jackets, beckoning the second ambulance as it's coming to help load the injured onto the ambulance. And as the ambulance arrives, it takes a direct hit. All those on the ground were killed.
crew inside the ambulance suffered injuries and they're still in hospital and when we put those pictures to the Israeli military they said that they had targeted a motorbike although we couldn't see
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Chapter 5: What disturbing patterns have emerged in attacks on emergency responders?
any evidence of a motorbike being on the ground and that the second strike was also against a motorbike. And again, the pictures utterly contradicted this explanation. Now, just to say that the Israeli military say that they are, and we've heard overnight, a very dramatic ratcheting up of the rhetoric from Israel with the Prime Minister, Bini Ben Netanyahu, saying that Israel
instructing the Israeli military to escalate the war in Lebanon because they're being very frustrated by the Hezbollah use of first-person view drones, FPV drones, as he mentioned in his video. And that has led to a high number of Israeli soldiers being killed, 11.
during the ceasefire agreement, the Israeli military say that they've got nearly a thousand attacks on their troops in South Lebanon as well as in the northern Israel communities. And they believe that they need to increase the pressure and they seem to be announcing a change in direction in particularly South Lebanon because they're not achieving their objectives right now.
So the wider picture then, as these peace talks continue between the United States and Iran, this is a subplot, isn't it, that aligns with what is happening with those peace talks and negotiations. Can you explain to us what the ambition of Israel is when it comes to Lebanon, particularly as we move closer to a potential deal?
Well, Israel is very much concerned about the what they perceive as the threat from, it's more than a perception actually, from the Hezbollah armed group in Lebanon, who are firing, have been firing rockets into the communities in Northern Israel. And this has been done in response to what's happening between the US, Israel and Iran.
Hezbollah is funded and very much aligned with the Iranian authorities, the Iranian regime and Iran, the Iranian negotiators, also want to link what's happening in Lebanon to any peace deal that they have with the US and Israel. So although Lebanon is very much, in inverted commas, a sideshow, they are a pawn in this bigger picture and there is an increasing number of civilian casualties.
in Lebanon, as well as casualties amongst the medical group and the medical infrastructure in Lebanon. And Lebanon is a small country, but it has acted as a buffer between Iran And Israel and the Iranian negotiators very much want it part of any deal. Israel, on the other hand, believes, well, it hasn't managed to achieve any of its strategic objectives, which is making sure that there are no
attacks inside their northern communities. The communities in northern Israel also feel terrorized by the amount of attacks that are coming in. But right now, Israeli troops are occupying several towns and villages in southern Lebanon. They have taken up position in several areas within southern Lebanon. They are
embarking on a destruction of southern Lebanon, which has led to whole villages and towns being wiped out and a fifth of the population has been displaced. So the rhetoric that we're hearing from the Israeli politicians is very much
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