What do you believe is the single most important factor driving up the cost of living in Nigeria?

Israel’s strategy of destroying civilian life to deter its adversaries reached its peak in Gaza, and has now returned to its namesake – Beirut’s Dahiyeh.

When Israel struck an underground Hezbollah command centre in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh last Friday, killing its longtime Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, the damage to civilian life was huge.

Reportedly, Israeli jets dropped more than 80, 2000-pound “bunker-busting” bombs that have a destruction radius of 35 metres (115 feet) on their target. The strike that killed Nasrallah also flattened six residential buildings. Similar Israeli attacks in the past two weeks have wreaked havoc on civilian infrastructure in Beirut and across Lebanon. The death toll in Lebanon has now crossed the 1000 mark and a million people have fled their homes.

Israeli leaders have called on the people of Lebanon to get out of harm’s way and to not become “human shields” for Hezbollah. Such messages suggest that the killing of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure are unintended consequences of Israel’s warmaking.

In reality, targeting civilian life is a well-established tactic of the Israeli armed forces under the infamous “Dahiyeh Doctrine”.

• Read More