Booby-Trapped Buses in Tel Aviv: Some Exploded, Others Set for Detonation… Response in the West Bank /  Travelers’ Uprising at Beirut Airport in Defense of Their Right to Raise Sayyed Nasrallah’s Image

 February 21, 2025

The political editor wrote

As the final phase of the first prisoner exchange under the Gaza ceasefire agreement is set to take place tomorrow, with lingering questions about the negotiations for a second phase, Hebrew media erupted with reports of Israeli settler buses exploding in Tel Aviv and the discovery of others rigged with explosives. Investigations have yet to uncover any leads identifying the perpetrators. In response, the occupying entity’s leaders hastily announced an escalation of military and security operations in the West Bank – an approach aligned with their strategic security doctrine, particularly after their war on Gaza and southern Lebanon failed to restore normalcy to the south and north of occupied Palestine. Now, the entity’s effective geographic range has shrunk between Haifa in the north and Ashkelon in the south, making the West Bank the new focal point of security for what is increasingly resembling a ‘smaller Israel’.

In Lebanon, incitement and provocation against the resistance’s base continued. Meanwhile, the government issued an unexplained decision to block Iranian planes from landing at Beirut Airport, despite the exposure of European sanctions as a hollow pretext, given that numerous Western-aligned international airports continue to engage with the same Iranian airlines without restrictions. Upon the return of travelers stranded due to the disruption of Iran’s flight route, some were harassed by individuals claiming affiliation with government agencies, demanding they refrain from displaying images of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. This led to an uprising sparked by a young woman who stood amid the crowd and raised her voice with powerful national rhetoric, silencing the harassers. Her defiant cry soon transformed into a resounding chant for Nasrallah throughout the airport halls. Questions arose as to whether this reckless and unlawful act represented an official decision or was merely the abuse of authority by an individual with a personal vendetta. In either case, the matter remains unresolved, awaiting clarification.

As the funeral of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah approaches on Sunday, a wave of media incitement and rumor-mongering has intensified. Some television channels have turned into platforms for misinformation, spreading fabricated claims to dissuade people from attending. Among these was an attempt to push the Future Movement to call on its supporters to boycott the funeral – a move promptly rejected by the party’s officials, who declared they would not be pawns in executing hostile political agendas. They asserted that anyone seeking to challenge the resistance’s supporters should do so with their own base, rather than deluding themselves into using the Future Movement’s followers for that purpose. Meanwhile, the Progressive Socialist Party issued a statement honoring Nasrallah’s martyrdom and confirming the funeral date, while the Maronite Patriarchate formally denied issuing any directive discouraging participation in the funeral.