Already and this is the DAILYA. This is the Daily OS. Oh, now it makes sense.
Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Tuesday, the thirtieth of July. I'm emma, I'm lucy.
Over the weekend, twelve children were killed in an attack on a soccer field in Mujdel Charms in the Golden Heights in the Middle East. Israel and the US say Hesbela is responsible, which Hesbella denies. In today's deep dive, we'll explain the history of Hesbola and what this attack could mean for the region's stability. But first, Emma, what's making headlines?
World Leaders and political opponents of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro have accused the country's government of election interference. Maduro was declared the winner after Sunday's poll after independent exit polls indicated a swing towards opposing candidate ed Mundo Gonzales in opposed to ex Gonzales urged voters to peacefully defend and celebrate democracy. Chilean President Gabrielle Borich warned Chile will not
recognize any result that is not verifiable. While US officials have called on electoral authorities in Venezuela to ensure transparency and make the results and counting process public.
Monash University has launched a teacher training program to address toxic masculinity in schools and support staff in the classroom. The initiative, developed with Australia's National Research Organization for Women's Safety, will include early intervention programs and an eighteen month research project to gather data on student attitudes. It comes amid what research is described as quote an alarming increase in sexual harassment by boys in classrooms.
Around half of Australian's under forty year expects seeing to have to financially support their parents in retirement, according to new national data. Financial services company AMP surveyed two thousand Australians for its latest Intergenerational Wealth Report. It found that eighty percent of under forty year olds believe buying their first home is out of reach, while eighty percent of under twenty nine year olds said they'd consider buying a
place with friends or family. AMP said many younger Australians are reluctant to ask for financial support from their parents, despite their concerns about housing affordability.
And today's good news. A walking track in northeast Tasmania has been named next to destinations in Antarctica, Nepal and Iceland, as one of the world's Greatest places. The Wacolina Walk in Tasmania, also known as the Bay of Fires, was featured in the twenty twenty four Time magazine list alongside ninety nine other destinations. The track follows the coastline of Mount William National Park on the traditional lands of the
Polar or Pakhana people. The walk takes around four days to complete and is known for its Wallaby, wombat and Tasmanian devil habitats.
Lucy, it's been almost ten months since Hamas attacked Israel, who declared war and launched their campaign in Gaza. Now there's talk of another war, this time between Israel and Hesbela. International leaders are issuing urgent calls for calm and de escalation. It feels like we're sort of reaching a boiling point on this story. But Lucy, what has actually happened in the last few days? Can you give us the context that brings us to this point.
Yes, early Sunday morning, our time, a rocket struck a soccer field in the Golden Heights, killing twelve children. I'll explain more about the region where this attack took place in a moment, But first what you need to know is that the Israeli and US governments both say this was carried out by Hesbala, a group based in Lebanon that Australia lists as a terror rist organization. They, however, deny they were responsible.
So we'll get a little bit more into the weekends developments. But Lucy, what can you tell me about Hesbela.
Hesbela is derived from the Arabic term hib Allah, which translates to a party of God. The group was established after Israel's invasion of Lebanon in nineteen eighty two during Lebanon's civil war. Israel officially withdrew from Lebanon in two thousand. There have been two major conflicts between Hesbela and Israel in the last thirty years, in nineteen ninety six and two thousand and six. Both of these ended in ceasefires.
Hesbela has been responsible for a number of attacks against Israel and its Western allies, including a nineteen eighty three suicide bombing targeting US and French troops in Lebanon's capital city of Beirut, which left three hundred and five people dead, and a nineteen ninety four bombing on a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina that killed eighty five people.
So a lot of history, a lot of conflict. In terms of Hesbela's goals, what do we actually understand about its sort of mission, if you will.
Hesbela is manifesto, so that's a public declaration of its aims, calls for the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Iran like Islamic state in Lebanon. Of course, Iran is the Islamic Republic of Iran, and another important point of context. While Hesbela is based in Lebanon, Iran supports the group in the form of training, funding and arms.
You mentioned two wars a little earlier on. But in terms of the kind of current context, the state of the relationship between Hesbela and Israel, why we are talking about this story and its escalation now, what do we need to know about Hesbela and Israel?
So the biggest thing I would say is that shortly after Hamas's seven October attack on Israel, Hesbelah declared, quote, our souls are with you, our history and guns and our rockets are with you, referring to humas it's since fired around two thousand drones and missiles into Israel. In the last two months, the Israeli Defense Forces the IDF, have killed two senior Hesbela commanders in Lebanon and fired rockets into Lebanon, killing at least ninety civilians since October.
In response, Hesbla avowed to quote increase the intensity, strength, quantity and quality of our attacks.
So that brings us up to speed. To the last few days, the US and Israel both say that Sunday's attack on the soccer field was by Hesblah. They have denied that they were responsible for that attack. So what do we know about the circumstances.
A soccer field in the town of Mujdel Schams was hit with a rocket while children were playing, just seconds after an air raid siren had played. Israel says Hesbelah is the only group in the region to use the kind of rocket that struck the soccer field. Again, Hesbla denies responsibility. Twelve children were killed in the strike and
several others were injured. I mentioned the town where this took place earlier, Muzhdelscham's that's in an area called the Golan Heights, which has been under Israeli control since nineteen sixty seven. Syria fought to take it back in nineteen seventy three before Israel officially annexed it in nineteen eighty one. Under the Trump administration, the US became the first country to formally recognize this area as being part of Israel.
But other members of the UN Security Council have condemned this decision and they officially called it the occupied Syrian Golan. The key point is that Israel considers this part of its territory, which means now the eyes of the world are really on how the Israeli government will respond to this attack.
How has it responded so far? What have we heard from Israel.
Within the Israeli government, there's like this core decision making group called the Security Cabinet. It's a committee of senior government members, allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu, including some of the far right members of the coalition that he leads the government with.
This is the same Security Cabinet that was recently dissolved and then reformed because of criticism for NTNYA, whose leadership is that the same one.
Yes, So the security Cabinet is the new version. There was the war cabinet for the first few months of the war, got it. That dissolved. Now there's a security cabinet. In opposter x Natanya, who said the Security Cabinet had given the government the go ahead to quote decide on the manner and timing of its response to the attack and named Hesbala.
There have been long running international concerns about the potential for conflict between Israel and Hesbla to intensify. Would you say, Lucy, that particularly over the last couple of months, that has really ramped up.
Yes. I mentioned earlier that the IDEF had killed two senior Hezbola commanders. In response to that, Hesbella's leader has Son Nasraala said, if Lebanon goes to war, quote, the resistance will fight. Around the same time Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said quote in and all out war, Hesbela will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely hit. That really concerned UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who said that quote one rash move could trigger a catastrophe that goes
far beyond the border, and frankly beyond imagination. So these concerns have been raised before, including on Friday, Canada's PM Justin Trudeau, New Zealand's Prime Minister Christopher Luxen Our Prime Minister Anthony Albanzi issued a joint statement urging an end to quote escalation of hostilities and rhetoric between Hesbela and Israel, and they said that any further conflict puts tens of thousands of lives at risk.
Some really strong words from the international community. A lot of fear around this potential escalation of conflict and predictions about what the fallout from that could look like. So what happens now Israel go to war with Hesbela at the border of Lebanon.
It's entirely possible. News via Reuters reports in Datnia, who said in December that if Hezbela started a war with Israel, the IDF would turn Beirut into Gaza. That's very very strong language from Netanyahu. They're given what we know about the Gaza strip. Guterres has also used that language to describe the possibility of a new war in the Middle East. A couple of months ago, he said, quote, the people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.
So, as you've touched on, he's referring there, of course, to the fact that Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza has caused this humanitarian crisis that's unfolding as we speak. So I want to take it back a little bit to that conflict. What's the latest from the Gaza strip.
Early Sunday morning our time, just hours before the Muzhdl Shams attack, the Gaza Health Ministry said the IDF had bombed a school in central Gaza, killing at least thirty people, mostly children. The IDF said they were targeting a Hamas command center. While ceasefire negotiations are reportedly ongoing, there's no sign of an end yet to this conflict or its devastation on civilians in Gaza.
Lucy, thank you so much for breaking that one down for us. A really, really complicated topic, but as always you've taken us through and helped us unpack it all. We will, of course be watching these developments closely and continue to keep you updated on the daily OS. Thank you so much for listening to today's podcast. If you learned something, please give us a like, or a follow
or a review. Make sure that you're subscribed if you're watching us on our YouTube channel, and if you found this episode helpful, maybe send it on to a friend. It really helps us keep doing what we're doing here at the Daily Oohs and get the word out about our content. Will be back again tomorrow. Until then, have a great day.
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Aarunda Bungelung Cargoton woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.