Gert Van Langendonck

Former correspondent in NYC, Baghdad, Beirut, Rabat, Cairo, Paris
[email protected]

[Gert Van Langendonck @gert_lang_]

@StephBechara And the same thing happened to their parents in the early 90s

[Gert Van Langendonck @gert_lang_]

@NobodyI84941 @PhilipProudfoot Abou Elie

[Gert Van Langendonck @gert_lang_]

@jvanovertveldt Heeft u ook nog meegekregen dat die regularisatie vooral Latijns-Amerikanen betreft? Die gaan echt geen Vlaams leren om hier illegaal te zijn als zij in Spanje legaal kunnen wonen en werken

[Hala Jaber @HalaJaber]

Tonight, entire families were wiped out in Israel’s bombardment of Mashghara in the Bekaa.

Among the dead:
Samir Rizk.
Hamza Rizk & his two children.
Hassan Mansour, his wife, & their two daughters.

Killed inside their homes, late at night, as Israeli warplanes unleashed wave after wave of heavy strikes on the town.

The footage from the scene is hellish. Homes burning. Entire buildings torn open. Families buried beneath the rubble in their sleep.

[sarah @sahouraxo]

This is Tyre in South Lebanon today.

Israel is leveling entire civilian neighborhoods in one of the most intense bombardments yet.

One of humanity’s oldest cities.

Is being systematically wiped out.

And not a peep from the complicit international community, of course.

[Nabih @nabihbulos]

Inside #Israel's #AI targeting system: How data from a phone become a death sentence https://t.co/zyue5qbxZm

[Dyab Abou Jahjah @Aboujahjah]

Amal Khalil, a Lebanese journalist, was targeted today by the IDF in South Lebanon, together with other colleagues. Two were killed, one injured and Amal is still under the rubble. The Red Cross tried to extract her but they were targeted too by the Israelis and had to retreat.

[Yalda Hakim @SkyYaldaHakim]

My colleague American-Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin has been detained in Kuwait since early March for doing his job.

Journalism is not a crime. Trusted international reporting is needed now more than ever.

Please join me in signing the petition demanding his immediate release. Link in comments 🔽

#FreeAhmed

[Maxime PREVOT @prevotmaxime]

🇱🇧 (EN/FR/NL) I came to Beirut today to show our full support to the Lebanese authorities and to express our deep solidarity with the families affected by the violent conflict opposing Israel to Hezbollah. Just before I was commending President Aoun for offering to open official negotiations with Israel towards a ceasefire, Israel launched, with no previous warning, one of the most massive strikes since the beginning of the hostilities, allegedly causing hundreds of civilian victims. We were at the embassy with my delegation, just a few hundred metres from where the missiles struck. This must stop. The ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran must include Lebanon! 
——
Je suis venu aujourd’hui à Beyrouth pour manifester notre soutien total aux autorités libanaises et exprimer notre profonde solidarité avec les familles touchées par le violent conflit qui oppose Israël au Hezbollah. Peu avant de féliciter le président Aoun d’avoir proposé d’entamer des négociations officielles avec Israël en vue d’un cessez-le-feu, Israël a lancé, sans aucun avertissement préalable, l’une des frappes les plus massives depuis le début des hostilités, qui aurait fait des centaines de victimes civiles. Nous étions à l'ambassade avec ma délégation, à quelques centaines de mètres seulement de l'endroit où les missiles ont frappé. Cela doit cesser. Le cessez-le-feu entre les États-Unis, Israël et l'Iran doit inclure le Liban !
——
Ik ben vandaag naar Beiroet gekomen om onze volledige steun te betuigen aan de Libanese autoriteiten en om onze diepe solidariteit te betuigen met de families die getroffen zijn door het gewelddadige conflict tussen Israël en Hezbollah. Net toen ik president Aoun prees voor zijn aanbod om officiële onderhandelingen met Israël te starten met het oog op een staakt-het-vuren, lanceerde Israël zonder enige voorafgaande waarschuwing een van de zwaarste aanvallen sinds het begin van de vijandelijkheden, waarbij naar verluidt honderden burgerslachtoffers zijn gevallen. We waren met mijn delegatie in de ambassade, op slechts een paar honderd meter van de plek waar de raketten insloegen. Dit moet stoppen. Het staakt-het-vuren tussen de VS, Israël en Iran moet ook Libanon omvatten!

@BelgiumMFA @BelgiumLebanon

[Gert Van Langendonck @gert_lang_]

For more reporting on this see @HannahAllam for @propublica
https://t.co/kD0L4zjvAi

[Gert Van Langendonck @gert_lang_]

In Iraq post-2003 and in the fight against ISIS the US had a system in place to both avoid killing civilians and (sometimes) pay reparations when it did. It was a flawed system but it existed. Hegseth has axed 90% of the CHMR program. So now when America kills, China pays

[Al Arabiya English @AlArabiya_Eng]

China says it will donate $200,000 to parents of students killed in what it calls an “indiscriminate” missile strike on a school in Iran that left more than 165 people dead early in the Middle East war.

[LebanonJets @LebanonJets]

#Beirut Mar11 sunset to Mar12 sunrise including airstrikes & early morning jetblast that kept us all awake
(Trigger warning: real audio)

[Ahmad Baydoun @weatherwar]

Plotted the Israeli evacuation order over the entirety of Beirut’s southern suburbs. The evacuation order is a first of its kind and covers 22.4 km², compared to Beirut’s municipal area of about 20 km². I will post several zoom ins in this thread with satellite imagery overlays.

[Gert Van Langendonck @gert_lang_]

@BeirutCalling This also means that the airport is effectively shut down?

[Maha Yahya @mahamyahya]

#Israel orders mass evacuation of entire neighborhoods in southern suburbs of #Beirut-home to at least 1/2 million people. This comes after mass evacuation for 1/3 of south #Lebanon yesterday. A shift from evacuating buildings/targeted attacks. Total panic across the city.

[L'Orient-Le Jour @LOrientLeJour]

🚨 #Urgent | L'armée israélienne a appelé, dans un message de son porte-parole arabophone, Avichay Adraee, à l'évacuation totale des quartiers de Haret Hreik, Bourj el-Brajné, Hadath et Chiyah, dans la banlieue sud de Beyrouth.

[Gert Van Langendonck @gert_lang_]

@BouboutYassine_ In 2006 hebben de meeste landen hun onderdanen kosteloos geëvacueerd uit Libanon. Die evacuatie was nog bezig toen de oorlog al lang voorbij was. Ik denk dat veel landen daar lessen uit hebben getrokken

[courtneybonneauimages @cbonneauimages]

A man walks alone on the beach after the Israeli army issued forced displacement orders (forced displacement is a war crime) for all of southern Lebanon, forcing tens of thousands of people north at once.

The city of Tyre is largely empty at this point.

[Georges Haddad 🇱🇧 @Georges__Haddad]

This is what is starting to happen all around the country. People are fed up and internal tensions are way more dangerous than external ones:

With more and more displaced crossing the Litani into the North, and maybe soon, people coming from the Bekaa, Baalbek-Hermel, and Nabatieh, in addition to Dahyeh, many regions will be overwhelmed, and people will refuse to open their doors by fear of being struck by the IAF. We're talking of hundreds of thousands of individuals (between 500 000 and 1.2 million) trying to find a place to stay (there aren't even enough houses and apartments to house everyone).

Several cities and villages have already refused the entry of Shia men (only accepting women, children, and the elderly). Others are screening every single displaced person and require a prior approval from the local municipality to make sure the ones taking refuge are not a possible target of the IDF.

Suspicions, tensions and hatred are real. It's the second war in less than two years and people still haven't moved on from the last one. Even within the displaced population people are fighting (numerous videos circulate with dozens of men crying and pointing fingers at Hezbollah), women and their children tired of running condemning the Hezbollah leadership, and people in their cars stopping Hezbollah sympathizers playing the party's music loudly.

Around me, most of my Shia friends are fed up and cannot take it anymore. And hear me out, none are supporting the West or Israel but they can't accept the fact that their lives and futures have been highjacked for years (taking hostage) by a bunch of warmongering men at on the paycheck of the Mullahs. The time when the Hezbollah leadership could do whatever it wanted while hoping the rest of the Lebanese society to clean after it is long gone.

[Zeina Khodr @ZeinakhodrAljaz]

Israel army says Lebanese civilians in all of southern Lebanon should evacuate to north of the Litani River