Those responsible for Black Wednesday will have a blood-red carpet rolled out before them

Israel launched a wave of strikes it called Operation Eternal Darkness:

• 50 Israeli Air Force fighter jets
• Approximately 160 munitions
• More than 100 individual strikes across Beirut, Tyre, Beqqaa Valley

The strikes hit during rush hour, in commercial and residential areas, with no prior warning to residents.

Casualties:

• Death Toll: 357
• Wounded: approximately 1,200 – 1,300
• Many victims were only identifiable through DNA testing

The Israel aggression has killed more than 4,200 people in Lebanonsince it resumed on 2 March. Black Wednesday alone accounts for just under 10% of that total, compressed into a single ten minute period.

The strikes came shortly after a ceasefire ending the Israel-Iran war had been announced. The ceasefire had initially been understood by both the US and Israel to include Lebanon, before the US position changed in the shadow of Israeli aggression.

And as we all know, this isn’t an isolated incident.

In the early hours of 18 March 2025, Israel launched a surprise missile attack on Gaza, Operation Might and Sword, ending a so-called ceasefirewithout warning. It killed more than 400 Palestinians, including 263 women and children. By 20 March, the toll had risen to 591 murdered and 1,042 injured – marking one of the deadliest days of the genocide.

The UK Government has formally concluded there is a clear risk UK-supplied equipment could be used by Israel to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law, subsequently suspending around 30 of roughly 350 arms export licences to Israel.

It then carved F-35 components out of that suspension.

Israeli media reported that by early 2025, Israel’s F-35I fleet ‘had flown over 15,000 operational flight hours across Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and Iran.’

The F-35 will hold a headline spot at Farnborough International Airshow(running 20–24 July) having debuted there in 2016 and remained a recurring presence ever since. The programme’s principal UK partners, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems, will be showcasing the same aircraft type used across Gaza and Lebanon. Alongside them will be Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, the Israeli weapons manufacturers whose drones, warfare technology and missile systems are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent lives…all welcomed to the UK to showcase the tools of genocide.

CAAT will be making its presence known on the 20th July at the FIA. Click here to find out more and get involved.

Those responsible for Black Wednesday will have a blood-red carpet rolled out before them…we will also be there.

The situation in Lebanon, three months on:

• More than 1 million people – over 20% of Lebanon’s population – remain displaced
• UNICEF has reported that children are being killed or injured at a rate of approximately 12 per day since the war resumed
• Over 770,000 children are reported to be experiencing significant psychological distress linked to repeated displacement and violence

A state which knowingly maintains an arms supply chain into a machine which only functions to create devastation, displacement and destruction, where mass civilian casualty events like Black Wednesday occur with regularity and impunity, that state is not a neutral observer. 

Write to your MP’s, complete your e-actions, protest, resist, do all that you can to put a final end to this genocidal arms trade.

Warm Regards,
Hassan