"Bombing the infrastructure people rely on will not make Iranians [or Palestinians] embrace those carrying out the attacks." .... ‘It’s truly hell here’: airstrikes, repression and water shortages become ‘new normal’ for Iranians

Iranians describe how daily life is becoming ever harder as conflict continues and human rights crisis worsens 

Three boys play in the shallow waters of the strait of Hormuz as a plume of smoke rises from an explosion in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran Photograph: Razieh Poudat/AP

As US airstrikes hit port and inland cities in Iran, and Tehran strikes at the US’s Middle East allies, the escalating conflict has left many Iranians fearing that, amid war and a worsening human rights crisis, they remain trapped in a cycle of violence and repression with no way out.

Bandar Abbas, on the strait of Hormuz and the headquarters of the Iranian navy, has been hit by strikes every night since the latest escalation began nearly two weeks ago. Soroush*, a writer based in the city who secretly publishes a newsletter documenting human rights violations in Iran, described a “new normal” for its residents.

“We need to accept this could just be our new reality now and it’s worked because we are less afraid as each day goes on,” the 37-year-old said. “We are less afraid of the future because we are now forced to accept this is the new normal. There’s no one coming to save us from the bombs or the regime’s bullets. Our brains have tricked us into making peace with this new reality.”

For those living near the port, loud explosions followed by prolonged power cuts have become the norm over the past week.

Mehnaz*, 39, depends on the internet for her work and says she was already struggling with the government-imposed internet shutdown, which has severely affected her earnings.

“We always had power cuts, but the hours have now extended and I fear I can’t rely on my online work any more. The war is far from the end and daily life is becoming harder under the bombs, power cuts and internet shutdowns. It’s truly hell here,” she said.

Another port city reportedly struck by the US this week was Jask. State media claimed US strikes hit 100 civilian vessels and that an attack on the Bonji desalination plant left 20 villages without drinking water... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/22/its-truly-hell-here-airstrikes-repression-and-water-shortages-become-new-normal-for-iranians

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"Attacks on critical infrastructure are not only about what is destroyed, but also about the people left without what they need to live. Even wars have limits and they must be respected." ICRC Red Cross

100 countries, 1 humanitarian mission: to promote respect for the laws of war #IHL and help people caught up in armed conflicts and violence.

ICRC

@ICRC

 

Attacks on critical infrastructure are not only about what is destroyed, but also about the people left without what they need to live. Even wars have limits and they must be respected.

 https://x.com/ICRC/status/2069356238148620376

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 https://www.icrc.org/en

On the
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 Since 1863, we have worked to relieve suffering and preserve human dignity during war and armed violence. We deliver life‑saving aid across front lines, strive to reconnect families, advocate for humane treatment of detainees and urge compliance with international humanitarian law to keep civilians safe, including online.

120+ Conflicts. One mission: Preserve and prioritize humanity during war 

"Gaza represents a new pinnacle for this type of wholesale destruction as a military strategy, of using overwhelming and disproportionate force against civilians and infrastructure." Is this what war looks like now? Mohamad Bazzi

Before the war on Gaza, the seed of Israel’s strategy of wholesale destruction was planted in a 2006 war on Lebanon. Today, the playbook repeats itself

Fri 24 Apr 2026

.... The 10 minutes of destruction and terror that enveloped Beirut and other parts of Lebanon came hours after a ceasefire took effect in the joint US-Israel war on Iran – a truce that was finally extended to Lebanon last week (though the bombing continues at a lower pace). Despite the ceasefire, the Israeli military is occupying more than 50 towns in southern Lebanon and has been razing entire villages to render them uninhabitable.

Is this what war looks like now? Our world has changed over the past two and half years. In the weeks after the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, Israel set in motion a machinery of genocide – largely enabled by unwavering US support and powered by impunity and denial – against Gaza, unleashing one of the most destructive military campaigns targeting civilians in modern times. Israel has repeated the Gaza playbook in its war on Lebanon: intense aerial bombardment and illegal mass evacuation orders that lead to the large-scale displacement of civilians; the destruction of civilian infrastructure and border towns to make way for so-called “buffer zones” occupied by Israeli troops; the targeting of hospitals and healthcare workers; and the killing of journalists. And, as it did with Gaza, the west largely looks on with indifference.

Gaza represents a new pinnacle for this type of wholesale destruction as a military strategy, of using overwhelming and disproportionate force against civilians and infrastructure. But the seed of this strategy was planted two decades ago – in a previous Israeli war on Lebanon. That war resulted in Israel’s Dahiyeh doctrine, which calls for the deliberate targeting of civilians and infrastructure as a means of collective punishment that seeks to turn local populations against armed militias. That doctrine played out in full force in Lebanon – and also has made multiple rhetorical appearances in Donald Trump’s threats to destroy societies and civilizations on a large scale.

As long as this impunity continues, this playbook will repeat itself, constituting a new normal where the eradication of infrastructure, agriculture, cities and towns fit for habitation and entire cultures, is acceptable to much of the world as a method of war. The west’s dehumanization of Palestinians – and Lebanese, Iranians and others – has also made it possible for the aggressors to keep committing more abhorrent acts of violence.

The day before Israel unleashed its fury on Lebanon, the US president famously wrote on social media that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again”.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/apr/24/gaza-israel-lebanon-war

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What Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli right really mean when they invoke ‘Greater Israel’ - The concept is about much more than acquiring territory, it is also about Netanyahu’s desire for Israel to become a regional superpower.

Daniel Levy served as an Israeli peace negotiator at the Oslo II talks and is president of the US/Middle East project 

First responders and residents gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's Tallet al-Khayyat neighbourhood, on 8 April 2026. Photograph: Fadel Itani/AFP/Getty

Mon 13 Apr 2026

Much remains unclear about the significance and durability of the two-week pause in the US and Israel’s war on Iran. But one aspect of the conflict remains as clear today as it was six weeks ago. Donald Trump doesn’t have a plan. Benjamin Netanyahu does.

Israel’s war aims were to maximally degrade the capacity of the Iranian state, achieving not so much regime change as state implosion. Despite the ceasefire, Netanyahu has emphasised that this is “not the end of the campaign” and that Israel’s “finger is on the trigger” to resume combat. A seasoned strategist, he has spent the second Trump administration seizing the opportunity of geopolitical fluidity to reach for his end goal: a Greater Israel.

When it’s invoked on the Israeli right, “Greater Israel” is often seen as a purely territorial concept: an attempt to increase the size of territory that Israel claims as its own. This is certainly integral to its meaning. After all, Israel has been expansionist and entailed the displacement and dispossession of Palestinians since its inception, and this process has now accelerated considerably.

In the past two-and-a-half years, Israel has flattened and reconquered Gaza, killing tens of thousands of people and laying waste its civilian infrastructure, squeezing its population, according to one estimate from last year, into just 12% of an already tiny strip of land. In the West Bank, Israel continues a campaign of destruction and displacement towards Palestinian people and property that is unparalleled since the six-day war in 1967, expanding its matrix of control and settlement.

After the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in 2024, Israel seized territory in Syria (beyond the illegally annexed Golan Heights) and is in the process of reconstituting a zone of occupation in southern Lebanon. Government ministers from the Religious Zionism and Jewish Power factions, and Likud parliamentarians, openly agitate for Israeli sovereignty and settlement in that country. The finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has called for Israel to “expand to Damascus”, and Netanyahu himself claimed to feel “very much connected” to this territorial vision of Greater Israel.

However, Greater Israel should be seen as a geopolitical and strategic concept as much as a territorial one. The acquisition and control of land is, in many respects, the obvious and easy part... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/13/benjamin-netanyahu-middle-east-greater-israel

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The consequences of urban warfare cannot easily be reversed. Under international humanitarian law, parties to conflict must take all feasible precautions to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.

ICRC

@ICRC

The consequences of urban warfare cannot easily be reversed. Under international humanitarian law, parties to conflict must take all feasible precautions to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.

 

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Let's repeat this again: Even wars have rules- Civilians, Schools, Hospitals, Healthcare workers,Civilian infrastructure, [& JOURNALISTS] are Not A Target

 United Nations Geneva

@UNGeneva

Let's repeat this again: Even wars have rules. 

 

Civilians are #NotATarget. 

Schools are #NotATarget. 

Hospitals are #NotATarget. 

Healthcare workers are #NotATarget. 

Civilian infrastructure is #NotATarget.

 

& Journalists are #NotATarget

 

 Working for peace, rights and wellbeing since 1945. https://linktr.ee/ungeneva 

Geneva, Switzerland   ungeneva.org     Born October 24, 1945

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