File image.
Shocking video footage posted to social networks on June 13 showed Israeli troops shelling southern Lebanon with incendiary projectiles using a wooden trebuchet.
The trebuchet is a type of catapult that uses a rotating arm with a sling attached to the tip to launch a projectile. It was a common powerful siege engine until the advent of gunpowder. The design of a trebuchet allows it to launch projectiles of greater weights and further distances than that of a traditional catapult.
It has been estimated that certain trebuchets in the Middle Ages were able to launch projectiles weighting as much as 60 kg each for more than 350 meters.
Hebrew media said that the Middle Ages siege engine was used by Israeli troops just to burn vegetation near their sites on the border with Lebanon.
A statement attributed to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) noted that the use of the trebuchet was a “local initiative” and not a tool that came into widespread use.
The use of the trebuchet by Israeli troops was likely a funny propaganda stunt meant to calm Israelis down after a series of rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah that set several forested areas in northern Israel on fire in recent weeks and led to much criticism against the IDF.
Jokes aside, the IDF has been attempting to start fires in forested areas in southern Lebanon since the outbreak with the confrontation with Hezbollah on the backdrop of the war in the Gaza Strip last October.
The IDF has been firing white phosphorus and illumination shells across the border on a nearly-daily basis. There have also been reports in Lebanese media of Israeli troops using drones armed with incendiary grenades and flares to start fires on the border.
Humor has for long been recognized as a very effective coping tool. Now, it appears that the IDF, which is facing some failure on the border with Lebanon, is resorting to humor to cope with the serious challenges posed by Hezbollah.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
