Lebanese alarmed by earthquake warnings on TV and WhatsApp 😨

Yesterday, Ata Richard Elias, a professor of geophysics at the Lebanese University, suggested that Lebanon could disappear off the map in a quake, but noted that this is “nothing new”. (Watch)

Today, Marleine Brax, Director of the National Center for Geophysics, sounded the alarm when she called for readiness: “We have recorded 11 quakes in the past 4/5 days... I have prepared a bag with my passport, money, valuables”. (Watch)

We need to fully quote these statements—because false info has spread on WhatsApp.

⋯ Ata Richard Elias' interview on Al-Jadeed yesterday (8 ⁠Feb)

Translation will be available later.

⋯ “M4.2 earthquakes don't happen often here”

Marleine Brax was asked on OTV (9 ⁠Feb) about yesterday's earthquake in Hermel: “Yesterday, there was a bit of commotion after what you said... is it true that things are abnormal?”

Brax replied: «Correct, I said it. In about 4 or 5 days, we’ve recorded 11 earthquakes in Lebanon. The largest one was yesterday’s at 9:00pm. A quake with a magnitude of 4.2, this doesn’t happen often here. That’s why we stay on alert for the next 24-48 hours.

«Panicking isn’t beneficial. Citizens are asked to do what they can... I’ll tell you what I did: I have prepared a bag containing a passport, money, my valuables, medications, and put it next to the door. If any earthquake happened, if I start to feel it, I need to go to the safest place. I can easily go out to the street, but if my house were an apartment, I go to the stairway, and protect myself. This is the maximum that citizens can do. This bag should always be ready.»

⋯ What is Lebanon's situation?

Brax told L'Orient-Today on 6 ⁠Feb that the Turkish earthquake “originated in the northernmost part of the Levant fault line”. It was the strongest quake along this line “since 1202”. The Arabian plate has moved three meters obliquely to the Anatolian plate, per other reports.

In Lebanon, the Levant Fault is called Yammouneh Fault; the coast is over the Sinai sub-plate (moving south), the Beqaa Valley is over the Arabian plate (moving north). Pressional deformation has formed the Mount Lebanon Thrust.

On 9 ⁠July 551, there was a quake in Beirut with a magnitude of about 7.5—it triggered a tsunami. The estimated return time for big earthquakes on the Mount Lebanon thrust is 1500 to 1750 years. (Wikipedia)

Daily newspaper Akhbar Alkhaleej exposed IDF chief Herzi Halevi's presence in Bahrain this week.

His visit was unannounced prior to their front page feature.

🚨An operation was executed in Jerusalem, a Palestinian ran over settlers and then shot at them.
There is one settler dead, 2 in critical condition, 4 in a dangerous condition.
Ben Gvir is on his way to the operation site.

⋯ 2 dead so far.

The man who carried out the operation is reportedly 30 years old, from Al-Isawiya.

⋯ The Palestinian who carried out the operation was identified as Hussein Qaraqe from Al-Issawiya, East Jerusalem. He waited until the bus station was filled with settlers, then rammed into them.

Footage of the moment he was shot and martyred.

⋯ Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem:
“The heroic operation in Jerusalem is a natural reaction to all the occupation's crimes against the Palestinian people, the latest of which is the occupation's massacre in Aqabat Jaber camp.”

⋯ Islamic Jihad Movement media spokesman Tarek Ezzeddin: “We congratulate the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine for the heroic Jerusalem operation, which was carried out by a blessed Palestinian freedom fighter.”

⋯ Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades congratulates Palestinians over the ramming operation in occupied Jerusalem, considering it a natural response to the crimes of the occupation against them. They also affirmed that resistance operations will not cease as long as the occupation exists.

Heavy gunfire in Aicha Bakkar, Beirut. The cause of the clash is still unclear.