Looks like Scott Ritter is right: Israel is losing and running scared

Haaretz ran an article showing that illegal Israeli settlers fear returning to their stolen homes after Hezbollah attacks.

Link to alkhanadeq article on illegal settlers

Translation from Arabic with my notes in bold and in [brackets]

Beware! This article is from Haaretz, a renowned Israeli newspaper. While Haaretz has a rather fair-minded editor in chief, the viewpoint is generally pro-Israeli and I will point out the bias as I read and edit.

Friday, February 16, 2024

This is how Hezbollah harmed the north: Fear prevents settlers from returning!

[The title suggests that Hezbollah did something wrong. It did not. The group is a RESISTANCE group, although the US has wrongly classified it as “terrorist.” The main terror group by far in the Middle East (or West Asia if you insist) is the “state” of Israel, which in fact is a crime syndicate posing as a state. I had previously posted a translation of an article on the evacuation of the illegal settlement of Kiryat Shmona as a result of Hezbollah shelling (the article is in about the center of that issue).]

The confrontation between Lebanon and the occupying entity in the south imposed a reality that is getting worse with the increasing rate of daily escalation. Haaretz newspaper says in an article translated by the “Trenches” website that “the relentless exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in the north - one step away from erupting into an all-out war - imposed a surreal reality on the residents of the communities located in the far north of Israel.” Pointing out that this reality is not only the result of missiles, but also of fear and lack of confidence in the Israeli army.

Translated text:

On the road that connects Kibbutz Misgav Am to Moshav Margaliot and Kibbutz Manara, there is hardly any traffic. It is very dangerous to drive there. Light traffic between Margaliot and -Manara moves south on a side road considered safer. However, it has one weak point – a few hundred meters of it are exposed where there is a continuous line of sight between the Lebanese and Israeli sides and anti-tank missiles can be used at any time. Travelers on this route console themselves with the knowledge that Hezbollah's anti-tank missile systems have difficulty engaging fast-moving targets. They slam the throttle and hope for the best.

Wednesday was one of the most tense days on the Israeli-Lebanese border since the Gaza war began on October 7. Except for a week-long ceasefire at the end of November, during which hostages in Gaza were released, the fighting in the north has not stopped for a moment. Hamas's massacre of Israeli communities [many details of this “massacre” turned out to be false Israeli narratives] on the Gaza border and the Israeli offensive has drawn most attention to the south, but not a day goes by without anti-tank missiles, missiles and attack drones being launched from Lebanon into Israel. Not a day goes by without a strong air strike on Lebanese territory.

After attacks by the Israeli army that killed nine Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad fighters in Lebanon on Tuesday, Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets into the Safed area on Wednesday morning. An Israeli soldier was killed when a missile fell on the headquarters of the Israeli army's Northern Command, wounding eight other people. The Israeli army responded with a series of intense attacks on Hezbollah targets.

These exchanges, one step away from erupting into all-out war, imposed a surreal reality on Israel. From the beginning, on the day of the massacre [after an initial disinformation campaign in Israel and the West, it was discovered that the Israelis had fired on and killed many of their own people but blamed this on Hamas], residents near the border fence with Lebanon began to evacuate. In the following days, thousands of northern residents left their homes on the instructions of the state, from an area up to five kilometers wide inside Israeli territory.

The evacuation included Kiryat Shmona, which was almost completely emptied of its residents. [Author neglects to mention that Kiryat Shmona is an illegal settlement on land seized from its legal owners, Palestinians, as indicated in the translation of an article I posted here. In such land seizures, the rightful owners are thrown out and their homes demolished. The Israel-loyal US government does not object] On Tuesday, a mother and her son were seriously injured by two anti-tank missiles. In Nahariya, by contrast, the city decided not to evacuate its residents. As a result, Hezbollah's aggression succeeded in imposing a kind of security belt inside Israel.

The area that many in Israel saw as the most beautiful in the country, during the most beautiful green and prosperous season, is deserted. On a visit there on Monday, Misgav Am and Manara looked like ghost kibbutzim.

Aside from reservists, some of the only people along the border are security coordinators and kibbutz members who form the monitoring teams. The Misgav-Am war room is deep underground, in an old bunker probably built in the 70s. A very experienced monitoring team volunteer, he was involved in the release of hostages during the terrorist attack on a preschool center on the kibbutz on Passover 1980, in which the kibbutz secretary, a young child, and a soldier were killed.

The signs of devastation in these communities and the roads leading to them are clear. Most of them were caused by Hezbollah anti-tank missiles, mortar shells, and Katyusha shells, which hit dozens of homes.

But the Israeli army also left scars on the kibbutzim and moshavim [a moshav (plural moshavim) is a village, but in Israel, these are generally illegal settlements] along the fence. After more than four months of fighting, local communities have turned into improvised military bases. Tanks and armored personnel carriers damaged roads, entry gates and infrastructure. Soldiers often treat homes as their own, leaving significant damage. Entry into homes is unsupervised and no military official is responsible for the property. Attention to bomb damage is slow and cumbersome, creating great frustration among the population due to the IDF's indifference.

Hezbollah's effort is mainly aimed at striking outposts and soldiers, but when the day is mostly over and there is no military target available, the organization's cells are content with targeting civilians.

In the current confrontation, Hezbollah demonstrated a new means of combat - Iranian-made MAS anti-tank guided missiles with a range of 10 kilometers, compared to the six-kilometer range of the veteran Russian Kornet anti-tank missiles. [This description pertains to northern Israel near the border with Lebanon, from where Hezbollah fires. So far, the rockets used are short-range and imprecise, but Iran may eventually supply them with longer-range rockets and guided missiles that reach deep into Israeli territory. Iran has many such missiles. They’d be game changers. Iran has warned that it now has the capability to destroy Tel Aviv and Haufa]

Residents of the northern border left after scenes of carnage in the south and fear that Hezbollah's Radwan Party, whose men are far more skilled than Hamas terrorists, would carry out a similar attack. Anyone who watched on television how the Yellow Gate in the south was broken down by terrorists can imagine a similar horror happening in northern communities.

But in the meantime, following the systematic attacks launched by the Israeli army and the bombing of most of its southern positions, part of Al-Radwan's forces withdrew from the border. In fact, residents, fearing Ridwan raids, are not returning, because the anti-tank threat spreads up to 10 kilometers south of the border. The Council Presidents' firm demand is to introduce a new reality, if necessary by force, to enable a safe return.

Fear of returning

The head of the Upper Galilee Regional Council, Giora Salz, told the Haaretz newspaper: “Many of our schools are not protected. We have converted hundreds of shelters into kindergartens and schools. People want to return to their lives and enable their children to resume their routine. The state is not with us in this war. Until this moment. The government was not involved in the situation. There is no official who speaks to us who has the authority to make decisions about funds. As a council, we simply do not have any official who is able or has the authority to deal with us." [Let us recall that there are thousands of Palestinians who have had their homes bombed and their families murdered. Could this be karma?]

“If they now ask residents to return, I assume most of them will do so within three months. But the entire army is in the communities. How exactly will that happen? In Kiryat Shmona, the central city of the region, there are no active banks, no health clinics, and no trade.” "There is no possibility of returning people to this situation and managing routine life. Businesses and companies have moved to the center with state approval and funding. We do not know which of them will return when the fighting is over. They usually employ thousands of residents."

“The first forces that came here were conscript soldiers, and they were completely insensitive to the idea that people live here and left their homes in one moment, leaving everything behind without closing the doors,” said Artur Gavrilov, security coordinator for Misgav-AM. "We feel more comfortable with the reservists who have replaced the conscripts."

“Until the war we lived here in paradise,” says Benny van den-Hoven, a member of the kibbutz monitoring team. “We were at the height of the north's prosperity and now everything is collapsing. I am a member of the kibbutz but my wife is originally from Rishon Lezion and she has already made it clear that she will not return north with the children. When the Israeli army left Lebanon in 2000 they told us that the army was strongly deployed on the border and that every violation will be met with a strong military response. Over the years, they have reduced forces and disarmed observation teams. If the October 7 attack had occurred here by surprise, we would not have been able to deal with it. After the Second Lebanon War there were 17 years of calm and prosperity in the north “I will buy any solution that will bring another 17 years of calm. If this event does not clearly end with the Israeli army separating communities from danger, people will be afraid to return.”

Shimon Ben-Gida, Manara's security coordinator, says more than half the homes on the kibbutz have been damaged in the war. “We still have shells in the houses and the Israeli army does not come to take care of them because of the fighting. The entire southern part of the kibbutz is classified as a closed military zone because it is exposed to gunfire. We cannot bring professionals such as electricians or repairmen here. When a fire broke out, we put it out ourselves, because the Israeli army claimed it was not its responsibility and that the firefighters were afraid of being bombed.”

“We don’t know anything about where we go from here,” says Ben Gida. “The army is not giving us answers. People are talking about a solution to the Hezbollah problem, but the truth must be told. There is a deep crisis of confidence with the army, because of what happened in the border towns with Gaza.” "Hezbollah is not Hamas. This is where it could end in an even greater disaster." [Right, Hezbollah is more powerful than Hamas]

Strategic considerations

Dr. Shimon Shapira, a specialist in Hezbollah studies, says that the organization's Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, developed a strategy that directly links the war in Gaza to the clashes in the north. “Israel wants to cut the knot between the two fronts. But he clearly says that as long as the fire continues in Gaza, it will continue in Lebanon. And if Israel continues to fire after the ceasefire, Hezbollah will respond accordingly, while maintaining deterrence against Israel, which is what Nasrallah considers an important Lebanese national interest.”

Shapira says that Hezbollah fears that Israel will launch a coordinated air attack in the area south of the Litani River, and threatens to impose a price on Israeli territory. “They have also begun to describe the towers [in the Tel Aviv area] as a suitable target to respond to Israeli bombing in Beirut. At the same time, Hezbollah is promising precision strikes on the Northern Command headquarters and on the air control unit on Mount Meron.”

While Israel is discussing with the United States and European countries an agreement that would impose an updated version of Security Council Resolution 1701 of 2006, Hezbollah also has demands. “They emphasize Israeli violations of the resolution, most notably the Air Force’s flights over Lebanon,” Shapira says.

A French settlement proposal issued this week calls for the transfer of Radwan's forces to 10 kilometers north of the border and the appointment of a supervision team composed of Western countries and operating independently of the United Nations. Ideas are being considered to deploy thousands of Lebanese Army soldiers in the south alongside UNIFIL forces.

Despite the threats expressed yesterday, it is clear that Israel prefers to take the diplomatic path, and if it can help it will not go to war until diplomatic alternatives are completed. [Diplomacy? This is how a defeated army talks! Confirmed by Scott Ritter, who says Israel is losing]:

The defense establishment has a vague hope of reaching an agreement that includes foreign guarantees, the deployment of IDF forces along the border and keeping Hezbollah away from the fence. It is said that the war will impose a heavy price on both sides and in the end they will reach an agreement to some extent. But the question is whether this solution will satisfy the residents of the northern border, in light of what they have gone through and their fear of what might happen on the border.

Source: Haaretz

…

Here’s your daily air strike update for Mar 21, 2024

Translation with my notes in bold and in [brackets].

Use the map linked here to locate the oblasts mentioned in the following report.

https://ria.ru/20240321/spetsoperatsiya-1934799492.html?ysclid=lu1kue2rxm165944369

21.03.2024

Special operation, March 21: Aerospace Forces attacked the decision-making centers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation: The Aerospace Forces attacked the decision-making centers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

MOSCOW, March 21 – RIA Novosti. The Russian Aerospace Forces attacked at night with high-precision weapons the decision-making centers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, logistics bases, temporary deployment points of special operations forces and foreign mercenaries, according to the report of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Long-range air-launched weapons were used, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. The objectives of the strike were achieved, all objects were hit, the Russian Defense Ministry emphasized.

[Are you ready for a REAL whopper? Here is what the NYT wrote: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/21/world/europe/russia-missile-attack-kyiv-ukraine.html

Russia Targets Kyiv With Biggest Missile Attack in Weeks

“Ukraine said it had intercepted all 31 missiles fired at the capital. But debris injured at least 13 people and damaged several buildings.” Have they no shame?? The Russians fired Kinzhal missiles, which cannot be intercepted by any known means, and the invincible Ukrainians, who have lost most of their air defenses, say they have hit all 31 of the missiles fired! Well, the Russian Ministry of Defense said ALL targets were hit, so none of the missiles were shot down. Are we surprised that Kiev lies shamelessly and stupidly? Link to photo of HUGE crater of the kind that only hypersonic ballistic missiles can make, but Kiev claims they shot down all the missiles??  “Ukraine’s air force said that it shot down 31 Russian missiles fired towards Kyiv, with 17 people wounded by the attacks” (wounded by missiles that were shot down??).

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, pointed to the attack as a reason why the West needs to immediately deliver air defence systems. Woa! If Ukraine is already shooting down everything, why would you need more?

“Such terror continues every day and night,” Mr Zelensky said in a post on Telegram on Thursday.

Actually, though, these strikes are the first in a very long time in Kiev, but there are indeed strikes every day and night elsewhere in Ukraine.

“It is possible to put an end to it through global unity... Russian terrorists do not have missiles capable of bypassing Patriot and other leading world systems.” Where has Ze been these past 2 years? Of COURSE, the Russians DO have missiles capable of bypassing the Patriot. They’re called hypersonic, and they DID evade your system, as evidenced by the massive damage, dummy.

“This protection is required in Ukraine now. From Kyiv to Kharkiv, Sumy to Kherson, and Odesa to the Donetsk region.

“This is entirely possible if our partners demonstrate sufficient political will.” Ze’s problem is his failure to realize that his “global unity” ONLY exists in the rarefied strata of the political class and is unrelated to the will of ordinary people, who have shown in polls that they are tired of sending their tax money to Nazis to enable them to kill civilians]

Russian military personnel defeated the enemy in all sectors of the special operation, and also repelled one counterattack each in the Avdeevsky and Yuzhno-Donetsk areas. In addition, in the Avdeevsky direction the village of Tonenkoye was liberated, and in the Donetsk direction, the Yug (South) group of troops captured the Alabastrovaya railway station.

In the Belgorod area, Russian units continued to prevent sabotage and reconnaissance groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from entering the territory of the Russian Federation and destroyed them in the border regions of Ukraine. Foreign mercenaries and soldiers of the 105th Terrorist Defense Brigade were defeated in the Sumy region.

In total, the enemy lost more than 800 soldiers, seven tanks, a Czech-made Vampire multiple launch rocket system combat vehicle, a US-made M777 artillery system and an AN/TPQ-36 counter-battery radar, as well as a D-30 howitzer and ten armored combat vehicles.

During the counter-battery fight, an M777 artillery system and an M102 gun made in the USA, three Polish-made Krab self-propelled artillery mounts, two Czech-made Vampire MLRS combat vehicles, Akatsiya and Gvozdika self-propelled artillery mounts, two D-20 and two D -thirtys.

Russian aircraft and artillery hit a storage warehouse, as well as a drone production workshop. Volga Federal District assets shot down 163 Ukrainian drones and 20 HIMARS and Vampire missiles.

Mass production of three-tonne bombs [This is the first report I have seen of 3 tonne bombs, The largest one heretofore was 1,500 kg. 3 tonnes is twice that. Here, the spelling tonne refers to metric tons. This should revolutionize the battlefield in Russia’s favor]

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu checked the implementation of the state defense order at enterprises of the military-industrial complex in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

There he was informed of the several-fold increase in the production of FAB-500 aerial bombs and the doubling of the production of FAB-1500. In addition, since February 2024, mass production of three-ton high-explosive bombs FAB-3000 has been organized.

[FAB stands for fugasnaya aviatsionnaya bomba, or high-explosive bomb]

The range of produced artillery ammunition has also been expanded, notes the Russian Defense Ministry. Since last year, the plant’s production volume of modern artillery and aviation weapons has increased fivefold, the military department added. [this production increase is significantly greater than the planned increase of the entire combined West, so they can send Ukraine all the materiel they want, but they can’t match Russian output.]

Shoigu also inspected the production of ammunition for the Giatsint artillery complex.

Missiles and drones

The Ministry of Defense reported that on March 21, Russian air defense forces shot down 10 Vampire missiles and two drones over the Belgorod oblast [in Russia], three drones over Crimea [reclaimed Russian territory], and one over the Bryansk oblast [also in Russia].

The DPR [Donetsk People’s Republic] representative office at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of Issues Related to War Crimes of Ukraine (JCCC) reported that Ukrainian troops on Thursday fired five 155-millimeter shells at Gorlovka, 20 similar shells at the Kirov and Petrovsky districts of Donetsk, as well as four shells at the village of Ozeryanovka.

In addition, Gorlovka was attacked by a kamikaze drone in the morning, and in the afternoon the Ukrainian military dropped munitions on it from a drone. Also, munitions were dropped from a drone on Donetsk.

The FSB [Russian Federal Security Service] reported the detention in the Belgorod region of a Russian who, on instructions from the Russian Volunteer Corps*, was preparing sabotage and terrorist acts against the military. An explosive device was confiscated from him. The detainee himself admitted that he was going to use explosives to carry out a terrorist attack in Valuyki (15 kilometers from the border with Ukraine); the video was released by the Russian FSB.

[The Russian Volunteer Corps (see marginal note at end of this article) is a Neo-Nazi group of nominally Russian radicals who left Russia to fight the Russians in Ukraine. The Russians consider them traitors]

Governor of the Kursk oblast Roman Starovoyt reported another shelling of the border village of Tyotkino. The village has been shelled for the tenth day in a row.

About 1.1 thousand convicts were evacuated from institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the regions of the Russian Federation bordering Ukraine in 2023, FSIN Director Arkady Gostev said on Thursday at the final board meeting.

Whose income

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the eve of the EU summit in Brussels, said that the proceeds from Russian assets frozen in Europe do not belong to anyone, so they can be used for military assistance to Ukraine, primarily for the purchase of weapons and ammunition.

Ankara is concerned about the situation around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant and would not want a repetition of a disaster similar to Chernobyl, which also affected Turkey, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Thursday. According to him, Ankara supports the IAEA's efforts in this area. Earlier, the press service of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces fired at the critical infrastructure facility of the power plant. [Russia’s complaint about the IAEA is that it issues technical reports about real and potential threats to the Zaporozhye plant but refuses to report who is doing the shelling, even though it is clearly the work of Ukrainian saboteurs. The Russians are operating the plant and obviously are not shelling themselves!]

Slovakia stated that the country will not join the Czech Republic’s initiative to purchase ammunition from third parties for Ukraine, since it does not believe in a military solution to the conflict. According to Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar, Bratislava will limit itself to humanitarian aid. [This is in line with Slovak PM Robert Fico’s policy of not joining the western Russophobic policies or supplying aid to Ukraine. Fico is an outlier thus far, but the next generation of national leaders in Europe is likely to be more in line with the will of the people]

Dutch Defense Minister Kaisa Ollongren said that Denmark will send the first F-16s to Ukraine, and only then, in the second half of 2024, will a batch of Dutch fighter jets be transferred. Russian military expert Alexey Leonkov told RIA Novosti that the training of Ukrainian pilots has been going on for two years, but “to no avail.” When Ukraine receives these planes, the Russian Armed Forces will shoot them down, and intercept the missiles that Kyiv plans to launch from the F-16.

Hope for US help

As follows from the online map of the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation, an air raid alert was announced on Thursday throughout Ukraine, several times in some areas. The Ukrainian TV channel "Public" reported several series of explosions in Kyiv.

According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal, American congressmen made it clear to Kyiv that a decision on the allocation of funds could be made in April and Ukraine could count on help.

In the “Georgian National Legion”, foreign mercenaries from Great Britain, Japan, Israel, as well as Armenians and Azerbaijanis are fighting on the side of the Kiev regime, captured mercenary from Georgia Mamuka Gatsareli, who himself was a member of this armed formation and is now sentenced to life imprisonment, told RIA Novosti in Russia. [This stiff sentence is a good reason NOT to join the Ukronazis in killing Russians]

…

Russia Volunteer Corp Ideology

According to official RVC statement, their flag is ideological fusion of Victor Larionovs organizations - a person "from whose ideas, principles and beliefs we build off of, drawing parallels of historical and political continuity".[7] Victor Larionov was a member of a White movement who, while being exiled in 1930s created a "White Idea" - an organization that in December 1937 would join the Russian Fascist party.[16] After Socialist coalition came to power in France in 1938, Larionov, among others was deported to Germany, where he became an employee of "Novoe Slovo" a pro-Nazi newspaper published by Russian émigrés in Berlin between 1933 and 1944. During the war he worked for the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, was a member of ROA (Russian Liberation Army, a collaborator with Hitler).[16]

**

Further reading:

Israel’s latest aggression on Palestine – new illegal settlement

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israels-latest-aggression-on-palestine-new-illegal-settlemen

By

Al Mayadeen English

6 Sep 2022

…

The project, known as "Givat Shaked", will include 700 illegal settlement units.

The so-called District Planning Committee of the occupation municipality in Al-Quds approved the establishment of a new illegal Israeli settlement on the town of Beit Safafa [legal, Palestinian town] southeast of Al-Quds.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, reported that the illegal settlement, called "Givat Shaked", is being built at the expense of Beit Safafa lands, which suffer from a shortage of land for construction due to continuous Israeli infringement on the Palestinian property.

Beit Safafa residents said that the purpose of establishing the illegal settlement was to prevent them from developing their town and from any construction in the future. 

The newspaper added that the settlement will be built on 38 dunums with 700 illegal settlement units, a synagogue, a school, and places of entertainment intended to be built, of course on the ruins of Palestinian property.

Read next: Palestinian Foreign Affairs Ministry calls for international action to stop settlements

The Ir Amim organization announced its strong opposition to the establishment of the settlement.

A researcher for the organization asserted that the land should be used for the development of Beit Safafa, due to the lack of options for the development of that neighborhood.

…

https://www.btselem.org/download/200205_land_grab_eng.pdf

This deliberate and systematic process of assimilation obscures a number of fundamental truths about the settlements. The fundamental truth is that the "communities" mentioned in the article are not part of the State of Israel, but are settlements established in the West Bank − an area that, since 1967, has been occupied territory under a military regime and in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The fundamental truth is that the "state-owned land" mentioned in the article was seized from Palestinian residents by illegal and unfair proceedings. The fundamental truth is that the settlements have been a continuing source of violations of the human rights of the Palestinians, among them the right to freedom

of movement, property, improvement in their standard of living, and self-determination. The fundamental truth is that the growth of these settlements is fueled not only by neutral forces of supply and demand, but primarily by a sophisticated governmental system designed to encourage Israeli citizens to live in the settlements. In essence, the process of assimilation blurs the fact that the settlement enterprise in the Occupied Territories has created a system of legally sanctioned separation based on discrimination that has, perhaps, no parallel anywhere in the world since the apartheid regime in South Africa.

…

Link to photo of very young boy being arrested by Israeli forces

https://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/AFP_Getty-530912092-580x385.jpg

.…

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240306-israel-approves-thousands-of-new-illegal-settlement-units-in-west-bank/

Israel approves thousands of new illegal settlement units in West Bank

March 6, 2024 at 3:26 pm

Excerpt:

Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories are considered illegal.

…

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-announces-plans-to-build-illegal-settlement-near-the-gaza-strip

Israel announces plans to build illegal settlement near besieged Gaza Strip

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank

FEB 6, 2023

…

Finally, Jared Kushner recently said Gaza turf containt prime beach front property. Obviously he has his eye on it but does he realize that what happened to the illegal settlement of Kiryat Shmona would almost certainly happen to his beach front resort? Israel is no longer business as usual.