Israel has no intention of staying permanently in Gaza, says defense minister”>Hezbollah threatened this Tuesday to carry out attacks in “all” of Israel, intensifying the bombing of strongholds of the pro-Iranian Islamist movement and in other parts of Lebanon.
In a speech, Hezbollah’s number twoNaim Qasem, He stated that “the solution” to end the war in Lebanon is “a ceasefire,” and assured that his movement will not be “defeated.”
“Since the Israeli enemy targeted all of Lebanon, we have the right, from a defensive position, to target anywhere” in Israel, “be it the center, the north or the south,” Qasem noted.
The pro-Iran movement indicated this Tuesday that it launched rockets against several regions in northern Israel, including Haifa and Safed, and reported fighting with “infiltrated” soldiers in southern Lebanon.
He also said he fired missiles at “three bulldozers and a tank” of the Israeli army, which were set on fire, near a village in southern Lebanon.
After almost a year of armed confrontations with Hezbollah on the Israeli-Lebanese border and after weakening Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in mid-September the Israeli army focused the war on Lebanon, where it has intensified its attacks against bastions of the Shiite movement.
The goal is to drive Hezbollah away from the border regions between Lebanon and Israel and put an end to rocket fire so that the nearly 60,000 displaced Israelis can return to their homes.
To this end, on September 23, it launched an intense aerial bombardment campaign against strongholds of the pro-Iranian movement, and on the 30th, a ground offensive in the south of the country.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, Monday’s bombings caused 41 deaths and 124 injuries. Since September 23, at least 1,356 people have died in Lebanon, according to a tally based on official figures.
The UN has reported almost 700,000 displaced people.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati told AFP on Tuesday that Israel is carrying out “brief incursions” in the south and added that his country is willing to reinforce its troops in that region, bordering Israel, if there is “an cease-fire”.
His Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he was opposed to a “unilateral ceasefire, which does not change[ría] the security situation in Lebanon,” during a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Captured Hezbollah fighters
The Israeli army launched several attacks on Tuesday in the south of the country and in the Bekaa region (east), where it left a hospital in the city of Baalbeck inoperative, according to the official Lebanese news agency ANI.
Hours later, the Israeli army announced the capture of three Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, found “along with numerous weapons,” but did not specify when.
For its part, the UN called for an investigation into an Israeli bombing that occurred on Monday in the Christian village of Aito, in northern Lebanon, which left 22 dead, including 12 women and two children, according to the UN.
In the south of the country, the UN peacekeeping force, Finul, decided to maintain its positions despite the Israeli army firing at its positions and Netanyahu having requested that they evacuate the area.
As they continue their war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israelis continue to prepare a response to Iran’s attack on October 1, when the Islamic Republic launched nearly 200 missiles at Israel.
Netanyahu affirmed this Tuesday that his country will decide alone what the objectives of an eventual attack against Iran will be, after US President Joe Biden urged him not to target oil or nuclear sites.
“We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest,” Netanyahu said.
“Permanent emergency”
In Gaza, the scene of a war triggered by the attack by Hamas fighters in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Israeli troops are carrying out an offensive in the north of the territory, especially in Jabaliya, where, they say, The Islamist movement tries to reconstitute its forces.
An AFP journalist saw this Tuesday adults and children leaving their neighborhood carrying their belongings in cars and carts pulled by donkeys, by bike or on foot.
“The entire area was reduced to ashes,” said Rana Abdel Majid, 38, from Al Fallujah, near Jabaliya. “If the siege lasts two more days, we will starve,” he added.
The director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) for the Palestinian Territories, Antoine Renard, warned that there is a “permanent emergency situation,” mainly in the north of the Strip, whose inhabitants “depend exclusively on humanitarian aid.” .
Faced with this situation, Washington warned Israel that it could withhold some assistance to its ally because humanitarian aid in the Palestinian territory continues without improving.
The Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 killed 1,206 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to a count based on official Israeli figures and including hostages who died in captivity in Gaza.
At least 42,344 Palestinians have been killed, mostly civilians, in the Israeli retaliatory offensive in Gaza, according to data from the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health, considered reliable by the UN.
LDAV