Escalation of threats and violence between Israel and Hezbollah, the international community calls for restraint

[ad_1]

Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah exchanged fresh threats Sunday amid escalating cross-border violence, with the international community urging restraint amid fears of a flare-up. UN chief Antonio Guterres expressed concern that Lebanon could become “another Gaza,” referring to the war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas, sparked by an unprecedented attack by the terror group on October 7.

After nearly a year of war in Gaza, the front has shifted to northern Israel, where the government has vowed to restore calm to allow the return of tens of thousands of residents displaced by Hezbollah fire from neighboring southern Lebanon. A powerful political and military player in Lebanon, pro-Iranian Hezbollah opened a front against Israel in “support” of Hamas, in the aftermath of the start of the war in Gaza, where an Israeli retaliatory offensive devastated the small besieged territory and caused a humanitarian disaster.

Hezbollah speaks of “new phase” in battle against Israel

“We are determined to ensure that the people of the north can return home safely. No country can tolerate shooting at its people, at its cities, and we, the State of Israel, will not tolerate it either,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “In recent days, we have dealt Hezbollah a series of blows that it could never have imagined,” Netanyahu said, speaking on the subject for the first time since the deadly attacks on the Lebanese Islamist movement’s communications devices and an Israeli strike on its elite unit.

A few hours later, Hezbollah’s number two, Naim Qassem, responded by announcing “a new phase” in the battle against Israel, that of “open settling of scores”. “Threats will not stop us: we are ready for all military scenarios” against Israel, he added during the funeral of Ibrahim Aqil, the commander of the elite unit killed in the Israeli strike. On Sunday, the army carried out strikes on Hezbollah targets, after the group fired on populated areas in northern Israel, which reached the surroundings of Haifa.

“Growing pressure from Hezbollah”

“There was an alarm and immediately after a big explosion, a very, very big explosion,” Achiya Itschaky, a resident of the village of Kiryat Bialik, where the shootings set houses and cars on fire, told AFP. “We are under increasing pressure from Hezbollah and vice versa. In Haifa, many schools are closed and offices are empty. It reminds me of October 7, when everyone stayed home,” resident Patrice Wolff told AFP.

According to the army, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to take refuge in shelters in northern Israel, where all schools are closed until 6 p.m. Monday. “About 150 rockets, cruise missiles and drones” were fired at northern Israel overnight, “without causing significant damage,” the army added.

Hezbollah said it targeted military installations, including the “Ramat David base and airport,” about 45 kilometers from the border. Lebanese authorities reported three deaths in the Israeli strikes on Sunday. Hezbollah said two of its members were killed. The exchanges of fire have intensified since a wave of spectacular explosions of Hezbollah’s communications devices, attributed to Israel, which killed 39 people and wounded 2,931 on Tuesday and Wednesday in the movement’s strongholds in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.

“Imminent disaster”

On Friday, an Israeli strike on a building in Beirut’s southern suburbs decapitated Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, killing 16 members, including Ibrahim Aqil. The strike killed 45 people in total, including civilians, according to Beirut. In Iraq, pro-Iranian armed groups claimed responsibility for drone strikes on Israel, which announced that it had intercepted “suspicious flying objects” coming from Iraqi territory.

Faced with this spiral of violence, the United States, which “urged” its nationals to leave Lebanon, considered that a military “escalation” was not in Israel’s “interest”. There is still “space” for a “diplomatic solution”. The European Union, “extremely concerned”, called for an “urgent” ceasefire. London launched a similar appeal. For the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, “the region is on the brink of imminent catastrophe”.

[ad_2]

Source link -75