Robin Dussenne with AFP / Photo credits: KAWNAT HAJU / AFP
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7:21 a.m., April 13, 2024
Lebanese Hezbollah, supported by Iran, announced Friday that it had launched “dozens of rockets” at Israeli positions, in response, according to it, to Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army indicated for its part that “around 40 shots were detected coming from Lebanese territory, some of which were intercepted” thanks to its iron dome. “No injuries were reported,” the army said, adding that it had previously intercepted two “Hezbollah explosive drones”.
According to Colonel Olivier Rafowicz, spokesperson for the Israeli army, Israel is ready to respond. “If Hezbollah continues to attack Israel, anything is possible,” he says. Missile fire is regular in the area and comes amid fears of all-out war.
Joe Biden expects Iran to take action ‘soon’
In Washington, US President Joe Biden immediately said that he expected Iran to take action “soon”, in response to a question about threats against Israel, accused by the Islamic Republic to be at the origin of the strike against its consulate in Damascus on April 1.
After Joe Biden’s announcement on Wednesday that Iran “threatens to launch a significant attack against Israel”, an American general in charge of the Middle East, Michael Erik Kurilla, is in Israel. Another sign of tensions, the German airline Lufthansa and its Austrian subsidiary Austrian Airlines announced on Friday the suspension of their flights to and from Tehran until Thursday April 18, and no longer use Iranian airspace.
According to Georges Malbrunot, senior reporter at Figaro and specialist in the Middle East, “Iran does not necessarily have an interest today in opening a direct front against Israel”. “He wants to support his ally, Hamas, which he does by letting his Hezbollah, Shiite, Iraqi or rebel militias in Yemen, attack Israel or American and Western interests,” he explains. .
Since the start of the war, at least 360 people have been killed in Lebanon, mainly Hezbollah fighters. On Friday, the Quai d’Orsay recommended that the French absolutely refrain from traveling to Iran or Lebanon, the Palestinian territories as well as Israel.
The United States announces the sending of reinforcements to the Middle East
The United States announced Friday it was sending reinforcements to the Middle East as Israel is on alert for a possible Iranian attack. Tehran has promised a response to the strike attributed to Israel against the Iranian consulate in Damascus which, according to an NGO, left 16 dead, including two generals of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army.
At the stroke of midnight on Saturday, the Israeli army indicated that alerts sounded around the Gaza Strip while Islamic Jihad, the second largest Palestinian Islamist group after Hamas, simultaneously claimed responsibility for shooting towards the Israeli town of Sderot in “response” to the strikes in Gaza.
While the mediators – Qatar, Egypt, United States – await responses from Israel and Hamas to their latest truce proposal, the Israeli offensive knows no respite in the Palestinian territory. According to the Hamas press office, Israeli forces carried out dozens of air raids on Friday on several areas of the center of the small strip of land, including Nusseirat.
Negotiations for a truce are stalling
Negotiations for a truce of several weeks associated in particular with the release of hostages are stalling, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of blocking them. On October 7, commandos from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas infiltrated from the neighboring Gaza Strip carried out an attack in southern Israel, resulting in the death of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to a report established by AFP at from official Israeli data. More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain detained in Gaza, including 34 who have died, according to Israeli officials.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas — which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union — and launched a vast military operation which left 33,634 dead, in majority of civilians, according to the Hamas health ministry.