Warning of “catastrophe”
Israel reports exchange of fire on border with Lebanon
January 17, 2024, 8:40 p.m
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The Israeli army and the pro-Iranian Shiite militia Hezbollah engage in almost daily skirmishes on the Lebanese-Israeli border. According to the military, a terrorist cell has now been tracked down. Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Guterres warns of a “total confrontation”.
According to the Israeli military, mutual shelling occurred again on the border between Lebanon and Israel. The Israeli army said numerous rocket fires were detected throughout the day from the neighboring country to the north. Throughout the day, sirens wailed in some areas of northern Israel to warn of missiles.
The army was able to track down a terrorist cell that had previously been responsible for the shelling of the Israeli border town of Rosh Hanikra and attacked it. In response to further rocket fire, Israeli military fighter jets attacked “terrorist infrastructure.” Several places in southern Lebanon came under artillery fire, the statement continued.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war, there have been repeated confrontations on the border between Israel and Lebanon between the Israeli army and the Iran-allied Hezbollah militia. There were already deaths on both sides. It is the worst escalation since the second Lebanon war in 2006.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned of war between Israel and Lebanon. A “total confrontation” between the two neighboring countries would be a “complete catastrophe,” Guterres said at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos. This must be prevented “at all costs”. Guterres reiterated his call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip and for the implementation of the two-state solution.
Hamas: “Victory or martyrdom”
Meanwhile, the Islamist organization said that the Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip do not want to voluntarily leave the sealed-off coastal strip in view of the increased deployment of Israel’s army. “It’s either victory or martyrdom,” said a Hamas source in Beirut. Gaza is their country and the blood of the leaders is no more valuable than that of the people. One of the Israeli military’s most important war goals is to track down Hamas leaders in the coastal area.
The war between Israel and Hamas has been going on for more than three months. Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the USA and the EU, brutally attacked Israel on October 7th in an unprecedented major attack, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping around 250 people as hostages in the Gaza Strip. According to Israeli information, there are still 132 hostages in the Gaza Strip, 27 of whom are believed to be dead. In response, Israel declared war on Hamas and launched a massive military operation in the Gaza Strip. According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, at least 24,448 people have been killed there since then.