TOPSHOT – Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike on Zipkin in southern Lebanon on June 12, 2024.
Gaunath Haju | Afp | Good pictures
Israel’s military has authorized an offensive against Lebanon after cross-border fire, as talk of “all-out war” fueled concerns about the Gaza conflict spreading across the wider Middle East.
“Operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and verified, and decisions were made regarding increasing the readiness of troops in the field,” the Israeli army said on Tuesday night in a statement by Israel Defense Forces commanders. It involves the mobilization of troops to a neighboring country.
Israel and Hezbollah, which controls much of Lebanon, have been trading fire since October in parallel with the Jewish state’s war campaign against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Both Hamas and Hezbollah benefit from Iranian support, and the Lebanese group calls for solidarity with the plight of the Palestinian people — more than 37,000 of whom have been killed since the offensive began, according to local health ministry figures.
Hostilities escalated after the IDF said last week that an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Juwaya had killed senior Hezbollah commander Sami Taleb Abdullah and three group operatives. As recently as Wednesday morning, Hezbollah-affiliated al-Manar TV news agency reported that the group launched a missile attack targeting Israeli soldier positions in Metula, Israel, according to Google Translate. CNBC could not independently confirm the report.
The IDF announcement came after Hezbollah He released a nine-minute video Aerial footage captured by surveillance drones, it said. The Lebanese group said the area revealed in the clips spans 6.5 square kilometers (2.5 square miles) of Israel and is 24 kilometers (almost 15 miles) from Lebanon’s Palestinian border. and Raphael Military Complex. CNBC was unable to verify this footage and has reached out to the IDF regarding its authenticity.
The video sparked fear and anger in Israel, where Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav described it as “psychological terror against the residents of Haifa and the north,” according to Reuters.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a social media update His country is now “very close to a decision to change the rules against Hezbollah and Lebanon. In an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will suffer severely.”
Katz acknowledged the ramifications for Israel, which is strained by a simultaneous war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and faces international pressure to limit Palestinian casualties.
“The State of Israel will pay a price on the front and home fronts, but with a strong and united nation, and the full authority of the IDF, we will restore security to the residents of the north,” the foreign minister said.
“I remind you that according to the United Nations, there is no territorial dispute – no territorial dispute – between Lebanon and Israel,” Israeli government spokesman David Menser said. during a press conference on Tuesday. “Diplomatically or militarily, one way or the other, we will ensure the safe and secure return of Israelis to their homes in northern Israel. That is not negotiable.”
Security concerns have prompted thousands of Lebanese and Israeli citizens to flee their border-facing settlements.
The two neighbors have been in a nominal UN-brokered ceasefire since a 34-day war in 2006. The United States, which sees Israel’s relations with Lebanon as intertwined with the contradictions of a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, is trying. To reduce hostility. Senior US Ambassador Amos Hochstein met with Israeli and Lebanese leadership earlier this week.
“Let me be clear: Clash on the Blue Line [of demarcation] Enough has gone on between Israel and Hezbollah. Hochstein said at a press conference on TuesdayDuring a visit to Beirut.
He emphasized the White House’s ambitions to avoid the conflict becoming a wider war, saying, “The conversations I had today in Beirut and the conversations I had yesterday in Israel are being held because the situation is serious. There has been an escalation in the last few weeks, and what [U.S.] President [Joe] What Biden wants to do is avoid escalating into a major war. That’s what we’re trying to do here.”
Lebanon has since tried to distance itself from the hostilities.
“Lebanon does not seek expansion, and it is necessary to stop the Israeli aggression against Lebanon and return to peace and stability on the southern border,” interim Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said during his meeting with Hochstein, as translated by Google. Comments released by his office.
