The Israeli army announced on Tuesday that it had approved operational plans for an “offensive in Lebanon”, after days of escalation with Hezbollah in the border area, on the sidelines of the war in the Gaza Strip.
Exchanges of fire have been almost daily on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon since the attack by the Islamist movement Hamas, an ally of Lebanese Hezbollah, on Israel on October 7, which sparked the war in the Palestinian territory.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army announced that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon” had been “approved and validated,” during a meeting among generals dedicated to an “assessment of the situation.”
The head of Israeli diplomacy, Israel Katz, had shortly before threatened Hezbollah with destruction following a “total war”.
At the same time, US President Joe Biden’s envoy, Amos Hochstein, was in Beirut where he deemed a de-escalation between Israel and Hezbollah “urgent”, speaking of a “serious situation”.
The United States wants to avoid “a full-scale war,” he said after stopping in Jerusalem.
In the Gaza Strip, bombings and fighting have experienced a relative lull since the army announced on Sunday a humanitarian pause in a sector of the south of the territory, which coincided with the start of the Muslim holiday. of Eid al-Adha.
On Tuesday, deadly Israeli bombings nevertheless targeted the city of Rafah, in the south, and the center of the territory.
In the center, 13 Palestinians were pulled out before dawn from the rubble of two bombed homes in Nousseirat, according to Civil Defense.
Al-Awda Hospital in Nousseirat announced that it had received six bodies and 15 wounded “after Israeli strikes on several areas of the center and south of the Gaza Strip.”
The army announced that it would continue its operations against Hamas and its allies, particularly in Rafah where witnesses reported fighting in several neighborhoods.
“For the past month, we have been dismantling Hamas in Rafah,” Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said. “Terrorist outposts in Shaboura and Tal al-Sultan are being defeated. We eliminated hundreds of terrorists, discovered tunnel entrances,” he added.
The war broke out on October 7, when Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel carried out an attack that killed 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Of 251 people kidnapped, 116 are still held hostage in Gaza, of whom 41 are dead, according to the army.
In response, the Israeli army launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has so far left 37,372 dead, mostly civilians, including at least 25 in 24 hours, according to data from the Gaza Ministry of Health. government in Gaza, led by Hamas.
Despite the multiple efforts of the mediating countries, the United States, Qatar and Egypt, the prospect of a ceasefire seems distant.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assures that he will continue the war until the elimination of Hamas, in power since 2007 in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, for its part demands a permanent ceasefire and a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
A plan announced on May 31 by US President Joe Biden, initially providing for a six-week ceasefire associated with an exchange of hostages and Palestinians held by Israel, remained a dead letter.
In a message to Muslims for Eid al-Adha, Joe Biden pleaded for the implementation of this plan, stressing that it was the “best way” to help victims of the “horrors” of war .
In Beirut, Mr. Hochstein said the plan also represented “a chance to end the conflict” on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
But Israel’s foreign minister warned Tuesday that “in an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be hit hard.” “We are very close to the moment when we will decide to change the rules of the game against Hezbollah and Lebanon,” Mr. Katz added.
Earlier, Hezbollah released images presented as having been taken by one of its drones over Haifa, a major port in northern Israel.
The video, which AFP was unable to independently verify, identifies some locations as, according to Hezbollah, military and energy infrastructure, others as civilian installations.
This escalation on the Lebanese border comes at a time when Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing criticism for his conduct of the war in Gaza.
Tuesday evening, like the day before, several thousand demonstrators gathered in front of the Parliament in Jerusalem, to demand early elections and an agreement that would allow the release of the hostages.
“We are being held hostage by a far-right government and we want this to stop,” a young physiotherapist, named Marva, who has been demonstrating against Netanyahu for “more than a year” told AFP.
The prime minister had previously invited relatives of hostages killed in Gaza to a meeting at his residence, according to several families.
On Sunday, the army announced that it would observe a daily pause in its daytime operations “until further notice” to facilitate the delivery of badly needed humanitarian aid to Gazans.
This break concerns a road section of around ten kilometers starting from the Israeli crossing point of Kerem Shalom, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, towards the north.
