(Beirut) The Israeli army bombarded the Gaza Strip on Thursday while tension remains high on the Israeli-Lebanese border, after threats from the leader of Hezbollah against Israel and the announcement of a possible offensive in Lebanon.
The war, which broke out on October 7 in the Palestinian territory after an attack by the Islamist Hamas movement on Israel, has sparked a surge in violence on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where exchanges of fire between the army and Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, have intensified recently.
In a televised speech, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Wednesday that “no place” in Israel would be spared from his movement’s missiles in the event of an attack on Lebanon.
Visiting northern Israel, the head of the Israeli army, General Herzi Halevi, assured that his country had “infinitely greater capabilities” than Hezbollah.
By mid-morning Thursday, the situation was calm in the border area, where Hezbollah had not announced any attacks.
In the Gaza Strip, airstrikes and artillery fire targeted the center of the territory, according to an AFP correspondent and witnesses. A strike killed two people near the Nousseirat camp, according to a doctor.
Witnesses also reported tank fire in Zeitoun, a neighborhood in northern Gaza City, and in the Boureij and Maghazi camps.
In the south, fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters in the center and west of Rafah, according to a source from Hamas’ armed wing.
The army announced on Sunday a daily pause in its operations along a road of around ten kilometers in the south of the Gaza Strip, in order to allow the entry of humanitarian aid from the Israeli crossing point by Kerem Shalom.
The UN, however, declared on Tuesday that this pause should “still result in more aid reaching the populations”.
At the same time, the army assured that it would continue its land operations against Hamas launched on May 7 in Rafah, which led to the flight of a million Palestinians towards areas further north and the closure of the border post with Egypt, until there used for the entry of aid into besieged territory.
The war broke out on October 7, when Hamas commandos carried out an attack in southern Israel 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 killed 37,396 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government. .
Strongly criticized in his country for not having succeeded in obtaining the release of all the hostages, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, assures that he will continue the war until the elimination of Hamas, in power since 2007 in Gaza.
The Islamist movement, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, demands a definitive ceasefire and a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
An American envoy, Amos Hochstein, visiting Lebanon and Israel this week, defended a ceasefire plan presented on May 31 by President Joe Biden, saying it also represented “an opportunity to end the conflict” between Hezbollah and Israel.
He deemed de-escalation at the border “urgent”, in order to avoid “a large-scale war”.
The Israeli military announced Tuesday that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon” had been “validated.” Foreign Minister Israel Katz threatened a “total war” in which Hezbollah would be “destroyed.”
“The (Israeli) enemy knows that no place […] will be spared by our missiles” in the event of an attack against Lebanon, launched Wednesday Hassan Nasrallah, whose movement, armed and financed by Iran, exercises a preponderant influence in Lebanon.
In the event of war, Israel would have to “wait for us by land, by sea and by air,” he warned.
“We have received new weapons […] and we are keeping others for the coming days,” continued Hassan Nasrallah, affirming that his formation had more than 100,000 men ready for combat.
He also threatened Cyprus, saying he “has information” that this European Union country, closest to the coasts of the Middle East, would open “airports and bases” to Israel if that country was attacked.
Cyprus is located approximately 300 kilometers from Israel and 200 kilometers from Lebanon, and has good relations with both countries.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides stressed in response that his country was “not involved in any way in this war.”
Cyprus is “part of the solution, not the problem,” he said, arguing that this country plays a role “recognized by the Arab world and the entire international community” in the deployment of a corridor maritime route in the Mediterranean allowing humanitarian aid to be delivered to Gaza.
