Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, and their impact on the U.N., Hezbollah, and the Palestinians
This week has seen Israel intensify its attacks in Lebanon, saying it wants to put an end to Hezbollah’s fire into its territory. Although the scope of Israel’s operation remains unclear, officials say a ground invasion is possible to push the militant group away from the border. Israel has moved thousands of troops towards the border.
In past conflicts, Israel has pushed to get rid of Hezbollah senior leadership. But an attempt to assassinate Nasrallah — successful or not — would be a major escalation. The Pentagon claimed the U.S. had no warning of the strikes.
At the U.N., Netanyahu vowed to “continue degrading Hezbollah” until Israel achieves its goals, further dimming hopes for an internationally backed cease-fire.
Hezbollah began fire rockets into Israel almost immediately after the Hamas attack, and they said it was to support the Palestinians. Since then, it and the Israeli military have traded fire almost daily, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes on both sides of the border.
In Lebanon, the death toll in this week’s fighting has reached over 700, the Health Minister said. He said that many of the dead were women and children.
Netanyahu declares “discrepancy of the law” and “defies calls for a cease-fire at the U.N., as Israel strikes Lebanon”
The Israeli premier met with his Dutch counterpart during one of several meetings in New York this week, and raised the proceedings currently underway at the court. Netanyahu insisted during the bilateral conversation that the prosecutor’s actions constituted a political proceeding that endangers every democracy in the world, according to his office.
As the Israeli military calls up further reserves close to the northern border and responds to Hezbollah rocket fire with dozens of airstrikes in Lebanon, Netanyahu also remains at the center of a high-profile demand for an arrest warrant against him, issued by the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands.
Danny Danon said the government is pushing for certain terms in any deal. “If we can achieve the goals of the war through diplomacy, we prefer that,” he said outside the U.N. Security Council on Friday. The goal is to allow 70% of the citizens of Israel to return to their homes. To push Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon.
But nearly a year into Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli leader’s behavior during many months of on-again-off-again cease-fire negotiations has not only infuriated his political opponents and a sizable chunk of his own citizens, but has confounded many world leaders too.
Critics have often in recent months said that Netanyahu — whose political savvy has helped him survive repeatedly to become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister in history — will agree to show negotiating flexibility during private meetings, before issuing public statements that block progress during peace talks.
But his trip had been planned well in advance, and though his arrival in New York for the annual General Assembly had been slightly delayed due to domestic considerations, he told the audience of dignitaries and world leaders that he had “decided to come here and set the record straight.”
Israel, the U.N., and the “Swamp of Antisemitic Bile“: Israeli Attack on the Oct. 7 Gaza-Strip Genocide
Abbas told delegates that Israel did not deserve its U.N. membership, given that its government has, in his words, “exploited” the Oct. 7 There was a Hamas-led attack on Israel that was launched to start a genocide on the Gaza Strip and continue to commit war crimes. Israel has denied committing genocide or other war crimes, arguing that it is fighting to defeat militant groups and defend itself from further attacks.
The behavior of the Israeli military in Palestine, the West Bank and Lebanon has been denounced by the Arab leaders for a long time.
Many of the delegates in the U.N. hall stood up and swiftly left in a public snub at the start of his address — in which he called the U.N. a “swamp of antisemitic bile.”
Israeli air force jets were preparing to pound a complex of buildings in the middle of the night as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN that his country is “winning” on multiple fronts and would attack Iran and its allies anywhere in the Middle East.
The scope of the operation is unknown, but officials say a ground invasion is a possibility. Israeli troops were moved toward the border.
The United Nations said the fighting has displaced 211,000 people, including 85,000 now staying in public schools and other shelters. Airstrikes have forced the closing of 20 primary health care centers and disrupted water access for hundreds of thousands of people.
The site hit Friday evening had not been publicly known as Hezbollah’s main headquarters, though it is located in the group’s “security quarters,” a heavily guarded part of Haret Hreik where it has offices and runs several nearby hospitals.
Israel did not give a description of the type of bomb or the number used, but the resulting explosion leveled more than a city block. The Israeli army has in its arsenal 2,00 pound, American-made “Bunker Buster” guided bombs that can be used for hitting subterranean targets.
Footage showed rescue workers clambering over large slabs of concrete, surrounded by high piles of twisted metal and wreckage. There were several craters, one of which had a car fall into it. A group of people were seen fleeing from the district along a main road.
The series of blasts at around nightfall reduced six apartment towers to rubble in Haret Hreik, a densely populated, predominantly Shiite district of Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburbs, according to Lebanon’s national news agency. A wall of billowing black and orange smoke rose into the sky as windows were rattled and houses shaken some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Beirut.
News of the blasts came as Netanyahu was briefing reporters after his U.N. address. A military aide whispered into his ear, and Netanyahu quickly ended the briefing.
Hezbollah in Gaza: a struggle to end its offensive and the deaths of at least six killed in Lebanon’s largest blast
The death toll is likely to rise significantly as teams comb through the rubble of six buildings. Israel launched a series of strikes on other areas of the southern suburbs following the initial blast.
At least six people were killed and 91 were wounded, Lebanon’s health ministry said. It was the biggest blast to hit the Lebanese capital in the past year and appeared likely to push the escalating conflict closer to full-fledged war.
Hussein Fadlallah, Hezbollah’s top official in Beirut, said in a speech that no matter how many commanders Israel kills, the group has endless numbers of experienced fighters. He said that Hezbollah will continue fighting until Israel ends its offensive in Gaza.
The people in the giant crowd waved their fists in the air as they marched behind the three coffins, carrying a yellow flag.
Hezbollah officials and their supporters remain defiant. Several thousand people gathered in another part of the suburbs for a funeral for the head of the group’s drone unit, who was among the three Hezbollah members killed in earlier strikes.
In the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, civil defense workers pulled the bodies of two women — 35-year-old Hiba Ataya and her mother Sabah Olyan — from the rubble of a building brought down by a strike.
The official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that Israel wanted to dismantle Hamas in Gaza but they had a different goal in Lebanon.