U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israel’s Defense Minister warned against an Israeli attack on Hezbollah in the Gaza Strip
On Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israel’s defense minister about the “serious consequences for Iran” if it launched a strike against Israel. The U.S. is concerned about Iran-backed groups threatening U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria as the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed groups intensifies. Defense secretary Austin said the U.S. supports Israel dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure along the Lebanon Israel border so Hezbollah cannot threaten Israeli border towns. But he called for Israel to engage in diplomacy.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning Monday to Iran, which backs Hezbollah and Hamas: “There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach.”
The army of Lebanon was redeployed from the southern border with Israel due to the intense shelling by Israeli forces. A Lebanese army official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR this was a “redeployment” from forward positions vulnerable to an Israeli incursion.
On Monday, Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Naim Kassem, said in a televised speech that the resistance forces would be ready for a ground engagement. In recent weeks there have been Israeli attacks on Hezbollah leaders and members.
The military of Israel pressed its ground incursion into southern Lebanon on Tuesday, calling them limited incursions.
The military of Israel is engaged in warfare. Israel is conducting its operation in Gaza. On Sunday, Israel’s military said it sent dozens of fighter jets more than 1,000 miles away to Yemen, where it said it bombed power plants and a seaport used by the Houthis to import oil for military purposes. At least four people were killed and dozens were wounded in Israeli strikes on the areas hit by the Houthis, the group said.
Israel used the same wording when it launched limited raids in the Gaza Strip a year ago. Israel’s comments have made people in Lebanon skeptical about the scope of the operation.
A White House official told NPR the U.S. supports the incursion but is warning Israel about “mission creep.” The Israeli ambassador to the U.S. told Israeli public radio the U.S. has not restricted the duration of Israel’s incursion but that it is concerned about a regional escalation.
We keep saying that violence isn’t able to stop violence. We need some type of diplomatic solution to stop the violence. We don’t want Lebanon to follow in the footsteps of Gaza.
“This is not an incursion, this is an invasion,” Najat Aoun Saliba, a Lebanese member of parliament, told NPR. We have been invaded by another country that we need to call out to the international community.
The conflict entered a dramatic new phase over the weekend, following Israel’s killing of Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, as well as several other top officials.
According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry there have been over 1,000 deaths in Lebanon in the last two weeks. Around 1 million people have been displaced by this bombardment of their homes, according to the United Nations.
“As violence escalates, we call on the global community to provide this much needed support and to ensure protection of civilians,” Riza said. “Without sufficient resources, humanitarians risk leaving the population of an entire country without the support they urgently require.”
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, warned on Tuesday that his country was facing “one of the most dangerous phases of its history,” urging the United Nations for emergency funding for civilians impacted by the conflict.
Israel’s response to the Iranian attack on Tuesday night: It is time to aim for the head, not for the tentacles of the octopus
Lebanese politicians urgently called on the international community to pressure Israel to stop its advance into Lebanese territory on Tuesday, as Israeli troops crossed into southern Lebanon in an operation targeting Hezbollah outposts.
Israel has a freer hand to respond forcefully to Iran’s missile barrage on Tuesday than it did in April, security analysts and former officials say, when its retaliation for the previous Iranian attack was a largely symbolic strike against an air-defense installation in Iran.
In April, Israel was worried that issuing too much of a response would prompt Iran to retaliate in ways that it did not want.
But after launching a bombing campaign that killed Hezbollah’s leader and other commanders last week, along with a ground invasion overnight Tuesday, Israel has weakened Hezbollah, stripping Iran of much of its deterrence against a wider Israeli attack, said Danny Citrinowicz, a retired Israeli intelligence officer who specialized in Iran.
Israel may be urged by the Biden administration to reduce its response. But with American elections fast approaching, U.S. officials were likely to have less influence than they did in April, Mr. Citrinowicz said, when they similarly pressed to avoid an attack that could escalate the conflict.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said “we will respond anywhere, whenever and however we choose.” The ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said that the response will be “decisive and painful”.
After Iran fired over a hundred missiles in an attack that lasted roughly 40 minutes, Israel was faced with how to respond, which was not whether to attack Iran, but how powerful the response would be, according to Yaakov Amidror, a retired major general who served as Prime Minister Benjamin
Israel is facing the biggest opportunity to change the face of the region in 50 years, according to a recent post by a former Israeli prime minister.
“We must act now to destroy its nuclear project, destroy their major energy facilities and critically hit this terrorist regime,” Mr. Bennett said of Iran. “The tentacles of that octopus are severely wounded — now’s the time to aim for the head,” he added.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said late Tuesday that the missile attack was in response to several recent killings, including the assassination of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah late Friday in Beirut; the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran in July in a strike widely assumed to be carried out by Israel; and an Iranian commander.
A Palestinian man was killed when a missile fell in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian civil defense.
The Israeli military announced a soldier killed in combat in Lebanon, according to The Associated Press, which said Hezbollah claimed to have killed and wounded an unspecified number of Israeli troops.
The Israeli military said it is redeploying more soldiers and armored tank brigade to assist in a ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon.