Fears that the war in Gaza could spill over into Lebanon were heightened on Thursday after Israel threatened to relegate its northern neighbour to the “Stone Age” if it clashed with Hezbollah.
On October 7, the Israeli army launched a large-scale offensive in the Gaza Strip in response to an unprecedented bloody attack carried out the same day by the Islamist movement Hamas in southern Israel from neighboring Palestinian territory.
In the aftermath of this attack, pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Lebanon opened the front with Israel in support of Hamas, and since then exchanges of fire in the border areas have been almost daily.
These exchanges have intensified recently and the threats from Hezbollah and Israel have increased.
Hezbollah understands very well that we can inflict enormous damage on Lebanon if a war is launched.
Yoav Gallant, Israeli Minister of Defense
“We have the capacity to return Lebanon to the Stone Age, but we do not want to do it […] We do not want a war,” he added, specifying that his government was “preparing for any scenario”.
PHOTO JACQUELYN MARTIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Yoav Gallant, Israeli Defense Minister
In 2006, after the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, a 31-day war pitted Israel against the Lebanese movement, leaving more than 1,200 dead on the Lebanese side, mostly civilians, and 160 dead on the Israeli side, soldiers for most of them.
On Tuesday, receiving Mr. Gallant, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that a war between Israel and Hezbollah could become a “regional war”.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths called such a scenario “potentially apocalyptic”.
Attacks by Israel and Hezbollah
On Wednesday evening, the Israeli army intensified its aerial and artillery bombardments against a dozen localities in southern Lebanon, destroying a building in Nabatiyeh, according to Lebanese media.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for six attacks on Israeli military positions on the border.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the “intense” phase of fighting was coming to an end in Gaza and affirmed that then, Israel could “redeploy certain forces towards the north”, to the Lebanese border, “for purposes defensive”.
Following Canada’s lead, Germany called on its nationals to leave Lebanon.
Nasrallah speaks Thursday
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to speak again Thursday at 9:30 a.m. ET.
In his previous speech on June 19, he warned that “no place” in Israel would be spared by his movement, the day after Israel announced that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon” had been “validated.”
On October 7, an attack by Hamas commandos infiltrated in southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count established using official Israeli data.
Of 251 people kidnapped during the attack, 116 are still held hostage in Gaza, of whom 42 are dead, according to the army.
PHOTO HATEM KHALED, REUTERS
A Palestinian boy walks on the rubble of a school housing displaced people, in the south of the Gaza Strip, June 27, 2024.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007 and considered terrorist by the United States and the European Union.
His army launched a major offensive against Gaza that has so far killed 37,658 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry of the local Hamas-led government.
“Worms in wounds”
On Thursday, at least five people were killed in airstrikes in Gaza City, in the north of the territory, also the target of heavy artillery fire, according to civil defense. One person was killed in an air raid in Beit Lahia.
In Rafah (south), several buildings were destroyed by Israeli forces, according to witnesses. And further north, in Khan Younes, Israeli planes targeted a school where bodies were removed from the rubble. The army said it “attacked terrorists who were” in the school.
PHOTO HATEM KHALED, REUTERS
A Palestinian boy pushes a bicycle next to the rubble of a school housing displaced people, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 27, 2024.
The war has caused a catastrophe for humanity in the small territory of 2.4 million inhabitants, besieged by Israel and threatened with famine according to the UN.
Water, in the middle of summer, and food are lacking.
And in the few hospitals still standing in Gaza, many patients who survived Israeli raids must be abandoned or die of infections due to the lack of simple gloves, masks or soap, said American caregivers returning from the Palestinian territory.
One of them, Monica Johnston, recounts with a broken voice that it was necessary to stop treating a little boy’s burns in favor of patients with a better chance of survival.
“Two days later, he started to have worms in his wounds.” The child was buried, his body completely infested.