Israel and Hamas at war, day 28 | The specter of “total war”

Hezbollah leader threatens regional conflagration, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pleads for a “two-state solution”

The prospect of “total war is realistic. »

In a speech as feared as it was expected, the leader of Lebanese Hezbollah declared Friday that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could spread to the entire region if the Israeli army did not stop its attacks on the Gaza Strip, avoiding moreover to officially declare war on its neighbor.

It was Hassan Nasrallah’s first television appearance since the Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7. Paying tribute to the martyrs who died for the Palestinian cause, the leader of Hezbollah did not rule out the possibility of a widening of the conflict, also stressing that “all options” were on the table concerning the Lebanese front with Israel.

Hailing Hamas’s “heroic” battle in Gaza, Hassan Nasrallah also accused Washington of being “entirely responsible for the ongoing war.” He suggested that his movement did not fear the US fleet stationed off Israel, but believed that the United States could “prevent a regional war” by stopping the war in Gaza.

Since the start of the conflict, Lebanese Hezbollah, financed by Iran, has increased attacks on Israeli territory, without entering directly into the conflict. The new threats from its leader seem to fit into this logic, believes Benjamin Toubol, doctoral student in political science at Laval University.

“Objectively, there is nothing new. This is the same speech we have heard from Nasrallah for years. This confirms that Hezbollah does not want to engage in open war. We are rather in a logic of harassment which tries to divert the Israeli military concentration which is in the south in Gaza. »

Although bellicose, Hassan Nasrallah’s speech was above all rhetoric, judges the expert. “What I perceive is that it serves above all to consolidate traditionally pro-Hezbollah opinion by saying: “Look, we have things in hand.” But for now, they’re just words. I think it was purely political. »

For a two-state solution

Washington reacted on Friday by warning Hezbollah that it should not “seek to profit” from the war between Israel and Hamas, at a time when American Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Tel Aviv.

The latter pleaded with Benjamin Netanyahu for “humanitarian pauses” in the conflict, in order to protect Palestinian civilians and increase the distribution of aid. But the Israeli Prime Minister said he refused “a temporary truce” without the release of some 240 hostages kidnapped on October 7 by Hamas.

During a press conference, Mr. Blinken also repeated that “the only way to ensure” Israel’s security was to create a Palestinian state.

“The best path, perhaps even the only one, is that of two states for two peoples,” declared the head of American diplomacy. “This is the only way to ensure lasting security” for Israel and “the only way to ensure that the Palestinians realize their legitimate aspirations for a state of their own,” he added.

Mr. Blinken is due to meet this Saturday with the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, to discuss ways to “stop the war in Gaza”, according to Jordanian diplomacy .

Other strikes

Meanwhile, there is no sign of calm on the ground.

The Hamas Health Ministry announced early Saturday (local time) that 20 people had been killed and dozens more injured in an attack “targeting” a school in the northern Gaza Strip.

On Friday, an Israeli strike hitting an ambulance at the entrance to al-Chifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, left 15 dead and around sixty injured. The Jewish state confirmed that it had targeted the vehicle because it said it was used “by a Hamas terrorist cell”. Finally, at least 14 Palestinians lost their lives in an Israeli bombardment as they fled the north of the Gaza Strip towards the south of the territory.

The UN is also alarmed that its flag can no longer protect the 600,000 Palestinians who have found refuge in its installations. “I think at last count, 38 people died in our shelters,” lamented Thomas White, head of the UN refugee agency in the Palestinian enclave.

Adding to concerns about the fate of civilians, Israel began on Friday to send back to the Gaza Strip, despite the bombings, thousands of Palestinian workers who had been stuck on its soil for almost a month.

According to the Egyptian Ministry of Health, 17 wounded and 448 foreigners, including 96 children, were however able to leave Gaza towards Egypt on Friday, via the Rafah border post, the only window on the world for the territory.

According to a report published Friday by Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, more than 9,220 people, including at least 3,826 children, were killed in Israeli strikes on the territory.

Israel has also recommended to its nationals not to travel abroad, citing “a significant increase in anti-Semitism” in the world.

With Bruno Marcotte, The PressAgence France-Presse and The Guardian