(Jerusalem) Israel has announced that it is expanding the objectives of its nearly year-long war against Hamas in Gaza to include the front with Hezbollah along its northern border with Lebanon.
In this explosive context, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected in Egypt on Wednesday to discuss a new compromise proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages held in the Palestinian territory, according to the State Department.
The hostages were abducted in an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza with Israeli military reprisals that left tens of thousands dead.
In “solidarity” with its ally Hamas, Hezbollah opened a front with Israel on October 8, provoking a spiral of almost daily violence that has forced tens of thousands of residents to flee on both sides of the border.
“The Political and Security Cabinet has updated the aims of the war to include the following section: the safe return of the northerners [d’Israël] “at home,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Monday night.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant went further, declaring that “military action” against Hezbollah was “the only way to ensure the return of the people of northern Israel to their homes.”
“Security zone” in Lebanon?
“The possibility of an agreement is receding because Hezbollah continues to support Hamas,” he told a visiting U.S. envoy to Israel, Amos Hochstein.
On the other hand, the US State Department assured that “a diplomatic solution is the right way, and the only way, to bring calm to northern Israel.”
Michael Horowitz, a geopolitical expert at Le Beck, a Middle East-based security consultancy, said: “Without a ceasefire in Gaza, there will be no agreement on the border issue with Lebanon. For Israel, that means potentially preparing for a military resolution, especially as pressure continues to mount, as tens of thousands of Israelis remain displaced.”
“There is a consensus [en Israël] “A war to completely eliminate Hezbollah will be extremely difficult, costly and dangerous, as it could lead to a regional conflagration. The goal of a military operation would therefore be more limited, including creating a buffer zone in southern Lebanon,” he added.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas commandos carried out an unprecedented attack on Israeli soil that resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures that include hostages killed in captivity. Of the 251 people kidnapped during the attack, 97 are still being held in Gaza, 33 of whom have been declared dead by the army.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007 and is considered a terrorist organization also by the European Union and the United States.
His army launched a major offensive that left at least 41,252 dead, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry in Gaza, which did not detail the fighters and civilians killed.
Hamas’s “War of Attrition”
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has said his movement is “prepared” to “wage a long war of attrition” against the Israeli army, which has seized vast areas of the Gaza Strip and is constantly bombarding the besieged and devastated Palestinian territory.
“Obviously, we all condemn the terrorist attacks by Hamas, as well as the hostage-taking,” but “the truth is that nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian population” who are suffering “unimaginable,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Monday.
The UN General Assembly will debate from Tuesday a Palestinian draft resolution demanding an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories within “12 months”, a text that has angered Israel. Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967.
After months of fruitless negotiations to reach a truce in Gaza, the United States is working, “in particular with Egypt and Qatar”, the two other mediating countries, on a new compromise proposal, indicated Matthew Miller, the spokesman for the State Department, on Monday, without giving details.