(Jerusalem) The Israeli army announced on Sunday that it was carrying out strikes in Lebanon after detecting preparations by Hezbollah for “large-scale attacks” against Israel, with the armed Shiite movement claiming for its part to have launched hundreds of drones and rockets towards its enemy.
The Israeli military reported on X that Hezbollah fired “more than 150 projectiles from Lebanon into Israel” on Sunday morning.
The Shiite movement, allied with the Palestinian Hamas, claimed in a statement that it had “begun an air attack using a large number of drones” against Israel, and in particular against an “important military target” that it did not identify.
“The number of Katyusha rockets launched so far is more than 320,” Hezbollah wrote in another statement, saying it had targeted eleven Israeli bases and barracks.
PHOTO JALAA MAREY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
This photo taken from a position in northern Israel shows a Hezbollah drone intercepted by the Israeli Air Force over northern Israel on August 25, 2024.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a security cabinet meeting at midnight (Eastern time).
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared a state of emergency across Israel for 48 hours starting at 6 a.m. Sunday (11 p.m. Eastern Time), saying he was “convinced that there is a high probability that an attack will be carried out against the civilian population in other areas of the country as well.”
Due to the strikes, all flights to Tel Aviv on Sunday morning are delayed or diverted, Ben Gurion Airport said.
The clashes broke out in the midst of negotiations in Cairo aimed at establishing a truce in the war in the Gaza Strip, which was triggered by an unprecedented attack on Israeli territory on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
PHOTO JALAA MAREY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A Hezbollah drone over northern Israel on August 25, 2024.
Exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, a movement supported by Iran, have been almost daily since the start of the war in Gaza.
For several weeks, the international community has been warning of a possible regional spillover of the conflict. Especially since the death of a Hezbollah military leader in late July, killed by an Israeli strike in Lebanon, and that of the former Hamas leader in Tehran, attributed to Israel by Iran. Hezbollah and Tehran have promised to retaliate.
Fighter planes
In a video message on the social network X, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that “fighter jets are currently attacking Hezbollah targets.”
The strikes came after the Israeli military observed “Hezbollah’s preparations for large-scale attacks against Israeli territory,” the army wrote in an Arabic message on Telegram to residents of southern Lebanon.
“Anyone in the vicinity of areas where Hezbollah operates must leave immediately to protect themselves and their families,” she urged, stressing that the army “will do whatever is necessary to protect the citizens of Israel.”
PHOTO JALAA MAREY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
This photo taken from a position in northern Israel shows an Israeli Air Force fighter jet firing flares as it flies to intercept a hostile aircraft launched from Lebanon over the border area with southern Lebanon, August 25, 2024.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV channel reported a series of Israeli raids targeting the forests of Kounin Rashf, Al-Tayri, Beit Yahoun, Al-Khardali, Zawtar, Iqlim Al-Tuffah and Al-Rayhan in southern Lebanon.
Since October, violence between Israel and Hezbollah has left more than 600 dead in Lebanon, mainly fighters from the Shiite movement, but also at least 131 civilians, according to an AFP count. In Israel and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have died in this violence, according to Israeli authorities.
US President Joe Biden is “closely monitoring developments,” National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said. “US officials are in constant communication with their Israeli counterparts. We will continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself and work for regional stability,” he added.
A Pentagon spokesman said the United States was “ready to support” Israel’s defense.
“Pivotal” day
It is in this more than tense context that the negotiators in Cairo are trying to obtain a truce in the Gaza Strip.
A new round of talks was launched on Thursday in the Egyptian capital in the presence of the heads of Israeli foreign and domestic intelligence, David Barnea and Ronen Bar, the director of the CIA, William Burns, the White House coordinator for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, as well as the heads of Egyptian and Qatari intelligence.
A Hamas delegation that traveled to Cairo will not participate in the talks, but was due to meet Egyptian officials on Saturday evening, a senior member of the Islamist movement said.
For months, mediators – Qatar, Egypt, the United States – have been trying to convince Hamas and Israel to stop the hostilities that have lasted for more than ten months, but so far without success.
An Egyptian source close to the negotiations in Cairo said, before the clashes between Israel and Hezbollah broke out, that Sunday would be “a pivotal stage”, after Washington spoke of “progress”.
The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered by an unprecedented offensive by Hamas on October 7 into Israeli territory, which resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
251 people were also abducted that day: 105 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has left at least 40,334 dead, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry, which does not provide details on the number of civilians and fighters killed. According to the UN, most of the dead are women and children.
The offensive caused a humanitarian and health disaster and displaced 90% of the territory’s 2.4 million inhabitants, according to the UN.