The Israeli army and Hezbollah exchanged new cross-border fire on Thursday after an escalation in belligerent rhetoric between the two protagonists, raising fears of a full-scale war.
On Israel’s southern front, in the Gaza Strip, the war started on October 7 by an attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israeli territory, continues with Israeli bombings, particularly on Rafah (south).
The devastating conflict has sparked a surge in violence on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where exchanges of fire between the army and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have intensified in recent weeks.
On Thursday, the Lebanese Islamist movement announced that it had fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at a military position in northern Israel in retaliation for the death of one of its fighters in a targeted Israeli strike on Deir Kifa, in the south from Lebanon.
The Israeli army confirmed that it had “eliminated” a Hezbollah fighter, presenting him as a local commander of the movement armed and financed by Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy.
In an incendiary speech Wednesday evening, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that “no place” in Israel would be spared from his movement’s missiles and drones in the event of an Israeli attack on Lebanon.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army announced that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon” had been “validated”, and the head of diplomacy Israel Katz affirmed that “in a total war, Hezbollah will be destroyed”.
“New Weapons”
Mr. Nasrallah also threatened the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, saying he “has information” according to which Israel could use, if attacked, “airports and bases” in this European Union country closest to the coasts of the Middle East.
These accusations are “devoid of any basis”, affirmed the Cypriot government. Cyprus “maintains excellent relations with all countries in the region,” and “is not and will not be involved in any conflict.”
Threats from Hezbollah, a movement which exercises a preponderant influence in Lebanon, have worried Israelis, Lebanese and Cypriots.
“We don’t know if this story will end in a war or an agreement. I would prefer an agreement,” Shimon Kamari from Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel told AFP.
For Sofinar, resident of Beirut, “Lebanon does not want war […] We are already suffering and the economic situation is precarious.”
Costas, a resident of Nicosia, said that “the Cypriot government is only providing humanitarian aid” to Gaza.
In the event of war, Mr. Nasrallah warned, Israel would have to “wait for us by land, by sea and by air,” adding that his movement had received “new weapons” and had more than 100,000 men ready to fight. .
But experts are divided on the prospect of regional conflict.
“Within a few weeks, we will see an Israeli operation in Lebanon,” said Nitzan Nuriel, former head of the Israeli counterterrorism department. But, according to Eyal Zisser, a Hezbollah expert at Tel Aviv University, “no one wants an escalation.”
” We win “
On October 7, Hamas commandos carried out an attack in southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data. That day, 251 people were kidnapped, 116 are still held hostage in Gaza, of whom 41 died, according to the army.
The Israeli army launched a major offensive that has devastated Gaza and left 37,431 dead so far, mostly civilians, including 35 in the last 24 hours, according to data from the Gaza government’s Health Ministry. led by Hamas.
In Rafah (south), fighting continues between soldiers and Palestinian fighters. According to AFP images, Palestinian families continued to flee the city, their belongings piled on trailers or carts.
“The last bastion (of Hamas) in Rafah is systematically dismantled […] house by house, tunnel by tunnel, dwelling by dwelling. We will destroy it and we will win,” Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said.
Bombings also targeted the center of the territory, killing two people, according to a doctor.
On a humanitarian level, aid is still trickling into the small Palestinian territory besieged by Israel and threatened with famine according to the UN.
Despite calls from the international community, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assures that he will continue the war until the elimination of Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007 and is considered terrorist by the United States, the EU and Israel.