Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected on Tuesday (15 October 2024) the idea of a cease-fire in Lebanon that would leave Hezbollah near his country’s northern border, as the militant group threatened to escalate its attacks.
Mr. Netanyahu’s comments came as the United States ramped up pressure over Israel’s actions in the war in Lebanon and Gaza, criticizing the recent bombing of Beirut and demanding more aid reaches the Palestinian territories.
In a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Mr Netanyahu said he was “opposed to a unilateral ceasefire, which does not change the security situation in Lebanon, and will only return to the way it is now”, according to a statement from his office.
Mr. Netanyahu and the Israeli military have insisted there should be a buffer zone along Israel’s border with Lebanon free of Hezbollah fighters.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu made it clear that Israel will not agree to any arrangement that does not provide (a buffer zone) and does not prevent Hezbollah from rearming and regrouping,” the statement said.
In a televised speech, Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said the only solution was a ceasefire while threatening to expand the scope of missile strikes on Israel.
“Since Israel’s enemies are targeting all of Lebanon, we have the right from a defensive position to target anywhere” in Israel, he said.
In another day of fighting, the Iran-backed group said it fired rockets into the northern Israeli city of Haifa and targeted Israeli bulldozers and tanks near the border.
The Israeli military bombed several areas in southern and eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, including in the Bekaa Valley where a hospital in the city of Baalbek was out of order, Lebanese officials said. National News Office reported.
It also said it had captured three Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s health ministry said nine people were killed Tuesday evening in attacks in the south of the country, and five more in the east, including three children.
Asked about Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon in which residential buildings in central Beirut were hit on October 10, the US State Department voiced open criticism.
“We’ve made it clear that we are opposed to the kind of campaign that has been going on for the past few weeks” in Beirut, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
In a letter sent to the Israeli government on Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also warned that the United States could freeze arms shipments unless more humanitarian aid is sent to Palestinians in Gaza.
The letter made it “clear to the Israeli government that there are changes that need to be made again to see that the level of aid to Gaza returns from the current very low level,” said Mr. Miller said.
‘The worst limit’
Despite the need for food, medical supplies and shelter in starving Gaza, a spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF said on Tuesday that aid was facing the tightest restrictions since Israel’s offensive in October last year.
“Now we see what is the worst restriction we have seen in terms of humanitarian aid,” said spokesman James Elder in Geneva, adding that there were “several days in the last week (where) no commercial trucks were allowed to come in”.
For more than a week, Israeli forces have engaged in air and ground strikes that have swept northern Gaza and the area around Jabalia amid claims that Hamas militants are regrouping there.
“The whole area has been reduced to ashes,” said Rana Abdel Majid, 38, from the Al-Faluja area in northern Gaza.
Mr Majid said entire blocks had been leveled by “indiscriminate and merciless bombing”.
At a school shelter hit by Israeli strikes in the central Nuseirat camp, Fatima al-Azab said “there is no security anywhere” in Gaza.
“They were all children, sleeping under covers, all burned and cut,” he said.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza after an October 7 attack by Hamas that killed 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally from Israeli officials, including hostages who died in captivity.
Israel’s campaign has killed 42,344 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run territory that the UN considers reliable.
Lebanon attacked
Israel intensified its air campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon from September 23 and then launched a ground offensive a week later to push the group back from its northern border.
Hezbollah has fired thousands of projectiles into Israel over the past year in support of Hamas, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis.
At least 1,356 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel stepped up its bombing last month, according to an AFP tally based on Lebanese health ministry figures, although the actual number is higher.
The war in Lebanon, which has suffered years of economic crisis, has displaced at least 690,000 people, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration.
Israel is also considering how to respond to Iran’s decision to launch around 200 missiles at the country on October 1.
Netanyahu’s office said Israel – and not the United States’ main ally – would decide how to attack.
“We listen to the opinion of the United States, but we will make the final decision based on our national interests,” he said on Tuesday.
The Iranian attack was in retaliation for an Israeli attack in Beirut, Lebanon that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and another that killed Iranian general Abbas Nilforoushan on September 27.
US President Joe Biden, whose government is Israel’s top arms supplier, has warned Israel not to attack Iran’s nuclear or oil facilities.
According to a Washington Post report there citing an unnamed US official, Mr. Netanyahu reassured the White House that Israel is contemplating targeting only military sites.
Published – October 16, 2024 03:46 IST
