Coinciding with the first anniversary of the start of the war, Israel is determined to show strength on all fronts open to it. While it maintains pressure on the north with its offensive on Lebanon, which the UN considers an violation of international humanitarian law, it does not distract from its attacks on Gaza, also labeled as illegal over the last 12 months. The Middle East region is also awaiting the announced response of the Jewish State to the Iranian attack last Tuesday. Although there are no signs in the last few hours that this retaliation will be imminent, the Tehran authorities decreed the closure of its airports between 9 p.m. on Sunday and 6 a.m. on Monday. The Israeli response can happen at any time without warning.
Israeli bombing continued intense throughout Sunday on the Lebanese capital and other areas of the country. Images show large plumes of smoke and flames over southern Beirut visible for kilometers, following what Israel has described as “precise” attacks on Hezbollah weapons depots and infrastructure. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went this Sunday to Israel’s northern border, over which missiles launched by the Shiite party-militia sponsored by Iran continue to fly, to encourage his troops in a victorious tone: “You are lions.” “The whole world is amazed by the blows you are dealing to our enemies [en este último año]”, he harangued them.
The United Nations appreciates “many cases of violations” of international humanitarian law due to the way in which Israel carries out its bombings in Lebanon, killing civilians and damaging civil and humanitarian infrastructure, Filippo Grandi, head of the Humanitarian Agency, has denounced in Beirut. the UN for refugees (UNHCR), Reuters reports. Since Israel intensified its offensive in the last two weeks, including the ground invasion, Lebanon has suffered more than 2,000 deaths, some 10,000 wounded and around 1.2 million displaced people, of whom 220,000 have fled to Syria. Around 70% are refugees who had arrived in Lebanon fleeing the war that continues to shake their country.
“You are heroes worthy of praise. You, along with your other fellow soldiers, the fighters of the Israel Defense Forces and the security forces in Gaza, Judea and Samaria [como denomina a Cisjordania]across the region, are doing amazing things. You are lions,” Netanyahu said around the border with Lebanon.
The prime minister wanted to raise the triumphalist tone this Sunday despite the fact that, in addition to the different open battle fronts, there are still a hundred hostages who have been in Gaza for 12 months and nothing suggests a pact that will facilitate their release soon. “A year ago, we received a terrible blow. In the 12 months since then, we have changed reality across the board. The whole world is amazed by the blows you are dealing to our enemies. I greet you and tell you: You are the generation of victory,” he told the military, according to a statement provided by the Government.
The Israeli army continues to show images of tunnels drilled next to the border that were supposedly going to be used by members of Hezbollah to try to repeat another attack in Israeli territory like the one on October 7, as well as vehicles and weapons of the Radwan force, the elite corps of the Lebanese Shiite militia.
One dead in Beersheva attack
Meanwhile, also this Sunday, an Israeli citizen, the Bedouin Ahmad Al Uqbi, has been identified as the perpetrator of an attack in the city of Beersheva, in southern Israel. There he killed a 19-year-old border police officer and injured a dozen people before being killed. The attack took place just five days after another that had been claimed by Hamas and in which two of its men were killed after murdering seven people in the city of Yaffa, next to Tel Aviv, in the worst incident of this type. since the war started.
In the Gaza Strip, about thirty kilometers from Beersheba, the pace of fighting and bombing does not stop in an attempt by the army to continue weakening the military and political capacity of Hamas. This Sunday, at least 26 people died and almost a hundred were injured after an attack on a mosque and a school where citizens evacuated from their homes were taking refuge, according to Hamas government sources.
The occupation troops, for their part, have reported an operation against “terrorists” from the Palestinian fundamentalist group. Israeli military operations in the last 12 months have caused more than 41,000 deaths, devastated much of the territory and forced the displacement of most of the 2.3 million inhabitants.
Netanyahu’s anger with Macron calling for an end to arms supplies to Israel
The seven war fronts that Israel keeps open (Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Iran) are now joined by a new diplomatic front: the one that confronts it with Paris. The leaders of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and France, Emmanuel Macron, spoke by telephone this Sunday amid the anger generated on Saturday after the French president requested an end to the supply of weapons to the Jewish State.
Macron defended during that call that, after a last year of continuous escalation, the time has come for a ceasefire. The president has shown the Israeli Prime Minister his “conviction” that the time for a ceasefire has arrived. “The supply of weapons, the prolongation of the war in Gaza and its extension to Lebanon may be counterproductive for Israel’s own security,” adds a statement from the French presidency.
Netanyahu, for his part, believes that placing limitations on Israel benefits Iran, his main enemy. “Israel hopes that its friends will support it and not impose restrictions that will only strengthen the axis of Iranian evil,” the prime minister said, according to an official statement.
In addition, he has defended the bombings and the ground invasion of Lebanon as the appropriate path for “stability, security and peace in the entire region,” adds the text, which concludes that the authorities will continue to clarify positions during the next visit to Israel. of the head of French diplomacy.