Fighting in southern Lebanon, a conversation between Biden and Netanyahu expected

(Beirut) Fighting took place Wednesday between Hezbollah and Israeli troops engaged in a ground offensive in southern Lebanon, at a time when American President Joe Biden is due to have a telephone interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first in two months.

MM. Biden and Netanyahu, whose relations are very tense, must notably discuss Israel’s plan to strike Iran in response to an Iranian missile attack launched on 1^is October against its territory, according to the American site Axios.

According to Iran, enemy of Israel and the United States, the attack was a response to the assassination of two of its allies: Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, killed in Lebanon by Israel, and the leader of Hamas Ismaïl Haniyeh, killed in Tehran in an attack blamed on Israel.

After weakening Hamas during a large-scale military campaign in retaliation for the unprecedented attack carried out on October 7, 2023 by the Palestinian Islamist movement, Israel moved the bulk of its operations against Hezbollah to mid-September. in neighboring Lebanon.

Objective: to distance Hezbollah from the border areas of southern Lebanon, its stronghold, and to stop its rocket fire towards northern Israel to allow the return to this region of some 60,000 displaced inhabitants.

In southern Lebanon, “fighting is underway” between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli soldiers, said the pro-Iranian movement, which claimed to have twice repelled Israeli incursions at dawn by detonating explosives. and firing shells.

Knife attack in Israel

The army, which has been leading a ground offensive in southern Lebanon since September 30, claimed that its troops had destroyed “100 Hezbollah terrorist targets,” “dismantled (rocket) launch pads and eliminated terrorists during close combat and air raids” in the last 24 hours.

She also announced having intercepted “two projectiles” coming from Lebanon after warning sirens sounded in localities south of Haifa and bordering the north.

In central Israel, in Hadera, six people were injured by an assailant who stabbed passers-by before being “neutralized”, police said, suggesting that the attack was linked to the Israeli conflict. decades-old Palestinian.

“Destruction, suffering”

“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it sinks into the abyss of a long war that will cause destruction and suffering like that we see in Gaza,” Mr. Netanyahu said on Tuesday. Lebanese.

“Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end,” he added in reference to the pro-Iranian movement whose leader, Hassan Nasrallah, killed on September 27 in an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, was considered the most powerful man in Lebanon.

If Hezbollah, the only formation not to have laid down its arms after the civil war (1975-1990), enjoys immense support within its Shiite community and significant influence in Lebanon, part of the class Lebanese politicians accuse him of having dragged the country into a war with Israel.

“We eliminated Nasrallah, and Nasrallah’s replacement and his replacement’s replacement,” Mr. Netanyahu said again without giving names.

Last Saturday, a Hezbollah official said that contact had been lost with Hachem Safieddine, tipped to succeed Nasrallah, since Israeli raids the day before near Beirut. The Israeli army claimed to have targeted him, but did not confirm his death.

The ongoing air and ground offensive in Gaza has reduced entire sectors of the small, besieged Palestinian territory to rubble, displaced the vast majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants, caused a humanitarian disaster and left tens of thousands dead.

Intense bombings in Gaza

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday that Hezbollah was now “a battered and broken organization.”

“Our capabilities are good, contrary to what the enemy says, who claims to have weakened us,” Naïm Qassem, Hezbollah’s number two, had previously assured.

On October 8, Hezbollah opened a front against Israel in support of Hamas. The spiral of cross-border violence for a year turned into open war on September 23, with the start of violent shelling by Israel of Hezbollah strongholds.

Since October 2023, more than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, including more than 1,110 since September 23, according to an AFP count based on official figures. More than a million people have been displaced.

Despite the blows inflicted on Hezbollah and Hamas, these movements continue to fire rockets against Israel, which borders the Gaza Strip to the south and Lebanon to the north.

In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army surrounded the Jabalia area and issued new calls to evacuate the area, saying Hamas was seeking to rebuild its capabilities there. Intense bombardments targeted Jabalia and nearby towns, according to local Civil Defense.

In Cairo, a meeting takes place between Hamas and Fatah, rival Palestinian groups, to discuss the war in Gaza and efforts for national unity, according to the Islamist movement.