The conversation was “friendly and cordial”, the two leaders “agreed to cooperate for the security of Israel” and “discussed the threat from Iran”, which also supports Hamas, according to Benjamin Netanyahu's office. He had previously welcomed “the historic return to the White House” of Donald Trump, who had increased his gestures in favor of Israel, and was the favorite of the Israelis, according to the polls. “Together, we will strengthen the US-Israeli alliance, bring back the hostages” – held in Gaza since the Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war in the Palestinian territory on October 7, 2023 – “and stand firm to defeat the axis of Evil led by Iran”, reacted on X the new Israeli Minister of Defense, Israel Katz.
“End the war”
“Trump will probably continue to support Netanyahu in his battles in Gaza and Lebanon” but “without allowing him to enter into a real war against Iran,” said former Palestinian minister Ghassan Khatib, professor at Birzeit University. in the occupied West Bank. “We just need” the future president to “give us weapons” to “end the war,” responded Yossi Mizrachi, a 51-year-old Israeli fruit seller in a market in Jerusalem, in the morning. “We need someone strong like Trump to end the war,” said Mamdouh Al-Jadba, a 60-year-old Gazans displaced by the fighting, in Gaza City.
Naïm Qassem, who spoke before the results of the American presidential election, affirmed that his movement was not counting on its outcome to achieve a ceasefire with Israel. Shortly after the broadcast of his pre-recorded speech, the Israeli army carried out a strike, after an evacuation order, on the southern suburbs of Beirut, where it had killed his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah on September 27. The Israeli army recorded 120 projectiles fired during the day by Hezbollah from Lebanon. “We have tens of thousands of trained resistance fighters who can confront “Israel” and hold on,” assured Naïm Qassem.
Israel, which has been carrying out a campaign of intensive strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon since September 23, and since September 30 a ground offensive in the south of the country targeting it, “will cry out (in pain) under the missiles and drones, no one “The location of the Israeli entity is inaccessible,” he threatened. The movement had previously claimed to have fired missiles targeting a military base near Ben-Gurion airport, south of Tel Aviv, without causing damage or affecting traffic, according to the Israel Airports Authority. Hezbollah, whose leadership has been largely weakened, ensures that its men repel Israeli incursions and announces daily shots on Israel.
More than 2,600 dead in Lebanon
The Israeli army also carried out strikes on Wednesday in the northeast and south of Lebanon, strongholds of Hezbollah. Those targeting the Bekaa Valley and its capital Baalbek, in the east, killed “40 people and injured 53”, announced the Lebanese Ministry of Health overnight. At least two new strikes hit southern Beirut early Thursday after the Israeli army called on residents of four Shiite neighborhoods to evacuate. Israel threw its forces against Hezbollah after more than a year of cross-border firefights with the outfit, which displaced some 60,000 residents of northern Israel. Hezbollah opened this front in support of Hamas at the start of the war in Gaza.
More than 2,600 people, “mostly civilians” have been killed across Lebanon since September 23, Health Minister Firass Abiad announced on Wednesday. The Israeli army is also continuing its operations against Hamas in Gaza, particularly in the north where it has been carrying out a deadly offensive for a month. It announced Wednesday evening that it had intercepted a projectile fired from the besieged territory towards southern Israel. Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to a count based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed or died in captivity.
