(Jerusalem) Tension between Israel and Hezbollah rose again on Wednesday with the announcement of the death of six Israeli soldiers and strikes against Lebanon, which left at least eight dead.
Posted at 6:29 a.m.
Updated at 6:37 p.m.
Michael BLUM
Agence France-Presse
The Israeli army announced the death of six soldiers killed in southern Lebanon, bringing to 47 the number of its soldiers killed in fighting with Hezbollah since the start of its ground offensive in Lebanese territory on September 30. .
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a photo on the social network X of the tree symbol of the Golani unit, a brigade of these soldiers, with a broken heart in the comments.
This is the deadliest incident for the Israeli army in Lebanese territory since the start of the ground assault with another having cost the lives of six commandos in the first days.
PHOTO THAIER AL-SUDANI, REUTERS
Columns of smoke rise from the suburbs of Beirut on November 13, 2024.
A little earlier, the Israeli Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, had promised not to “take our foot off the gas” in the face of the Shiite Islamist movement Hezbollah, against which the Israeli army is also leading an intense campaign of aerial bombardments across the Lebanon.
“We will not cease fire, we will not let up, and we will not allow any agreement that does not include the achievement of the objectives of the war, and in particular the right of Israel to act alone against any terrorist activity,” Mr. Katz said on his first visit to the Israeli army’s Northern Command base since taking office the previous week.
“Positions are hardening” on the Israeli side, said in Paris the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, whose country is carrying a ceasefire proposal that has remained a dead letter.
“Ability to hit”
“Today, we hear voices in Israel saying that the most important thing is that Israel, at all times, can maintain the capacity to strike in Lebanon,” he added.
PHOTO HASSAN AMMAR, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Residents check the scene after an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon.
In total on Wednesday, “around 60” projectiles or missiles were launched from Lebanon towards Israeli territory on Wednesday, the Israeli army indicated in the evening.
On the Lebanese side, air raids targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut on several occasions on Wednesday, while a separate strike against a densely populated town south of the capital left eight dead, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
Hours after the strikes targeting the suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah claimed to have launched explosive drones at the Israeli army headquarters in Tel Aviv, where the Defense Ministry is located, in central Israel.
Questioned by AFP, the Israeli army spokesperson’s office said it was “not reacting to Hezbollah’s allegations”.
A new strike targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut during the night from Wednesday to Thursday after a call to evacuate published by the Israeli army, noted an AFPTV videographer, after three series of strikes on this Hezbollah stronghold in less of 24 hours.
The Israeli army also said it intercepted 40 projectiles launched from Lebanon on Wednesday, including at least two drones, adding that these attacks did not cause any injuries.
Hezbollah, for its part, said it had fired missiles during the night from Wednesday to Thursday at Israeli soldiers deployed near the town of Bint Jbeil, in southern Lebanon, as well as Sa’sa, in northern Lebanon. Israel.
The Israeli army launched an intense bombing campaign in Lebanon on September 23, targeting in particular the strongholds of Hezbollah, and launched a ground offensive in the south of the country on September 30.
More than 3,360 people, the majority civilians, have been killed according to the Lebanese authorities since the start of clashes in October 2023 between Israel and the heavily armed formation.
Two Israeli civilians were killed Tuesday by rocket fire, bringing to 45 the number of civilians killed in northern Israel by fire from Lebanon.
Hezbollah opened a front against Israel on October 8, 2023, the day after the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas that sparked the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
“Return emergency”
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed or died in captivity.
On Wednesday, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an armed group allied with Hamas, published a clearly recent video of one of these hostages, Sacha Trupnaov, a 29-year-old Russian-Israeli, alive.
Its broadcast comes a few days after Qatar, deploring a lack of will and seriousness on the part of both parties, announced that it was ceasing its mediation between the Israeli authorities and Hamas, with a view to obtaining a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages.
This “horrible video […] underlines the urgency of the return of […] hostages”, who “have no more time to lose”, after the ordeals they have endured and while they “face an increased risk of losing their lives after more than a year of detention”, reacted the Families Forum, the main association of relatives of hostages, in a press release.
Of the 251 people taken hostage on October 7, 2023, 97 are still captive in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the Israeli army.
Military reprisals for the October 7 attack left 43,712 dead in the Gaza Strip, according to the latest report from the Hamas Ministry of Health for this territory, deemed reliable by the UN.
Devastated by the fighting, the Gaza Strip is facing, according to the UN, an extremely serious humanitarian crisis, and famine threatens the north of the territory, the scene for weeks of an intense Israeli military offensive.
