Israel says Lebanon offensive plan ‘approved’ as tensions surge
Palestinians at a damaged apartment block following overnight Israeli strikes in Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip (Photo: AFP/Bashar TALEB)
19 Jun 2024 04:10AM (Updated: 19 Jun 2024 05:32AM)
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GAZA STRIP: The Israeli army on Tuesday (Jun 18) said plans for an offensive in Lebanon were "approved and validated" amid escalating cross-border clashes with Hezbollah and a relative lull in Gaza fighting.
The war in Gaza has heightened tensions across the region, with Israeli forces and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, exchanging fire on a near-daily basis.
"Operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated" as commanders met for a situational assessment, the army said in a statement.
It came after Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz threatened Hezbollah’s destruction in a "total war".
The latest warnings came after Israel announced at the weekend a daily "pause" of military activity in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah to facilitate aid flows, coinciding with the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.
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In central Gaza, witnesses reported gunfire and artillery shelling near the Nuseirat refugee camp, where the civil defence agency said at least 13 people were killed in two separate strikes on a family home and a commercial building.
Al-Awda Hospital said it received the bodies of "six martyrs and 15 wounded as a result of Israeli air strikes on various areas in the central and southern Gaza Strip".
Witnesses and the Hamas government media office said there were some strikes and fighting elsewhere in northern and central Gaza.
In a statement, the Israeli army said its operations continued Tuesday in central and southern Gaza including Rafah city on the border with Egypt.
Palestinians search the rubble of the Al-Rai family home which was hit at dawn in Israeli bombardment of Nuseirat city in the central Gaza Strip (Photo: AFP/Bashar TALEB)
"TOTAL WAR"
In a message for Eid al-Adha, US President Joe Biden has called for the implementation of a ceasefire plan he outlined last month, saying it was "the best way to end the violence".
US envoy Amos Hochstein said the plan would ultimately lead to "the end of the conflict in Gaza" which would in turn quell fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
But Israel’s top diplomat on Tuesday said: "We are very close to the moment when we will decide to change the rules of the game against Hezbollah and Lebanon."
"In a total war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be hit hard," Katz said in a statement from his ministry.
Southern Gaza Strip (Photo: AFP/Sophie RAMIS, Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA)
It came after Hezbollah published a more than nine-minute video showing drone footage purportedly taken by the movement over northern Israel, including parts of the city and port of Haifa.
Biden’s proposal would bring an initial six-week pause to fighting and Hamas would free hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
MOUNTING CRITICISM
Amid mounting criticism over his handling of the hostage crisis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited the relatives of killed hostages to his home, several families told AFP Tuesday.
But one relative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she would decline the invitation, saying, "he remembered a little late to invite us".
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Israel army says operational plans for Lebanon offensive ‘approved’
In Jerusalem on Monday, thousands of Israelis protested against Netanyahu’s government over its failure to negotiate the release of scores of hostages held in the Palestinian territory since Hamas’s Oct 7 attack.
Demonstrators rallied outside the parliament and near Netanyahu’s residence, demanding early elections and chanting "All of them! Now!", referring to the release of hostages.
"We need to shut down the country in order to make the government fall," said Yaacov Godo, whose son Tom was killed during the Hamas attack, at the start of what activists describe as a week of anti-government action across the country.
Israeli media said another rally was planned in front of the parliament building late Tuesday.
Israeli protestors try to tear down a police barricade near the prime minister’s residence during an anti-government rally in Jerusalem (Photo: AFP/HAZEM BADER)
"DEATH AND SUFFERING"
In Rafah, where the Israeli military has said it would pause fighting along a key route in the city’s east, witnesses saw Israeli military vehicles and reported shelling in other areas.
The unprecedented October 7 attack by Palestinian militants on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza, although the army says 41 are dead.
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