Israel warns of ‘another war’ as Hezbollah strikes sensitive air traffic base in the north
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military warned Sunday of “another war†with Hezbollah the day after the Iran-backed militant group struck an air traffic control base in northern Israel.
The increase in fighting across the border with Lebanon as Israel’s battle with Hamas militants in Gaza entered its fourth month gave new urgency to U.S. diplomatic efforts as Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken prepared to visit Israel on his latest Mideast tour.
“This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering,†Blinken told reporters after talks in Qatar, a key mediator. The escalation of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has complicated a U.S. push to prevent a regional conflict.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah fire hit the sensitive air traffic control base on Mt. Meron on Saturday but air defenses were not affected because backup systems were in place. It said that no soldiers were hurt and all damage will be repaired.
Nonetheless, it was one of the most serious attacks by Hezbollah in the months of fighting that has accompanied Israel’s war in Gaza and forced tens of thousands of Israelis to evacuate communities near the Lebanese border.
Hezbollah described its rocket barrage as an “initial response†to the targeted killing of a top Hamas leader in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut last week, which is presumed to have been carried out by Israel.
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The Israeli military chief of staff, Lt. Col. Herzi Halevi, said military pressure on Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, was rising and it would either be effective “or we will get to another war.†Military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari asserted that Israel’s focus on Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force was pushing it away from the border.
Israel has mostly sought to limit the fighting in its north. Hezbollah’s military capabilities are far superior to those of Hamas. But Israeli leaders have said their patience is wearing thin, and that if the tensions cannot be resolved through diplomacy, they are prepared to use force.
“I suggest that Hezbollah learn what Hamas has already learned in recent months: No terrorist is immune,†Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet. “We are determined to defend our citizens and to return the residents of the north safely to their homes.â€
Lower-intensity fighting along Israel’s northern border broke out when Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking some 240 people hostage.
Israel’s retaliation has left more than 22,800 Palestinians dead and more than 58,000 wounded, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The agency does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its death toll. Health officials say about two-thirds of those killed have been women and minors. Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in heavily populated residential areas.
Hezbollah has said its attacks aim to ease pressure on Gaza.
In a joint news briefing with Blinken, Qatar’s government acknowledged that the killing of the senior Hamas leader in Lebanon could affect the complicated negotiations for the potential release of more hostages held by Hamas in Gaza but “we are continuing our discussions with the parties and trying to achieve as soon as possible an agreement.â€
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has met with the leaders of Turkey and Greece during the first stop of his latest Mideast diplomatic mission.
In recent weeks, Israel has scaled back its military assault in northern Gaza and pressed its offensive in the south, where most of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians are squeezed into smaller areas while being pounded by Israeli airstrikes. International assistance groups call the situation a humanitarian disaster but Netanyahu insists the war will not end until the objectives of eliminating Hamas, getting Israel’s hostages returned and ensuring that Gaza won’t be a threat to Israel are met.
An airstrike near the southern city of Rafah killed two journalists on Sunday, including Hamza Dahdouh, the oldest son of Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s chief correspondent in Gaza, according to both the Qatari-owned Arabic-language channel and local medical officials. Al Jazeera broadcast video of Dahdouh weeping and holding his son’s hand before walking away in a daze. Israel’s military had no immediate comment.
Al Jazeera strongly condemned the killings and other “brutal attacks against journalists and their families†by Israeli forces, and urged the International Criminal Court, governments and human rights groups to hold Israel accountable.
Dahdouh lost his wife, two children and a grandchild in an Oct. 26 airstrike, and was wounded in an Israeli strike last month that killed a co-worker.
“The world is blind to what’s happening in the Gaza Strip,†Dahdouh said, blinking back tears.
Another airstrike hit a house between Khan Yunis and the southern city of Rafah, killing at least seven people whose bodies were taken to the nearby European Hospital, according to an Associated Press journalist at the facility. One man hurried in carrying a baby, and later walked the blanket-wrapped child to the morgue.
“Everything happening here is outside the realms of law, outside the realms of reason. Our brains can’t fully comprehend all this that is happening to us,†said a grieving relative, Inas Abu Najja, her quavering voice rising.
On Sunday, officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis received the bodies of 18 people, including 12 children, killed in an Israeli strike late Saturday. More than 50 people were wounded in the strike on a home in the Khan Yunis refugee camp, set up decades ago to house refugees from the 1948 war over Israel’s creation.
Israeli forces pushed deeper into the central city of Deir al Balah, where residents in several neighborhoods were warned that they must evacuate.
The international medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by the acronym MSF, said it was evacuating its medical staff from Deir al Balah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital.
A bullet penetrated a wall of the hospital’s intensive care unit on Friday, and “drone attacks and sniper fire were just a few hundred meters from the hospital†over the past couple of days, said Carolina Lopez, the group’s emergency coordinator there. She said the hospital received between 150 and 200 wounded people daily in recent weeks.
The International Rescue Committee and Medical Aid for Palestinians said they also were forced to withdraw from the hospital. “The amount of injuries being brought in over the last few days has been horrific,†surgeon Nick Maynard with the IRC medical team said in a statement.
The World Health Organization urged the protection of health workers across Gaza.
Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, said scattered fighting in northern Gaza was to be expected, along with rockets sporadically being launched from there toward Israel. He said Hamas militants “without a framework and without commanders†were still present. The military has said that it has killed more than 8,000 Hamas fighters.
Hagari said Israeli forces would act differently in the south than in northern Gaza, where heavy bombardment and ground combat leveled entire neighborhoods.
He said urban refugee camps targeted by the military are packed with gunmen and that “an underground city of sprawling tunnels†was discovered underneath Khan Yunis. Echoing Israeli political leaders, he said fighting will continue throughout 2024.
The Biden administration and Netanyahu remain far apart on who should run the territory after the war, with the Israeli leader rejecting the Washington-floated idea of having a reformed Palestinian Authority, an autonomous government in parts of the occupied West Bank, eventually administer Gaza.
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