The day after the leader of the Shiite group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, spoke about his increasingly active role in the “support front” for Hamas, missiles and projectiles fired from southern Lebanon injured 20 civilians and soldiers in the north. From Israel. The Israeli Air Force responded by attacking pro-Iranian militia targets in the most tense day on this border since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the anti-tank missile fire that seriously injured six citizens in the Upper Galilee and clarified that the target was a vehicle of a logistics force of the Israeli Army that was going to install a surveillance device near the border. They were, however, employees of the national electricity company who went to the community of Dovev to repair electricity lines destroyed by previous attacks from neighboring Lebanon.
The automatic Israeli reaction consisted of artillery against the origin of the launch in the Lebanese area and the neutralization of several commandos. In the afternoon, sirens north of the Haifa city perimeter sounded for the first time in the crisis. Iron Dome intercepted several projectiles claimed by Hamas cells in southern Lebanon. At the same time, seven soldiers and several civilians were wounded in other areas in Israel.
Since the jihadist attack on October 7 and the subsequent Israeli military offensive, Nasrallah has shown with words, drones and missiles his solidarity with his Sunni Palestinian brother in the Shiite family headed by Iran. But if the rhetorical support is total, praising the terrorist infiltration in the south of Israel, at the armed level it is a matter of gradual assistance to force the enemy to send soldiers to the northern border – and not concentrate only on Gaza – and to evacuate citizens. Despite pressure from Hamas and Islamic Jihad who expected more, Hezbollah has not yet crossed the line that could lead Israel to expand its retaliation in such a way that the two sides repeat the 2006 war that lasted 34 days.
The Israeli Army has taken advantage of Hezbollah’s attacks to neutralize not only projectile and sniper commands (killing 73 combatants according to this group compared to six soldiers) but dozens of positions deployed on the border. In Israel, there are more and more voices demanding not to waste the situation to massively hit the Nasrallah group.
“The war against Hamas cannot end without eliminating the terrorist threat in the Gaza Strip, but neither in southern Lebanon. The tens of thousands of evacuated Israelis will not return to their homes if thousands of Hezbollah terrorists follow the other side of the border,” warns former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who criticizes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and security agencies for trying in recent years to “buy calm in Gaza in exchange for Qatari money.”
A month ago, the US asked Israel not to launch a large preventive operation against the Lebanese militia – Iran’s main one – so as not to turn the confrontation in Gaza into a regional war. His demand came after the Israeli leadership raised it to prevent Hezbollah’s Radwan Unit from doing in its northern communities what Hamas’ Nukba Unit did in its southern ones. In fact, in recent years it was the most feared scenario in the Army. With more than 150,000 projectiles, Hezbollah is a tough enemy for Israel in normal times and even more so when it is immersed in a war in Gaza and open fronts from Syria, the West Bank and even Yemen.
Israel warns Nasrallah “not to make the mistake of 2006 when it attacked, started the war and then repented” and Lebanon to put pressure on it if it does not want to suffer the same tragic fate as the Gaza Strip. In 37 days of war, the Israeli Air Force has hit the armed wing of Hamas hard, while causing unprecedented destruction in the Gaza Strip. Around 41,000 houses have been destroyed by Israeli bombs, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which warns that more than half of the hospitals have stopped functioning. The Palestinian Red Crescent indicates that the end of fuel has left Al Quds Hospital out of service.
While Israeli soldiers continue to advance and take Hamas positions and strongholds, including in Shati in northern Gaza, attention to the large-scale confrontation continued to focus on three hospitals surrounded by the Army, which is calling for their evacuation, denouncing that in their Underground there are “terrorist infrastructures and command centers” of the Ezzedin Al Qassam Brigades.
For the first time since the start of the war, Israeli soldiers placed 300 liters of fuel at the entrance to Shifa Hospital “for urgent medical purposes.” Israel accused Hamas of preventing, through its Ministry of Health, the health center from receiving him and reported that it allows and protects the departure of civilians from the Shifa, Rantisi and Nasser hospitals.
“Someone contacted the director and told him that they had 200 liters of fuel. These 200 liters give less than an hour to run the generator… This is a mockery towards patients and children,” reacted the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health. of Gaza, Ashraf Al-Qidra. Speaking to Reuters he said Israeli fire had not directly hit Shifa Hospital overnight, but was “terrorizing medical officials and civilians alike.”
Fighting between soldiers and militiamen continued this Sunday in the area of ??Gaza’s largest hospital, raising fear for the thousands of civilians trapped while the wounded lack the necessary care due to the lack of supplies. The head of hospitals in Gaza defined the situation in Shifa as “catastrophic.”
While UN agencies denounce the siege of health centers in Gaza and demand a ceasefire in the face of the humanitarian crisis, Hamas maintains that Israel attacked the Shifa Hospital, ensuring that it will therefore suspend negotiations on the kidnapped people. Despite this, the efforts led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt continue under a sea of ??leaks. The agreement would include the release of between 50 to 100 hostages, including children, women and the elderly, of the 239 held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In exchange, Israel would accept a truce of 3 to 5 days, the entry of fuel into Gaza and the release of women and minors in Israeli jail.
