Israel launched its largest airstrike across Lebanon since the deal was signed. Ceasefire with Hezbollah At least 11 people were killed on Monday after Lebanese militants fired a volley of projectiles last week as a warning over Israel’s violation of the ceasefire.
The projectile was apparently the first time Hezbollah has targeted Israeli forces since a 60-day ceasefire went into effect last Wednesday. The increasingly fragile ceasefire is aimed at ending more than a year of war between Hezbollah and Israel and is part of a broader regional conflict sparked by devastating terrorism. Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
In a clear warning of possible signs of fragility in the ceasefire and the consequences for Lebanon of its failure, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Tuesday over the country’s army radio network that if the ceasefire “breaks down, we will… will take strong action,” he was quoted as warning. And stop separating Hezbollah from the Lebanese state. ”
Ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah shaken by airstrikes and missile launches
The Lebanese Ministry of Health said: Israeli airstrike Five people were killed and two injured in the southern village of Harris, and another airstrike killed four and injured two in the village of Tarusa.
The Israeli military carried out a series of airstrikes late Monday targeting Hezbollah fighters, infrastructure facilities and rocket launchers across Lebanon. The airstrike was a response to Hezbollah’s firing of two projectiles at Mt. Mount Dob is a disputed piece of Israeli territory known as Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms, where the borders of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel meet. Israel said the projectile landed in an open area but no injuries were reported.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it opened fire on Israeli military positions in the area as a “defensive and warning response” to Hezbollah’s call. ‘Repeated violations’ of ceasefire agreement Agreement by Israel. Complaints to mediators tasked with monitoring the ceasefire “were futile in preventing these violations,” he said.
Tayer Al Sudani/Reuters
Prior to the Hezbollah projectile attack, Israel carried out at least four airstrikes and artillery strikes in southern Lebanon, including a drone strike, which killed a motorcyclist, Lebanese state media said. That’s what it means. Another airstrike killed a corporal in the Lebanese security forces.
Israel said its airstrikes were in response to unspecified Hezbollah violations and reserved the right to retaliate under the ceasefire agreement.
Lebanese parliament speaker Navi Berri accused Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement more than 50 times in recent days, launching airstrikes, destroying homes near the border and violating Lebanese airspace. .
U.S. officials, who along with France head the committee that helped broker the ceasefire and monitor compliance with the agreement, downplayed the significance of the Israeli attack. “Broadly speaking, the ceasefire remains in place,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.
“We’ve gone from dozens of airstrikes to one a day, maybe two a day,” Kirby told reporters about Israeli airstrikes. “We will keep trying and see what we can do to get it down to zero.”
Under the agreement, Iran-backed Hezbollah has 60 days to withdraw its fighters and infrastructure from southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, Israeli forces will also withdraw to their side of the border.
A ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel has done nothing to quell the continued bloodshed in the Gaza Strip. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli military attacks against another Iranian-backed group, Hamas, have killed more than 44,000 people, according to health officials in the Palestinian enclave that Hamas has long ruled for nearly two decades.
President Trump warns ‘hell will pay’ if Israeli hostages in Gaza are not released
President-elect Donald Trump on Monday called on social media for the immediate release of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying on social media that there would be “hell to pay” if they were not released before he takes office in January. said.
It was not immediately clear whether President Trump had threatened to directly involve the U.S. military in Israel’s war in Gaza. The United States has provided significant military and diplomatic support to Israel throughout the nearly 15-month conflict.
In a post on his website Truth Social, President Trump called on Palestinian extremists to release all 100 Israeli hostages currently being held in the Gaza Strip (about 3 minutes long). 2 are believed to be alive).
If not, Trump said, “those responsible will be hit harder than anyone in the storied history of the United States. Release the hostages now!”
Hours earlier, the Israeli government Omer Neutra’s death has been confirmed.He was a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, and his body is believed to remain in Hamas custody in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli government.
President Trump issued the warning days after Hamas released propaganda. Video of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexanderspoke compulsively and urged the president-elect to negotiate the release of the hostages.
The Biden administration is making last-ditch efforts to restart negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on Trump’s post, but President Isaac Herzog welcomed it.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has faced regular protests over his government’s handling of the hostage crisis, some of whom feel he has deliberately prolonged the war in Gaza to avoid facing problems for himself. This includes people who are Corruption trial looming.
“We are all slaves to his private interests,” protester Tammy Balkan declared during a solemn and silent demonstration over the weekend.
“I think the Israeli government…doesn’t want to make this deal,” agreed fellow protester Meitar Grimland.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government have vowed to continue the military offensive in Gaza until Hamas is completely dismantled and all hostages, living and dead, are returned home.
Famine warning in northern Gaza as aid supplies dwindle
Meanwhile, there are growing concerns about rising hunger in Gaza. The amount of food Israel allows has plummeted in the past two months, and the United Nations on Sunday halted aid shipments into the territory from its main border amid fears that armed groups could plunder convoys. The decision made it worse.
Desperation and hunger have led to more casualties, with medical officials announcing on Friday that two girls, aged 13 and 17, and a 50-year-old woman were seriously injured. crushed to death Crowds flocked to a bakery in central Gaza to buy bread.
Experts have already warned of famine in the far north of Gaza, where Israeli forces have been almost completely isolated since early October and say they are fighting regrouped Hamas militants.
On the streets of Gaza City, displaced families are pitching tents surrounded by piles of garbage. Bilal Marouf, 55, said he and 11 members of his family fled the Israeli attack “barefoot and naked.”
“We had nothing. We died of hunger and thirst. We didn’t have a single shekel, we didn’t have any clothes, we didn’t have a mattress, we didn’t have a blanket,” he said near his tent.
Israel’s Gaza operation, which began with a Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, in which militants killed about 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage across southern Israel, has targeted nearly the entire population of the Gaza Strip. was expelled from the house. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians currently live in squalid tent camps, relying on international aid.
The Israeli military announced Sunday night that it had allowed 40 trucks carrying 600 tons of flour destined for the World Food Program and 16 other food trucks into the southern Gaza Strip.
Israel said it was working to increase aid flows. According to official Israeli statistics, the average number of humanitarian aid trucks entering Gaza per day in November was 77, up from 57 the previous month. But the level remains near the lowest in the entire 15-month war. And the United Nations says less than half of aid actually reaches Palestinians because Israel’s military restrictions, fighting and robbery make it too dangerous to deliver.
Bashar Taleb/AFP/Getty
WFP Deputy Director-General Karl Skow said on Monday that the World Food Program will only be able to deliver aid to around 300,000 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip in November due to Israel’s continued military attacks and looting of convoys. He said he was unable to do so.
At a tented camp in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Bala, Palestinians lined up at a makeshift mud oven to buy a few flatbreads for their families.
With flour prices soaring due to the shortage, bakers (and women who have fled from the north) say they are baking less bread and their families have much less money to buy.
“They give one loaf to each child every day,” said Wafaa Al Attar, a female baker.
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