Photo: Patrick Baz Agence France-Presse Members of a Syrian family who took refuge in Lebanon are fleeing to the north of the country due to Israeli bombing.
Marc Jourdier – Agence France-Presse and Laure Al Khoury – Agence France-Presse in Beirut
Published at 9:19 AM Updated at 1:13 PM
- Middle East
The American president and the Israeli prime minister had a telephone conversation on Wednesday to discuss in particular the war between Israel and Hezbollah, at a time when the Israeli army is widening its offensive against the pro-Iranian movement in southern Lebanon.
Rocket fire killed two people Wednesday in northern Israel, which borders Lebanon, according to Israeli emergency services, while Hezbollah reported fighting and assured that it had twice repelled Israeli incursions into southern Lebanon at dawn.
The meeting between Benjamin Netanyahu and Joe Biden, in which US Vice President Kamala Harris, a candidate for the White House, took part, is the first in nearly two months between the two leaders, whose relations are difficult.
According to the American website Axios, Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu are to discuss in particular Israel's plan to strike Iran, in response to an Iranian missile attack launched on October 1 against its territory.
This attack was presented by Iran, an enemy of Israel and the United States, as a response to the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, killed on September 27 in an Israeli strike near Beirut, and the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, killed in Tehran on July 31 in an attack attributed to Israel.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been leading a devastating offensive in the Gaza Strip, launched in response to the Hamas attack on Israeli soil. The war has recently spread to Lebanon, with tensions escalating between Israel and Iran, which supports Hezbollah and Hamas.
“May Hezbollah have mercy”
On Wednesday, a man and a woman in their forties were killed by rocket fire in Kiryat Shmona, a town in northern Israel located two kilometers from the Lebanese border, announced Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross.
These are the first people killed in Israel by rockets from Lebanon since Israel shifted the frontline of the war to that country in mid-September.
“About 20 projectiles” were fired at Kiryat Shmona, according to the army.
After weakening Hamas in its ground and air offensive on the Gaza Strip, Israel is seeking to push Hezbollah away from the border areas of southern Lebanon and to stop its rocket fire into northern Israel, which has been ongoing for a year, to allow the return to that region of some 60,000 displaced residents.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000After a campaign of massive airstrikes launched on September 23 on the strongholds of Hezbollah across Lebanon, Israel has been leading a ground offensive in the south of the country since September 30, extended this week to the coastal areas of southwest Lebanon.
Aerial bombardments continue, particularly in the southern suburbs of Beirut, one of Hezbollah’s strongholds, where an AFP correspondent reported a new strike on Wednesday.
According to Lebanese authorities, a bombardment left four dead in the Chouf region, south of Beirut, which has so far been relatively unaffected.
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On Wednesday, the army said its troops had destroyed “100 Hezbollah terrorist targets” in 24 hours.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on towns and military targets in northern Israel and southern Lebanon.
Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday threatened Lebanon with the same “destruction and suffering” as the Gaza Strip.
“I don’t talk to Netanyahu because he is inhuman. This is the 21st century.” How can genocide be committed in this way? ?” reacted Ahmed, a 77-year-old man, in Beirut, after the threats made on Tuesday by Benjamin Netanyahu.
He nevertheless appealed to the Shiite party: “May Hezbollah have pity on the people who sleep in the streets, may we not have the same fate as the people of Gaza who are suffering genocide,” he implored.
Since October 2023 and the start of cross-border firefights between Israel and Hezbollah, more than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, including nearly 1,200 since September 23, according to an AFP count based on official figures. More than a million people have been displaced.
“An endless hell”
In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has surrounded the Jabalia area in the north in recent days and called for evacuations, saying Hamas was seeking to rebuild its capabilities there.
Intense bombardments targeted Jabalia and its surroundings on Wednesday, according to the Civil Defense.
According to the head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, “at least 400,000 people are trapped in this area.” “Northern Gaza: an endless hell,” he said on X.
“The recent evacuation orders from the Israeli authorities are forcing people to flee again and again, especially from the Jabalia camp,” he added, stressing that “many people refuse to leave because they know only too well that there is no safe place in Gaza.”
Photo: Maya Alleruzzo Associated Press An Israeli soldier with Hezbollah weapons reportedly seized during an operation in southern Lebanon.
The war reduced entire sectors of the small besieged territory to rubble and displaced the vast majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants.
At least 42,010 Palestinians have been killed, mostly civilians, in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to data from the Hamas government's health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.
On the Israeli side, the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, resulted in the death of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures and including hostages who died or were killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip.