The Israeli-Hezbollah War: Violations of the Law of Attainable Stabilization and Impoverishment
Israel said this week that it is determined to end the Hezbollah fire into its territory. Officials said a ground invasion of the militant group may be necessary if Israel’s operations are not limited to the border. The troops have been moved towards the border.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the strikes, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity, including one United States official. The Israeli army declined to comment on who it was targeting. It was not immediately clear if Nasrallah was at the site, and Hezbollah did not comment on the report.
At the U.N., Netanyahu vowed to “continue degrading Hezbollah” until Israel achieves its goals, further dimming hopes for an internationally backed cease-fire.
In 2006 there was a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah that left parts of Lebanon in ruins. Or worse, they fear, Lebanon could suffer devastation on the scale caused in Gaza by Israel’s nearly yearlong campaign against Hamas.
At least 25 people were killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon early Friday, according to the Health Minister. He said the dead included dozens of women and children.
Netanyahu’s State of the State in the Middle East: On the Case for a Stop-fire at the U.N., as Israel Strikes Lebanon
The Israeli premier met with his Dutch counterpart in New York this week and raised the case at the court. According to Netanyahu’s office, he insisted during the bilateral conversation that the prosecutor’s actions constituted “a political proceeding based on false libels that endanger every democracy defending itself against terrorism.”
As the Israeli military calls up further reserves close to the northern border and responds to Hezbollah rocket fire with dozens of airstrikes in Lebanon, Netanyahu also remains at the center of a high-profile demand for an arrest warrant against him, issued by the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands.
Danny Danon, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, said the government is pushing for certain terms in any deal. He said outside the United Nations Security Council on Friday that he wanted to achieve the war goals through diplomacy. “And the goals are to allow the citizens of Israel, 70,000 refugees to move back to their homes. To push Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon.
The behavior of the Israeli leader during the war against Hamas in Gaza, which lasted nearly a year, has not only angered his own citizens, but has also surprised many world leaders.
Critics have often said that Netanyahu will agree to show flexibility in private meetings, before issuing a statement that blocks progress during peace talks.
He told the crowd that he was coming here to set the record straight because his arrival in New York for the General Assembly had been slightly delayed due to domestic considerations.
The Israeli Operation of Hezbollah at the Gaza Strip: The U.N. War of Genocide, Hamas, and the Palestinians
Abbas told delegates that Israel did not deserve its U.N. membership, given that its government has, in his words, “exploited” the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in Israel to “launch a comprehensive war of genocide on the Gaza Strip, and committed and continues to commit war crimes recognized by the international community.” Israel has denied committing genocide or other war crimes, arguing that it is fighting to defeat militant groups and defend itself from further attacks.
For days, Arab leaders including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had been assailing the behavior of the Israeli military in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.
Many of the delegates in the U.N. hall stood up and swiftly left in a public snub at the start of his address — in which he called the U.N. a “swamp of antisemitic bile.”
In a fiery speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is “winning” on multiple fronts and would attack Iran and its proxies anywhere in the Middle East, even as Israeli air force jets were preparing to pound a complex of buildings in central Beirut that Israel says serve as a headquarters for the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
The scope of Israel’s operation remains unclear, but officials have said a ground invasion to push the militant group away from the border is a possibility. Israel moved thousands of troops toward the border in preparation.
The United Nations said the fighting has displaced 211,000 people, including 85,000 now staying in public schools and other shelters. Air strikes have disrupted access to clean water for hundreds of thousands of people.
The site hit Friday evening had not been publicly known as Hezbollah’s main headquarters, though it is located in the group’s “security quarters,” a heavily guarded part of Haret Hreik where it has offices and runs several nearby hospitals.
Israel provided no immediate comment about the type of bomb or how many it used, but the resulting explosion levelled an area greater than a city block. The Israeli army has in its arsenal 2,000-pound, American-made “Bunker Buster” guided bombs designed specifically for hitting subterranean targets.
Rescue workers were surrounded by high piles of twisted metal and wrecked cars while climbing over large slabs of concrete. There are several craters and one had a car in it. A group of people were seen fleeing from the district along a main road.
The series of blasts at around nightfall reduced six apartment towers to rubble in Haret Hreik, a densely populated, predominantly Shiite district of Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburbs, according to Lebanon’s national news agency. A wall of billowing black and orange smoke rose into the sky as houses were rattled and windows were rattled 30 kilometers (20 miles) to the north.
News of the blasts came as Netanyahu was briefing reporters after his U.N. address. Netanyahu ended the presentation after the military aide whispered into his ear.
The israeli attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon and the battle for the survival of the militia in the Gazan high-barrier regime
The toll is likely to increase as teams comb through the rubble. Israel launched a series of strikes on other areas of the southern suburbs following the initial blast.
The health ministry said at least six people were killed and 91 were wounded. It was the largest blast to hit the capital of Lebanon in a year, and appeared likely to push the conflict closer to war.
An Israeli security official said he expects the campaign against Hezbollah would not last for as long as the current war in Gaza, because the military’s goals are much narrower.
People in the giant crowd waved their fists in the air and chanted, “We will never accept humiliation,” as they marched marched behind the three coffins, wrapped in the group’s yellow flag.
Hezbollah officials and their supporters remain defiant. The funeral of three Hezbollah members killed in other strikes was held in another part of Lebanon’s suburbs as thousands gathered there.
In the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, civil defense workers pulled the bodies of two women — 35-year-old Hiba Ataya and her mother Sabah Olyan — from the rubble of a building brought down by a strike.
In Gaza, Israel aims to dismantle Hamas’ military and political regime, but the goal in Lebanon is to push Hezbollah away from the border — “not a high bar like Gaza” in terms of operational objectives, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to military briefing guidelines.
