In addition to cross-border shootings that have become a daily occurrence, Israel and Hezbollah exchanged new threats on Sunday, September 22, fueling fears of a larger conflagration.
“We are determined to ensure that the northerners [d’Israël] You can return home safely” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, repeating this new war goal. “No country can tolerate shooting at its own people, at its cities, and we will not tolerate it either.” He added as the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, a powerful political and military player in Lebanon, opened a front against Israel on October 8, 2023. ” support “ to Palestinian ally Hamas, vowing to continue attacking the Jewish state “until the end of the aggression in Gaza”Tens of thousands of residents of northern Israel, on the southern border of the Land of the Cedars, from where Hezbollah operates, have fled due to exchanges of fire between the two sides.
“We inflicted a series of blows on Hezbollah that it could never have imagined”Benjamin Netanyahu also said on Sunday. He spoke for the first time on this subject since the attacks, attributed to Israel, against the Lebanese movement’s transmission facilities – whose sudden explosions left 39 dead and 2,931 wounded on Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 September – and an Israeli attack that decapitated its elite unit on Friday 20 September. “We will be able to reach anyone who threatens the citizens of Israel”added the Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, Herzi Halevi. It is “A message for Hezbollah, the Middle East and beyond”.
“Threats will not stop us: we are prepared for all military scenarios” against Israel, replied Hezbollah’s number two, Naïm Qassem, during the funeral of Ibrahim Aqil, the commander of the elite unit killed on Friday. The announcement “a new stage” in the battle against the Jewish State.
Egypt fears “total war”
In the face of this continuing rise in tensions that threatens the entire region, the international community is calling for restraint. United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern that Lebanon was becoming a hotbed of hostilities. “another Gaza”in reference to the war in Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas, triggered by the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7, 2023.
Egypt fears a “total war” in the Middle East, warning that escalation between Israel and Hezbollah could undermine efforts for a ceasefire in the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military is continuing its retaliatory offensive.
“We will do everything possible to prevent a wider war from breaking out”US President Joe Biden said, while the United States, Israel’s main ally, “urged” its nationals to leave Lebanon.
The European Union and the United Kingdom have called for an immediate ceasefire. “The region is on the brink of imminent catastrophe”UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said.
Schools closed in northern Israel
On Sunday, September 22, the Israeli army continued its attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, where authorities reported three deaths, including two fighters from the Shiite movement. The latter announced shootings at military installations in northern Israel.
The global application
The morning of the world
Every morning, find our selection of 20 articles not to be missed
Download the app
But the shells hit populated areas, including around Haifa, some thirty kilometres from the Lebanese border.
Approximately “150 rockets, missiles and drones” They were dragged towards the north of Israel “without causing significant damage”The Israeli army announced that hundreds of thousands of people had to take refuge in shelters in the north, where schools are closed until Monday.
