Middle East crisis - Three people killed in Lebanon - growing concern about escalation between Israel and Hezbollah militia
Growing tensions between Israel and the Shiite militia Hezbollah in Lebanon are raising concerns of a further escalation in the Middle East. According to media reports, three people were killed in an Israeli attack on a Lebanese border town on Wednesday night. Hezbollah, which is allied with Iran, claimed responsibility for new rocket attacks on Israel. Meanwhile, the death toll in the Gaza Strip continued to rise. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described the Gaza war as a "war of annihilation" and made serious accusations against the USA.
The Lebanese border town of Bint Djubail, which was reportedly attacked by Israeli warplanes, is considered a Hezbollah stronghold. According to Hezbollah, one of its fighters was among the dead. The Israeli military announced that it was checking the information.
According to the militia, the rockets fired by Hezbollah at Israel were also aimed at a naval target. According to the Israeli army, there was an air alert in the border town of Rosh Hanikra on the Mediterranean coast. The Times of Israel reported that at least 18 rockets were fired at Rosh Hanikra. Around a third of these were intercepted by the missile defense system.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war following the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, there have been repeated confrontations between Israel's army and Hezbollah in the border region. There have been deaths and injuries on both sides. The most recent clashes are considered to be the most serious since the second Lebanon war in 2006. The pro-Iranian Hezbollah is considered to be far more powerful and better armed than the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas authority: Number of dead in Gaza rises to 21,100
According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, 21,110 people have been killed in the coastal strip since the beginning of the Gaza war. More than 55,200 Palestinians have been injured. A spokesman said on Wednesday that 195 people had been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip within 24 hours alone. The figures cannot be independently verified. The Gaza war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel's history, carried out by terrorists from the Islamist Hamas and other groups in Israel on October 7.
A suspected Israeli attack on a building near a hospital in Chan Junis in the southern Gaza Strip is said to have left many dead on Wednesday. A spokesman for the Hamas-controlled health authority spoke of 20 dead and dozens injured. The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service also wrote on Platform X that there were dozens of dead and injured in an attack on a residential building near the Al-Amal hospital. This information could not initially be independently verified either. Israel's military verified the information.
Abbas: War in Gaza is "more than a war of annihilation"
According to Palestinian President Abbas, the war in Gaza is "more than a war of annihilation". In an interview with the Egyptian television station ON on Tuesday evening, he said: "Our people have never experienced a war like this, not even the Nakba catastrophe of 1948." The term Nakba (catastrophe) refers to the flight and expulsion of Palestinians in the first Middle East war in 1948. At the same time, Abbas blamed the US for the continuation of the war: "Whenever the world, the (UN) Security Council and the General Assembly want to stop the war, the US vetoes it and refuses to end it." If the US wanted to, it could persuade Israel to end the war. Everything that is currently happening is happening with the support of the USA.
Abbas continued to warn against an expansion of the war to the West Bank. "The Israeli army and settlers are attacking the cities in the West Bank and Jerusalem on a daily basis. The situation in the West Bank could explode at any time," he said. In his opinion, Israel is pursuing the goal of eventually expelling all Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.
Iran's defense minister threatens Israel after killing of general
Iran's defense minister threatened to retaliate after the killing of a high-ranking general in Syria. "At the right time in the right place, we will give the weak Zionist enemy (Israel) a powerful response," Mohammed-Resa Ashtiani said on Wednesday, according to the Iranian news agency Tasnim.
On Monday, Iranian General Sejed-Rasi Mussawi, a senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), was killed in a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus by a suspected Israeli airstrike.
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- The Israeli military is investigating Hezbollah's claims of one of their fighters being killed during the attack on the Lebanese border town of Bint Djubail.
- The Israeli army has reported an air alert in the border town of Rosh Hanikra following Hezbollah's rocket attacks, with at least 18 rockets fired at the town, resulting in casualties.
- The Middle East crisis has seen repeated confrontations between Israel's army and Hezbollah in the Gaza Strip and border region, leading to fatalities and injuries on both sides.
- Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, has accused the USA of continuing the Gaza war and blamed them for its escalation, referring to Israel's actions as a "war of annihilation" towards Palestinians.
- Iran's defense minister, Mohammed-Resa Ashtiani, has issued a warning to Israel after the killing of a high-ranking Iranian general in Syria by a suspected Israeli airstrike, threatening retaliation.
- The Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas, has seen a significant rise in deaths due to Israeli attacks, with approximately 21,110 people reported dead since the beginning of the Gaza war.
Source: www.stern.de
