Lebanese militia Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Saturday, warning that the bombing was its initial response to the targeted killing, presumably by Israel, of a senior leader of the allied group Hamas in the Lebanese capital earlier this year. this week.
The rocket attack came a day after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his group must retaliate for the killing of Saleh Arouri, Hamas’s deputy political leader in a Hezbollah stronghold south of Beirut.
Nasrallah said that if Hezbollah did not counterattack, all of Lebanon would be vulnerable to Israeli attack.
He appeared to be advocating for a response to the Lebanese public, even at the risk of escalating fighting between Hezbollah and Israel as the war between Israel and Hamas continues.
Hezbollah said Saturday that it launched 62 rockets at an Israeli air surveillance base on Mount Meron and scored direct hits.
Top Hamas commander Saleh Arouri killed in apparent Israeli airstrike on Beirut apartment
The Israeli military said about 40 rockets were fired at Meron and that the target was a base, but did not name the base that was hit. He said he attacked the Hezbollah cell that fired the rockets.
The cross-border escalation came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken began an urgent diplomatic tour of the Middle East, his fourth to the region since war broke out between Israel and Hamas three months ago.
The war was sparked by a deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel in which the militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages.
The coffin of Hamas deputy chief Arouri is carried as supporters of the Hamas movement and other Palestinian and Lebanese political factions gather in the Tarik al-Jadide area during his funeral on January 4, in Beirut, Lebanon. fake images
Israel’s violent retaliation by air, land and sea has killed more than 22,600 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
In recent weeks, Israel has been reducing its military attack in the north of the territory and pressing its strong offensive in the south, vowing to crush Hamas.
In the south, most of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians are being squeezed into smaller areas in a humanitarian disaster, while they continue to be targeted by Israeli airstrikes.
Smoke rises over the southern Lebanon border village of Khiam following the Israeli bombing on January 6, 2024. AFP via Getty Images
On Saturday morning, the European Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis received the bodies of 18 people who were killed in an overnight airstrike on a house in the city’s Maan neighborhood, said Saleh al-Hamms, head of the department. hospital nursing.
Citing witnesses, he said more than three dozen people had taken shelter in the house, including displaced people, when it was attacked.
Israel has blamed Hamas for the civilian casualties, saying the group is embedded in Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan at Vahdettin, a private presidential residence, in Istanbul, Turkey, January 6, 2024. REUTERS
Still, international criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war has become more persistent due to the rising number of civilian deaths in Gaza.
The United States has urged Israel to do more to prevent harm to civilians, even as it continues to send weapons and ammunition while protecting its close ally against international censure.
Blinken began his latest trip to the Middle East in Türkiye on Saturday. The Biden administration believes Turkey and others can exert influence, particularly over Iran and its proxies, to quell fears of a regional conflagration.
Those fears have increased in recent days with incidents in the Red Sea, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran.
In talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Blinken will also seek Turkish support for still nascent plans for post-war Gaza that could include monetary or in-kind contributions to reconstruction efforts and some form of participation in a proposal. multinational force that could operate in or near the territory.
From Turkey, Blinken will travel to Greece, a Turkish rival and NATO ally, to meet with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at his residence on the Mediterranean island of Crete.
Mitsotakis and his government have supported US efforts to prevent the war between Israel and Hamas from spreading and have expressed their willingness to help should the situation deteriorate.
Other stops on the trip include Jordan, followed by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Sunday and Monday. Blinken will visit Israel and the West Bank next week before concluding the trip in Egypt.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn