Jerusalem (AFP) – Israel struck a Hezbollah target in Syria on Thursday, a war monitor said, and the United States used heavy bombers to hit rebel targets in Yemen nearly a month into the war in Lebanon. Syria, the Huthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza all belong to the “axis of resistance” of groups aligned with Iran, which on October 1 conducted a missile strike on Israel. Israel has vowed to retaliate for Iran’s strike, sparking concern around the world that what is already a war on multiple fronts could morph into an all-out regional conflict.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami on Thursday warned Tehran would hit Israel “painfully” if it attacks Iranian targets. According to Syrian state media, an Israeli strike on the city of Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad, wounded two civilians. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the Israeli raid targeted a “weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah.” The Israeli military did not comment on the strike when contacted by AFP.
Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years, including multiple recent attacks along the Lebanese border that seek to cut off Hezbollah’s main weapons and equipment supply route from Iran to Lebanon. In Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen, Israel’s main ally, the United States conducted multiple B-2 bomber strikes on weapon storage facilities, according to the US military and defense department. The Huthis’ political bureau said “the American aggression will not pass without a response,” and vowed to continue the group’s “support and assistance to Gaza and Lebanon.”
Mohammed al-Basha, a US-based Middle East security analyst, said the use of the heavy B-2 stealth bombers indicated Washington was stepping up its efforts against the Huthis. “This operation signifies a shift in US policy, indicating a firmer stance against the group’s destabilizing behavior,” Basha said.
The Gaza war began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures. The Israeli campaign in Gaza has killed 42,438 people, the majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which the UN considers reliable. In support of its ally Hamas, Hezbollah opened up a front against Israel by launching cross-border attacks from Lebanon last year. The ensuing exchanges of fire forced tens of thousands of people on both sides to flee their homes.
Israel in late September widened the focus of its operations to Lebanon, launching massive strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around the country and on September 30 sending in ground troops. On Wednesday, Lebanon said Israeli strikes killed 16 people, including a mayor attending a crisis meeting, in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, where Hezbollah and its ally Amal hold sway. On Thursday, a strike hit near the south Lebanon coastal city of Tyre, AFPTV footage showed, after Israel issued an evacuation call in the area. Israel also issued evacuation warnings for civilians in part of the eastern Lebanese Bekaa valley, a Hezbollah stronghold.
Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters have been clashing near Lebanon’s southern border, where Hezbollah on Thursday said it hit four Israeli tanks with guided missiles. Rescue workers affiliated with Amal in the southern city of Qana were digging through the rubble of several buildings destroyed in a bombing this week. “More than 15 buildings have been completely destroyed, total destruction in a neighborhood in Qana,” said Mohammed Nasrallah Ibrahim, one of the rescuers. The war in Lebanon has left at least 1,373 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.
Israel has faced criticism over its strikes in Lebanon, including from its top arms supplier, the United States. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Washington had told Israel its operations should “not threaten the lives of civilians,” UN peacekeepers deployed in the country, or the Lebanese military. Following a string of incidents last week, the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission accused Israeli forces of “firing at their watchtower” in a “direct and apparently deliberate” manner. The Israeli military said later that it was not targeting UN peacekeepers. The United Nations has also warned about a growing number of attacks on Lebanese healthcare facilities. A new ambulance was destroyed by an Israeli strike in a southern village last week, volunteer rescue worker Bachir Nakhal told AFP. “We weren’t expecting the ambulances…to get directly targeted or bombed,” he said. The Israeli army has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters, without providing evidence.
In northern Gaza’s Jabalia, where almost the entire population is displaced, two hospitals said Israeli air strikes on a school sheltering displaced people killed at least 14 people, in the latest of multiple such incidents. The military reported that it had hit militants. Some 345,000 Gazans face “catastrophic” levels of hunger this winter after aid deliveries fell, a UN-backed assessment said Thursday, warning of the persistent risk of famine. Nearly 100 percent of Gaza’s population now lives in poverty, with a “staggering” unemployment rate of nearly 80 percent, the UN’s International Labour Organization said on Thursday. The impact of the war on Gaza “will be felt for generations to come,” warned the ILO’s Ruba Jaradat.
© 2024 AFP
