With Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah in its final stage, tension continues on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia over the weekend urged its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately. Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and Kuwait issued similar warnings over recent days.
Israel has made it clear that it prefers a deal that could avert a full-scale war but is prepared for such a scenario.
Far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that there was “no escape from a sharp and quick war to take Hizbullah out of the game”.
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The Israeli government is under increasing pressure from the 60,000 or so residents who were evacuated from northern border communities to restore security and remove the Hizbullah threat. More than 100,000 Lebanese residents have fled the south and Hizbullah is also under pressure to avoid a major conflagration that is likely to cause massive destruction to the country’s infrastructure.
Iran’s United Nations delegation warned an Israeli attack on Lebanon would be the opening of what it termed an “obliterating war” against Israel.
In Gaza, the Israeli military claimed it has killed at least 40 Hamas fighters who were trying to regroup in the Gaza city neighbourhood of Shejaiya, where troops re-entered on Thursday.
“Our forces are operating in Rafah, in Shejaiya, everywhere in the Gaza Strip. Every day they eliminate dozens of terrorists. This is a difficult struggle that is being waged above ground, sometimes in face-to-face battles, and also underground,” prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, reiterating that Hamas was the obstacle preventing the release of the Israeli hostages. “We will return them all, the living and the dead alike,” he vowed.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, more than 37,800 Palestinians have been killed since the war began on October 7th. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 253 hostages seized in the surprise Hamas attack on that day. It says 120 hostages remain in Hamas captivity but it is not known how many are alive.
In response to the decision by Ireland and other European Union states to recognise a Palestinian state and to support legal actions against Israel at the international courts in The Hague, Israel has legalised five illegal settler outposts in the West Bank.
A set of sanctions against top Palestinian Authority officials was also approved, including restrictions on their movements and preventing them from leaving the country.
After weeks of deadlock in efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, the Americans, in co-ordination with Israel, have put forward a number of minor revisions to the draft agreement in an effort to persuade Hamas to return to the negotiating table. Hamas is also under ongoing pressure from Egyptian and Qatari mediators to reach a deal but senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan stressed there has been no progress and the group still insists on an Israeli commitment to end the war as part of any deal.
The UN is transferring thousands of tons of humanitarian supplies from the US-constructed pier off the coast of Gaza after the temporary terminal was removed due to stormy weather, an aid official said on Sunday. World Food Programme spokeswoman Abeer Etefa said workers transported the piled-up aid, mostly food, to warehouses.
Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated over the weekend calling for new elections and for a deal to secure the hostages’ freedom. Opposition leader Yair Lapid attacked Mr Netanyahu’s government, saying it does not want a deal to secure the hostages’ release.
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