US Central Command chief Gen Michael Eric Kurilla on Friday held his second round of talks in Israel this week as the two countries continue their close military co-ordination, bracing for possible military strikes from both Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hizbullah.
The US has boosted its forces in the region and is leading the effort to protect Israel in the event of an Iranian attack, as it did in April when Tehran launched some 300 ballistic missiles and drones at Israel.
An attack on Israel has been expected since last week’s twin assassinations of Hizbullah and Hamas militant leaders in Beirut and Tehran.
Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported on Friday differences of opinion within the Iranian leadership over its response to the killing of Hamas political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. The paper reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was pushing for a missile attack on Tel Aviv and other cities targeting military facilities, but new Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, fearing all-out war with Israel, preferred to target undisclosed Mossad spy bases around the region.
It is not known whether Iran and Hizbullah will co-ordinate their response, although reports from Israel and the US in recent days indicated that the powerful Shia militia would strike first, regardless of decisions taken by Tehran. Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised a “strong” and “effective” response to Israel’s killing of senior Hizbullah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.
The US embassy in Beirut called on its citizens in Lebanon to prepare shelters for an extended period of time, and advised those who wished to leave the country to “book any ticket available to them”. Ireland urged its citizens to leave Lebanon late last month.
Cyprus is on standby to assist in the evacuation of Europeans and third-country nationals if conflict in the Middle East deepens. It played a crucial role as an evacuation hub for about 30,000 people who left Lebanon during the 2006 Israel-Hizbullah war.
Exchanges of fire continued on the Israel-Lebanon border on Friday but within the unwritten understandings between the sides that have characterised the low-level warfare over the last 10 months.
Some 15 rockets in two barrages were fired into the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, causing property damage and fires. The attacks came after the Israeli military reported killing two Hizbullah operatives in southern Lebanon on Friday morning in an air strike after they were spotted leaving the organisation’s military facility in Naqoura, close to the Israeli border.
Meanwhile, an Israeli delegation will leave next week for talks in either Cairo or Doha in an effort to finalise the details of a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. The US and the two mediating countries, Qatar and Egypt, called on the sides to resume the talks on August 15th, saying a “framework agreement” was ready and that it had “only the details of implementation left to conclude”. The mediators also offered to present final bridging proposals, if required.
The positive development came after sources in Hamas, which led the attack on Israel on October 7th that triggered the Gaza war, reported that the group’s leader Yahya Sinwar wants a ceasefire as soon as possible and does not want to wait for the possibility of a clash between Israel and Hizbullah and Iran.
Washington hopes that progress towards an end to the Gaza war will also have a positive impact on ending the fighting on Israel’s northern border and may even prompt Iran and Hizbullah to reconsider attacking Israel.
However, Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said returning to negotiations was a “dangerous trap” and the mediating countries are “forcing a surrender agreement on us and will reward terrorism and Iranian attacks against us”.
