By Worthy News’ George Whitten and Stefan J. Bos,
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Worthy News) – Israel came closer Wednesday to an all-out war with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group, which it views as a terrorist organization backed by Iran, as hostilities escalated.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said earlier that Hezbollah has so far fired “more than 1,000 different types of ammunition, rockets, missiles, drones, mortars and others toward Israel” since October 8. They began their attacks the day after Palestinian Hamas fighters killed some 1,200 people, unprecedented atrocities in the modern State of Israel.
Conricus warned that “Hezbollah, who as everybody knows is a proxy of Iran, is dangerously dragging Lebanon into an unnecessary war. That could have potentially devastating consequences for the state of Lebanon and the people of Lebanon.”
In recent days, the fight has escalated, and the civilian death toll is rising: four Israelis and at least 14 local Lebanese, according to several sources.
Three journalists have been killed by Israeli drone and tank strikes, according to journalist groups, though Israel denies deliberately targeting them.
“We have this exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, and the trend line is one of escalation,” said Orna Mizrahi, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser for foreign policy, now at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “This is the most worrying thing about the situation, this trend of escalation. Nobody wants to have a full-scale war, but we can get there anyway,” Mizrahi added in published remarks.
GROWING PRESSURE
With cross-border tensions rising, pressure is mounting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch a war against Hezbollah despite ongoing fighting against Hamas in Gaza.
The Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and others in the cabinet already sought a pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah, the militant group in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attack, according to sources familiar with their thinking.
The proposal reportedly caused alarm in Washington, fearful of a regional war that could pull in Iran.
With U.S. backing, Benjamin Netanyahu held off at the time, but several Israeli politicians, generals, and a growing slice of the public believe a new war in Lebanon is inevitable.
An opinion poll carried out in late November found that 52 percent of those surveyed favored an “immediate strike” against Hezbollah, and only 35 percent were opposed to opening another front in the north.
On Wednesday, it became clear that Israel is closer than ever to opening a new frontline in what people view as a battle for the existence of the Jewish nation and its people.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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