Israeli forces responded with artillery fire and airstrikes to the launch of rockets from southern Lebanon into northern Israel on the same day the Hebrew state’s ambassador to the United Nations threatened to start an all-out war with Hezbollah if the terrorist group continued the attacks . .
The Shia militia was reportedly responsible for launching dozens of missiles, rockets and drones from Lebanon towards Israel, two of which crossed through Israeli territory and caused property damage in the town of Kiryat Shmona. In response, the Israeli military “hit the sources of the fire,” the Israeli military said. “A Hezbollah terrorist cell responsible for launching anti-tank missiles in the Aitaroun area and a rocket launcher used to launch missiles in the Bar’am area of northern Israel were hit,” Tel Aviv said in a statement. declaration.
Later, the Israeli Defense Forces spokesman said Israel has carried out “widespread attacks with fighter jets, tanks and artillery” on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon over the past two days. In southern Lebanon, Hezbollah “is no longer the same as on October 6 and will never be the same again,” Daniel Hagari assured.
At the UN Security Council, Israeli diplomat Gilad Erdan demanded an end to attacks from Lebanese territory on Israel. “Fifty thousand Israeli citizens have been displaced along the northern border as a result of Iranian-backed attacks from Lebanon. These attacks are blatant violations of Israeli sovereignty, international law and Security Council resolutions,” he said. “Israel will defend itself. I have warned this Council countless times,” he recalled, after threatening to move the war to Lebanon.
Biden and Netanyahu in tension
The relationship between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu remains tense, according to North American and Israeli sources who reported to Axios the last phone call between them last weekend. The dispute concerns taxes that Tel Aviv collects for the Palestinian Authority but have been withheld since the October 7 terrorist attacks.
The Israeli government’s decision, taken by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, plunged the Palestinian executive into a financial crisis. Taxpayers’ money is being partly diverted to the Gaza Strip and Smotrich has not only rejected the transfer of the money but also threatened to resign from the government, despite security services warning of the risk to the stability of the West Bank. It was on this subject that Biden and Netanyahu differed.
The US president asked the Prime Minister of Israel to accept a proposal according to which the money collected from taxes would be transferred to Norway, and then to the Palestinian Authority, where Netanyahu said he did not trust the Norwegians and that the Palestinians should accept. a partial transfer of resources, without attributing value to Gaza. The exchange of arguments ended with Biden saying he expected Netanyahu to resolve the matter. “This conversation is over,” he said before hanging up.
Source: DN
