Israeli evacuees demand answers on return date
Tens of thousands of Israelis have been staying in government-funded hotel rooms for months after evacuating their homes because of fighting near Israel’s southern border with Gaza and the northern border with Israel.
They’re now adding pressure on the Netanyahu-led government about when they can go home.
US envoy meets Israeli leaders as tensions with Hezbollah escalate
A senior American diplomat met Israeli leaders and will later visit Lebanon as part of a push by Washington to defuse rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
US envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Israel and held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and President Isaac Herzog.
Gallant’s office said the minister “provided a situation assessment of developments on Israel’s northern border, emphasizing the daily attacks conducted by Hezbollah against Israel’s northern communities, and detailing efforts to thwart Hezbollah terrorists and infrastructure”.
‘Spiraling out of control’: Envoy tries to defuse Israel-Hezbollah war
It’s not the first time Amos Hochstein visited both Israel and Lebanon throughout this war. He’s trying to defuse a situation that is essentially spiralling out of control.
The Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, months ago said [that] dealing with Hezbollah through a diplomatic settlement is simply not going to happen, that too much time has gone by and the cross-border fire has escalated.
Both sides have picked up the rate of their attacks in the last few weeks. The Israelis say they’re not afraid to enter a full-blown conflict with Hezbollah. However, evacuated people who live in northern Israel have now had their date of return pushed back to the end of August.
Demonstrations from those people against the government are now happening with protesters saying there’s no plan to deal with the relentless border fire.
Southern Lebanon town almost reduced to rubble in Israeli strikes
This morning there was an Israeli military strike on southern Lebanon, a drone strike on a car. A Hezbollah fighter was killed in that strike, Hezbollah confirmed. He is the 342nd Hezbollah fighter to have died since October 8. The Israeli military claimed that he was a member of a rocket unit, but of course, as usual, Hezbollah is staying tight-lipped and has not confirmed this.
This was just one of at least eight strikes by the Israeli military on southern Lebanon including on the town of Aita al-Shaab which has been almost reduced to rubble in these strikes.
It follows a week of intense strikes an uptick in the cross-border tit-for-tat attacks following the assassination of a Hezbollah commander.
The last 48 hours has been quieter in terms of strikes, compared to the last week. There haven’t been so many strikes from Hezbollah towards northern Israel but there have been at least eight strikes on southern Lebanon today by the Israeli military.
Relatives visit the graves of killed Hezbollah fighters during Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura near the border with Israel on Monday
