Successful attacks on Hezbollah emboldened Netanyahu to hit Iran: Analyst
Military analyst Elijah Magnier says it is not accurate that Netanyahu is holding off on a potential attack on Iranian nuclear sites due to public pressure inside its country.
Just before the assassination of top Hezbollah leaders, including Hassan Nasrallah, Netanyahu “was looking for a way out and was in a corner with a majority of Israeli opinion against him, wanting to stop the war on Gaza and secure the release of all prisoners”, Magnier told Al Jazeera.
“But once he turned his guns toward Lebanon, everything changed,” the analyst said, adding that bombing Yemen twice, killing Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, the explosion of the pagers and the walkie-talkies, and hitting Hezbollah boosted his reputation.
Adding Gideon Saar back into his cabinet also granted Netanyahu more support in the Knesset, along with four new seats, Magnier said.
“For the moment, it is in Netanyahu’s interest to keep escalating until November, he needs to know who becomes president in the United States,” he said. “We see possibility to attack Iran will increase manyfolds if Trump wins”.
It always comes back to the US...
Israel says 250 Hezbollah fighters killed in south Lebanon
An Israeli military spokesperson says that Israeli forces have killed around 250 Hezbollah fighters, including a number of battalion and company commanders, since the start of a ground operation in Lebanon.
Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said that the military was still assessing the damage caused by air strikes in southern Beirut on Thursday night, which he said targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters.
Hezbollah has not confirmed the number of fighters killed in combat so far.
Two Israeli soldiers killed in combat in northern Israel
Israeli military officials say two soldiers from the Golani Brigade have been killed in combat in northern Israel.
Two others were severely injured.
Hezbollah says it struck Israeli soldiers in different locations
Hezbollah says it launched a missile attack on the Israeli Nafah base in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. In a separate message on social media, the group said it stuck a gathering of Israeli soldiers near the Maroun al-Ras plain in southern Lebanon.
And with another salvo, it said it targeted the Kfar Jalaadi settlement, north of Israel. It did not provide details on the number of casualties.
UN official: Israel’s intensifying strikes on Lebanon ‘catastrophic’
A UN official describes Israel’s intensifying bombing of Lebanon, including attacks on the country’s healthcare infrastructure, as “catastrophic.”
“We’re seeing almost verbatim a repeat of what was happening in Gaza with the Israelis’ breaches of international humanitarian law,” Laila Baker, regional director for the UN Population Fund, told Al Jazeera.
She said 40 health facilities have closed in Lebanon in the past week. “The remaining facilities that are open are left overwhelmed and overstretched, in part because of the number of people who are injured – and that includes pregnant women and children – but also because their own health workers have been the target of those bombardments,” she added.
“Lebanon is a small country, and Beirut is a very demographically packed area,” Baker said. “If bombs are falling in the centre of the city, these are families, people, whose lives have been shattered.”
Civilian toll in Lebanon from Israeli strikes ‘totally unacceptable’: UN
These were the words used by UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric during a news conference.
“All parties must do whatever they can at all times to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure and ensure that civilians are never put in harm’s way,” he added.
