Sunday’s intense exchange of fire threatens to trigger an all-out war that could involve the United States, Iran and armed groups across the region.
Israel’s large-scale attack on Hezbollah positions in Lebanon is not “the end of the story”, the Israeli prime minister has declared. Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel launched a wave of airstrikes on Sunday in southern Lebanon in what it called a pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah, as the militant group claimed to have launched hundreds of rockets and drones to avenge the assassination of one of its top commanders last month.
“Hezbollah tried to attack the State of Israel with rockets and drones first thing in the morning. We instructed the Defense Forces to carry out a powerful preventive attack to eliminate the threat. “The IDF destroyed thousands of short-range rockets, all of them intended to harm our citizens and our forces in the Galilee,” Netanyahu declared.
The intense exchange of gunfire threatened to trigger a total war that could involve the United States, Iran and armed groups of the entire region.
It could also torpedo efforts to forge a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel has been bombing Gaza for more than ten months with unprecedented violence.
Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallahsaid the group’s attack on Israel in retaliation for the assassination of military leader of the Shiite group, Fuad Shukur not Beirut last month, it had been delayed to give ceasefire talks in Gaza a chance.
“They (the Americans) began to say that the aggression would end and that there was going to be a ceasefireand that we waited. AND that’s why we take our time. We didn’t tell anyone we would take our time, but honestly we take it to give room for these negotiations. “Our main objective on this front and all this blood lost and all these sacrifices is to stop the aggression on Gaza,” he said in a televised speech in Lebanon.
The high representative of the EU in Foreign Policy has highlighted that the situation in the region is reaching a “critical level of danger.”
Peace talks fail
But the latest round of ceasefire talks has not gone well, with both Israel and Hamas rejecting the new Israeli conditions raised in Cairo.
Two Egyptian security sources They told Reuters that the talks had ended without an agreement and that neither Hamas nor Israel had accepted any of the compromises proposed by the mediators.
An anonymous US official stated that talks will continue at lower levels in the coming days in an effort to bridge the differences that still persist.
The official said that “working teams” will remain in Cairo to meet with mediators of USA,Qatar and Egypt hoping to address remaining disagreements.
The official described “constructive“the recent talks, which began on Thursday in Cairo and continued until Sunday, and stated that all parties are working to “reach a definitive and enforceable agreement.”
A Hamas delegation was informed by the Egyptian and Qatari mediators, but did not participate directly in the negotiations. Israel and Hamas blame each other for the lack of progress.
Hamas accuses Benjamin Netanyahu of impose new demands and of not taking achieving a ceasefire seriously. Netanyahu insists that the war in Gaza will continue until the complete annihilation of Hamas, regardless of whether or not a ceasefire agreement is reached.
Additional sources • Enrique Barrueco (Voice-over)
