Hezbollah and Israel: Netanyahu opposes French ceasefire proposal in Lebanon, and Israeli military moves in the Golan Heights – BBC News Arabic

The Israel Broadcasting Authority reported that two people were injured as a result of the bombing of Safed, and confirmed that five missiles had fallen on the city.

Hezbollah announced that it carried out 24 operations on Tuesday, ranging from missile strikes to “countering infiltration efforts.” “

The data also included two confirmations of the downing of two Israeli Hermes 450 drones.

Hezbollah’s Media Relations Department said in a statement that the Israeli army “today (Tuesday) fired missiles loaded with internationally banned cluster bombs” on areas in Nabatieh Governorate in southern Lebanon .

The southern suburbs of Beirut were subjected to three Israeli raids on Wednesday morning, two of which targeted Haret Hreik. The Israeli army said in a statement shortly before the attack that the targeted building was being used “for the benefit of Hezbollah.”

The Israeli army confirmed that it targeted “Hezbollah’s underground strategic weapons depot in the southern suburbs.”

The new bombing on the south bank of Beirut comes after a calm that existed for about six days.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Tuesday that Washington had raised “concerns” with the Israeli government about the “scope and nature” of its bombing of Beirut in recent weeks.

Miller said, “Israel has a right to defend itself against these terrorists who pose a threat to the State of Israel, but we are very concerned about the nature of the campaign that has been launched across Beirut over the last few weeks, although it has been there. decrease in the last few days. “

Netanyahu threatened Monday night, following Sunday’s Hezbollah drone strike, that he would continue to hit the group in Lebanon “without mercy,” including Beirut.

For his part, the deputy leader of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, sent a specific threat to Israel earlier today, in which he said that the group had a “new plan” to harm the enemy.

Meanwhile, in a televised speech, Qasim called for a ceasefire, saying: “This is the only solution to the current conflict.” He said: “If the Israelis don’t want this, we will continue.”

Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed at least 2,309 people in the past year, according to Lebanese government figures.

While Israel said that around 50 Israelis were killed, including a soldier and a civilian.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he will not agree to any ceasefire agreement that does not include a ban on Lebanon’s Hezbollah from regrouping and reorganizing its ranks.

A statement issued by his office showed that “the Prime Minister told the French President, Emmanuel Macron, that he is against a unilateral ceasefire, which will not change the security situation in Lebanon and return the country to what she was. “

The statement explained that Netanyahu stressed that Israel’s operation “is aimed at preventing the terrorist group Hezbollah from threatening Israeli citizens on the northern border and allowing them to return to their homes safely.”

On Monday, France rejected Netanyahu’s request to withdraw the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) from its positions in Lebanon, while the French Foreign Ministry summoned Israel’s ambassador regarding Israeli forces ‘ shooting at three United Nations peacekeeping sites. army in southern Lebanon.

The statement explained that Netanyahu was surprised by the intention of the French President to hold a conference in Paris on the issue of Lebanon, in which countries such as South Africa and Algeria would participate, which “are working to give Israel its fundamental right of self-defense. , and even to deny his right to exist,” according to what the statement said.

Macron said that Netanyahu must remember that Israel was “founded” by a decision of the United Nations, considering that it should not “overrule the decisions of the international body, referring to the Senate vote General of the United Nations in November 1947 on a plan to divide Palestine. into a Jewish state and an Arab state.

On the other hand, Netanyahu’s office said that the Prime Minister said in a letter to President Macron that Israel was founded through “the war of independence that was fought with the blood of our brave fighters, many of whom survived the Holocaust, including those who survived the Vichy regime in France.” Adding that the United Nations has passed hundreds of anti-Semitic resolutions against Israel in recent decades .

Reuters reported, citing security sources and analysts, that Israeli forces are removing landmines and erecting new barriers along the border between the occupied Golan Heights and the demilitarized strip. the border with Syria.

The sources said that this step indicates that Israel may for the first time seek to strike Hezbollah targets further from the east of the Lebanese border, while creating a safe zone that allows with it to carry out reconnaissance work freely, monitor the movements of party members, and prevent infiltration.

In addition to the Israeli airstrikes that inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah last month, the party is currently under Israeli ground attack from the south and bombing from the Mediterranean Sea to the west.

By expanding its front in the east, Israel can tighten control over Hezbollah’s weapons supply routes, some of which pass through Syria.

The United Nations Office of Humanitarian Affairs called for an investigation into an Israeli airstrike that killed 23 people in northern Lebanon on Monday.

UNHCR spokesman Jeremy Lawrence said the attack on the Christian village of Ayto raised “serious concerns” under international humanitarian law.

Lawrence said that among the dead was a family from Lebanon who had been moved from the south, consisting of 12 women and two children, who were renting the residential building that was destroyed by the bombing.

Rescue workers struggled to recover bodies from the rubble, in the small town of Ayto, far from the heart of the conflict in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and parts of Beirut.

The Israeli army has not yet commented on the attack.

Elie Alwan, the owner of the house that was bombed in Ayto, told reporters that he rented the house to a family of about 10 people, and later about 10 other people were with them.

Alwan said there were no problems with the tenants until a car arrived at the house on Monday, and apparently its driver gave money to the residents, when the airstrike happened.

Israeli airstrikes have prompted families of Hezbollah members, in areas where the group is usually active, to flee to other parts of the country, raising fears across Lebanon that Israeli targets could to be anywhere.

Ayto resident Sarkis Alwan told AFP the town may no longer welcome the displaced. He said, “I think the people of the town who got the displaced people will ask them to leave.”

Also on Tuesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that more than a quarter of Lebanon is now covered by Israeli military evacuation orders.

“People are answering calls to evacuate, and fleeing with almost nothing,” said Rima Jamous Emsis, the group’s director in the Middle East, in a press conference.

As a result of the evacuation orders, along with Israel’s ground attack and bombing campaign, the Lebanese population fled the affected areas.

According to the Lebanese government, more than 1.2 million people were expelled from villages and major cities in the south and moved north to Beirut, Tripoli and other cities.

Many of them ended up in dangerous and unsanitary conditions in shelters in and around the capital, and schools and shops were used to house people.

The mayor of Beirut told the BBC that the number of displaced people had overburdened social welfare services, leaving thousands of displaced people on the streets.

Speaking to the BBC last week, the mayor, Abdullah Darwish, said that the city, using the plans prepared for the previous attack in 2006, was prepared to only 10 per get a percentage of the actual number of people.

He explained, “We didn’t think it would be this big,” he said, “Every day our accounts grow bigger and bigger.”