White House Senior Advisor Amos Hockstein is expected to visit Beirut today, Thursday, as part of American efforts to ease tensions on the border between Lebanon and Israel after his visit to Tel Aviv, according to an American official, while Israel has escalated its tone against Hezbollah, saying that it is capable of destroying… Any village inside Lebanon.
This is Hockstein’s second visit to Beirut since last October 8, when he met with Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Army Commander Joseph Aoun, and former Director of Public Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, last November.
Last year, Hockstein, the global energy security official, raised the possibility of holding talks on demarcating the land border between Israel and Lebanon after he brokered a 2022 agreement to demarcate the maritime border between the two sides that guarantees Israel its right to gas in the Karish and Qana fields.
Israel wants to conduct negotiations on its land borders with Lebanon, similar to the negotiations that led to the maritime border demarcation agreement.
Washington fears that Israel’s war in Gaza will extend throughout the region, especially with Israel’s assassination of the leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Saleh Al-Arouri in Beirut and Hezbollah field commander Wissam Tawil, and the threat of Israeli officials to launch a massive attack on Lebanon in the event that an agreement is not reached with… Hezbollah keeps it away from the border.
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati told a senior United Nations official last Tuesday that his country is ready to hold talks to achieve long-term stability on its southern border with Israel.
Halevy (center) said that Israeli soldiers could move the fight to Lebanon after their “successes” in Gaza (Reuters)
Israeli threat
In a related context, Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy announced yesterday, Wednesday, that his forces are capable of destroying any village inside Lebanon, in an escalation of his rhetoric against Hezbollah, stationed on the other side of the border.
Herzi Halevy told a crowd of soldiers in the Gaza Strip that what the soldiers did in the besieged Strip convinced him that they could move the fight to Lebanese territory if necessary.
An Israeli army statement quoted him as saying, “We fought in Gaza, so we know how to do it in Lebanon if necessary.” He added, “After what you did in Gaza, there is no village in Lebanon that you cannot enter and destroy.”
A Lebanese man was killed by an Israeli missile
This comes after a Lebanese civilian was killed yesterday, Wednesday, by an Israeli artillery shell near his home in the town of Kafr Kila in the south of the country, raising the death toll of Lebanese civilians since October 8 to 29.
Hezbollah said yesterday that it targeted the Israeli site Al-Marj, and achieved a direct hit.
On the other hand, the Israeli army said that its aircraft attacked Hezbollah’s operations headquarters and missile launch site in southern Lebanon.
The party has been exchanging fire with the occupation army across the border since last October 8 in support of the Gaza Strip, which has been facing Israeli aggression since last October 7, while the party says that it does not seek a large-scale war with Israel.
188 people were killed in Lebanon, including 141 party members and more than 20 civilians, including 3 journalists. On the other hand, the Israeli army counted the killing of 14 people, including 9 soldiers.
While Hezbollah says it is targeting Israeli military sites in support of Gaza, the Israeli army says that its air and artillery strikes aim to disrupt the party’s infrastructure and the movements of its fighters around the border.
2024-01-11 10:15:05
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