Israel carried out a series of “preemptive” strikes in southern Lebanon on Sunday. Hezbollah carried out its much-anticipated attack hours later to avenge the death of one of its commanders.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel had not said “his last word” haswith its strikes on Lebanon to foil a large-scale attack by the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah attempted to attack the State of Israel with rockets and drones early in the morning. We called on the Israel Defense Forces to carry out a powerful preemptive strike to eliminate the threat. The IDF destroyed thousands of short-range rockets, all of which were intended to harm our citizens and forces in the Galilee.”Mr. Netanyahu said.
Israel carried out a series of strikes “preventive” in southern Lebanon. The Islamist movement carried out its attack a few hours later, targeting Israeli military infrastructure.
Hezbollah said it launched hundreds of rockets and drones to avenge the death of one of its top commanders, Fouad Chokr, in Beirut last month.
The attack was delayed to give ceasefire talks in Gaza a chance, according to the movement’s leader Hassan Nasrallah: “The Americans started saying that there would be a stop to the aggression and that there would be a ceasefire and that we had to wait. And that’s why we took our time. We didn’t tell anyone that we were taking our time but honestly, we took our time to leave room for these negotiations.”
On the Egyptian side, the latest round of ceasefire talks in Cairo ended without agreement. Neither Hamas nor Israel accepted the compromises proposed by the mediators.
A U.S. official said talks would continue at lower levels in the coming days to bridge remaining gaps.
A Hamas delegation was briefed 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 imposing new demands and not being serious about reaching a ceasefire. Netanyahu insists that the war in Gaza will continue until Hamas is completely destroyed, whether or not a ceasefire agreement is reached.
