Biden administration backs Israel’s operations in Lebanon despite risk of expanding conflict
Smoke rises as a building collapses in Beirut's southern suburbs following an Israeli attack. – Photo by AP

Biden administration backs Israel’s operations in Lebanon despite risk of expanding conflict

Posted: Friday 10.04.2024 6:28 pm Lebanon, World

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The Biden administration believes it is appropriate for Israel to continue with its ground and air attacks on Hezbollah for now, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday, even as he acknowledged the risk of the operation in Lebanon expanding beyond Israel’s current aims.
Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday after two weeks of intense airstrikes in a worsening conflict that has drawn in Iran and risks sucking in the United States.
Washington has repeatedly warned Israel against escalating the conflict, but a three-week ceasefire proposal put forward by the U.S. and other countries last week was quickly dismissed by Israel in favor of intensified operations.
More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced by Israeli attacks, nearly 2,000 people have been killed and more than 10,000 people injured since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year — most of them in the past two weeks are civilians, Lebanese authorities said.

Lebanon’s health minister says nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in almost a year of conflict.

Health Minister Firas Abiad said Thursday that more than 10,000 have also been wounded in Israeli attacks since Oct. 8, 2023.

He says of the 2,000 killed, 261 were women, 127 were children, and 102 paramedics and health care workers also died. Most of them were killed in the last week.

“This is a war crime, there is no doubt about that,” Abiad told journalists Thursday.

“International laws are clear to protect these people, I mean, paramedics. Who gave Israel the right to be the judge and the executioner at the same time?”

The United States has continued to provide Israel with arms, including 2,000 pound bombs, also known as bunker busters, despite tensions during the past year over the conduct of its war in Gaza, which started when Palestinian Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Washington has raised concerns about the civilian toll of that conflict and at times urged Israel to restrain its forces to calm international outrage. But Israel’s right wing government continued its indiscriminate bombing. The death toll in Gaza now exceeds 42,000 killed, more than 100,000 people injured and more than 1.5 million displaced.

A report issued by Lebanon’s crisis response unit says nearly 1.2 million people are believed to be displaced from their homes in Lebanon as a result of the escalating war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The Lebanese General Security recorded more than 250,000 Syrian citizens and 82,000 Lebanese citizens who have crossed into Syrian territory between Sept. 23 and Sept. 30, the report said.

Nearly 164,000 are living in group shelters in Lebanon.

U.S. officials have discussed with Israel its goals in the Hezbollah conflict, which at this time involves conducting “limited incursions” on the ground in Lebanon while targeting Hezbollah militants inside the country with airstrikes, Miller said.
“All of us here are very cognizant of the long history of Israel launching what at the time were described as limited operations across the Lebanese border that have turned into something much different — that have turned into full-scale wars and at times occupation,” Miller said, adding that the U.S. would watch how the conflict unfolds and make assessments in real time.
Israel has invaded Lebanon on multiple occasions, including in a 1982 offensive sparked by tit-for-tat border fire during which Israeli forces entered Beirut and which led to the creation of Hezbollah.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Miller said. “I dare say the Israelis probably don’t know what’s going to happen at this point. It’s not to say that they don’t have a plan. It’s not to say that they don’t have objectives. It’s to say that conflicts are unpredictable.”

Hezbollah lost intelligence battle, but preparing better for ground invasion

Hezbollah suffered an unprecedented intelligence blow in recent weeks, but may be better prepared to face Israel on the battlefield in south Lebanon, according to Sami Atallah, a political scientist and director of The Policy Initiative, based in Lebanon.

“Hezbollah did underestimate how ready the Israelis were, particularly in collecting intelligence on the armed group and infiltrating it,” Atallah told Al Jazeera. “That was a blow and, in fact, Hezbollah lost the intelligence battle and has paid dearly for it.

“Hezbollah has prepared itself for the ground invasion war much better than the first one,” he added.

The exploding pagers and walkie-talkies “exposed big time” how Israel had been collecting data and information on Hezbollah’s military command, Atallah told Al Jazeera. “I don’t think they saw that coming, and there’s a lot to be learned from that.”

Israel is implementing “a multi-faceted, multi-stage plan that it’s been putting together over a very long time, backed by intelligence and technological means,” warned Yezid Sayigh, with the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

“This is the first demonstration of what modern war will look like, even more than the Ukraine war, in terms of the application of artificial intelligence for instance, and how that’s tied into unmanned vehicles and drones and so on,” Sayigh told Al Jazeera.

Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed and 35 wounded clashing with the Lebanese Hezbollah fighters in South Lebanon since it announced a ground incursion there early Tuesday. Hezbollah said that they have killed 17 more Israeli soldiers on Thursday.

Gaza and a ceasefire slip out of focus as Lebanon conflict rages

In Gaza, Palestinians fear the raging battle between Hezbollah and the Israeli army in Lebanon is diverting the world’s attention from their suffering, where Israeli strikes killed dozens more people this week, and diminishing already dim prospects for a ceasefire a year into a war that has shattered the enclave.

An escalation in the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah over the past two weeks has led to clashes between Israeli and Hezbollah forces inside Lebanon and fueled fears of a wider regional war.
Both Israel and its Hamas foes in Gaza say the Lebanon conflict could help end the Gaza conflict, but some analysts, officials from mediating countries and Gazans are skeptical.
When Iran launched ballistic missiles at Israel late on Tuesday, provoking an Israeli promise of a “painful” response, some Gazans welcomed the salvo visible in the skies overhead as a sign Tehran was fighting for their cause.
“We feel for the people of Lebanon and we don’t want them to go through the devastation and starvation we are enduring,” Ghada, a 50-year-old mother of five living in a tent in the central Gaza city of Deir Al-Balah, where a million people are sheltering, told Reuters.
“I am afraid the world has become less interested in what happens to us here.”

Hamas’ attack in the Tel Aviv area killed seven Israelis

Hamas’ military wing has claimed responsibility for a shooting attack in the Tel Aviv area that killed seven people and wounded 16 others.

The statement said the two attackers, who opened fire on a boulevard and train station in the city of Jaffa Tuesday evening, belonged to Hamas. They hailed from the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

Mohammed Mesek and Ahmed Himouni were later shot dead.

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