Israel seeks to ‘hurt’ Hezbollah without sparking all-out war in Mid-East

BEIRUT – Israel wants to hurt Hezbollah but not drag the Middle East into all-out war, two Israeli officials said on July 29, as Lebanon braced itself for retaliation after a rocket strike that killed 12 children and teenagers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Two other Israeli officials said Israel was preparing for the possibility of a few days of fighting following the July 27 rocket strike at a sports field in a Druze village.

All four officials, who included a senior defence official and a diplomatic source, spoke on condition of anonymity and gave no further information about Israel’s plans for retaliation.

“The estimation is that the response will not lead to an all-out war,” said one of the four officials, the diplomatic source. “That would not be in our interest at this point.”

Israel and the United States have blamed Lebanon’s Hezbollah for the July 27 strike. Hezbollah has denied any role.

The incident has added to concerns that months of cross-border hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group could spiral into a broader, more destructive war.

Late on July 28, Israel’s security Cabinet authorised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant to decide on the manner and timing of a response to the rocket strike.

Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted unnamed officials as saying the response would be “limited but significant”.

The report said options ranged from a limited attack on infrastructure, including bridges, power plants and ports, to hitting Hezbollah weapons depots or targeting the group’s commanders.

Prompted by the Gaza war, the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have been their worst since they went to war in 2006.

Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian group Hamas, has said its campaign of rocket and drone attacks on Israel was intended to support the Palestinians, and indicated it will cease fire only when Israel’s offensive on Gaza stops.

The conflict at the Israel-Lebanon border has forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes on both sides.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a phone call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on July 29, emphasised the importance of preventing escalation of the conflict, the US State Department said.

They discussed efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to allow citizens on both sides of the border to return home, and ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held there.

Germany has called on all parties to the Middle East conflict, in particular Iran, to prevent an escalation.

Two Hezbollah fighters killed

An Israeli drone strike killed two Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon on July 29, security sources said.

They were the first fatalities in Lebanon since the July 27 incident. Three other people, including an infant, were wounded in that strike, an official in the Lebanese civil defence said.

The Israeli military said its air defences downed a drone that crossed from Lebanon into the Western Galilee area on July 29.

Flights at Beirut’s international airport have been cancelled or delayed as airlines responded to the possibility of an Israeli response.

Both Israel and Hezbollah have appeared at pains to avoid a full-scale war since they began

trading blows

in October in a conflict ignited by the Gaza war.

Hezbollah has denied firing the rocket that killed the youngsters.

It said on July 27 that it had fired a missile against a military target on the Golan Heights, a border area Israel seized from Syria after the 1967 Middle East war and has since annexed in a move not generally recognised internationally.

Israeli strikes have killed about 350 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and more than 100 civilians, including medics, children and journalists, according to security and medical sources and a Reuters tally of death notifications issued by Hezbollah.

The Israeli military said after the July 27 attack that the death toll among civilians killed in Hezbollah attacks had risen to 23 since October, along with at least 17 soldiers.

In Gaza, meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians fled a community in the central part of the enclave in the face of new Israeli evacuation orders, worsening the humanitarian plight in an area already inundated with displaced people fleeing an assault in the south.

Hundreds of thousands of people have converged on Deir al-Balah, a small city in the centre of Gaza that is the only major area yet to be stormed, many forced there by fighting in the ruins of Khan Younis farther south since last week.

In its latest assault, Israel ordered residents on July 28 to flee Al-Bureij, just north-east of Deir.

“What is left? Deir? Deir is full of people. Everyone is in Deir. All of Gaza. Where should people go?” Ms Aya Mansour told Reuters.

Mr Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians, said only 14 per cent of Gaza has not been placed under evacuation orders by the Israeli military.

People have been forced to evacuate repeatedly, often with only a few hours’ notice.

Aid worker Tamer Al-Burai in Deir said water in Deir was becoming more difficult to get as more and more displaced people arrived.

“The situation is catastrophic. People are sleeping in the streets,” he said. REUTERS