Israel threatens to ‘go deeper’ into Lebanon as strikes strain ceasefire

December 4, 2024 MeighTimbol News 0
Israeli shelling in Marjayoun, Southern Lebanon, on November 30 – days after a ceasefire took effect.
CNN | Published December 4, 2024

As tit-for-tat strikes strain a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah less than a week since it went into effect, Israel’s defense minister on Tuesday threatened to directly target the Lebanese state should the agreement fall apart.

Monday was the deadliest day since that agreement came into force last Wednesday, with Israeli strikes killing nine in southern Lebanon after Hezbollah fired at Israeli-occupied territory, citing Israeli truce violations.

“If we return to war, we will act with strength, go deeper,” Israel Katz said during a visit on Tuesday to the 146th Division of the Israel Defense Forces, near the Lebanese border.

Were the ceasefire to collapse, he said, “there will no longer be any exemptions for the State of Lebanon. If until now we separated the State of Lebanon from Hezbollah – and the entirety of Beirut from Dahiyeh, which took very hard hits – this will no longer be the case.”

It comes a day after Israel conducted airstrikes across southern Lebanon. The attacks were retaliation for Hezbollah firing two rockets at Israeli-occupied territory – themselves a response to near-daily Israeli attacks on Lebanon beginning the day after a truce began last Wednesday.

The exchange of fire casts doubt on the longevity of the ceasefire brokered by the United States – though State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller insisted on Monday that “we have not seen the ceasefire break down.”

 

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SOURCE: www.cnn.com

RELATED: Israel threatens to expand war if Hezbollah truce collapses

Buildings lie in ruin in Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, following the ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah, as seen from Metula, northern Israel, December 3, 2024. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
REUTERS | Published December 4, 2024
Israel threatened on Tuesday to return to war in Lebanon if its truce with Hezbollah collapses, and said this time its attacks would go deeper and target the Lebanese state itself, after the deadliest day since the ceasefire was agreed last week.
In its strongest threat since the truce was agreed to end 14 months of war with Hezbollah, Israel said it would hold Lebanon responsible for failing to disarm militants who violate the ceasefire.
“If we return to war we will act strongly, we will go deeper, and the most important thing they need to know: that there will be no longer be an exemption for the state of Lebanon,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said.
“If until now we separated the state of Lebanon from Hezbollah… it will no longer be [like this],” he said during a visit to the northern border area.
Despite last week’s truce, Israeli forces have continued strikes against what they say are Hezbollah fighters ignoring the agreement to halt attacks and withdraw beyond the Litani River, about 30 km (18 miles) from the frontier.
On Monday, Hezbollah shelled an Israeli military post, while Lebanese authorities said at least 12 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon. Another person was killed on Tuesday by a drone strike, Lebanon said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said any infraction of the truce would be punished, however small.
“We are enforcing this ceasefire with an iron fist,” he said ahead of a cabinet meeting in the northern border city of Nahariya. “We are currently in a ceasefire, I note, a ceasefire, not the end of the war,” he added.

 

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SOURCE: www.reuters.com

 

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