Israeli airstrikes kill dozens across central and southern Gaza
Israeli airstrikes kill dozens across central and southern Gaza/node/2428726/middle-east
Israeli airstrikes kill dozens across central and southern Gaza
Palestinians search for bodies and survivors in the rubble of a residential building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023. (AP)
Israeli airstrikes kill dozens across central and southern Gaza
Israeli troops raid hospitals and shelters in the north, detaining men in a search for militants
Updated 20 December 2023
AP
RAFAH, Gaza Strip: The Israeli army has raided and detained staff at two of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza’s north, where the defense minister said Tuesday that troops were working to completely clear out Hamas militants.
Israel bombarded towns across southern Gaza Tuesday with airstrikes, killing at least 45 Palestinians and pressing ahead with its offensive with renewed backing from the United States, despite rising international alarm. The Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, warned the campaign in Gaza’s south will persist for months.
In a hospital in the southern town of Rafah, Mohammed Zoghroub bid farewell to his two children — a 2-year-old boy, and a girl born two weeks ago — killed in a predawn strike on their home.
Wounded in the strike, he winced as he peeled back the shrouds to look at their faces as his wife and mother stood by his bed.
“Just two weeks old. Her name hadn’t even been registered,” said the children’s grandmother, Suzan Zoghroub. Addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she cried, “Does he think that by killing these children he will achieve something? Have they succeeded now? Has he achieved what he wants?”
Defense Minister Gallant said Israeli forces were entering Hamas’ tunnel network in northern Gaza as part of a “final clearing” of militants from the region. The densely built urban north, including Gaza City, has seen ferocious fighting between troops and militants, with Palestinian health officials reporting dozens of people killed in bombardment in recent days.
Israeli troops have raided a series of hospitals and shelters in the north, detaining men in a search for militants and expelling others taking refuge there.
Gallant said that in southern Gaza, operations will take “months,” including the military’s assault on Khan Younis, the territory’s second largest city. “We will not stop until we reach our goals,” he said.
After meeting with Israeli officials Monday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urged Israel to protect civilians but reiterated America’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas, saying he was “not here to dictate timelines or terms.”
Austin’s remarks signaled that the US would continue shielding Israel from growing international calls for a cease-fire as the United Nations Security Council was set to hold another vote Tuesday — — and would keep providing aid for one of the 21st century’s deadliest military campaigns. STRIKES ACROSS GAZA
Suzan Zoghroub said her family was asleep when their home was hit before dawn.
“We found the whole house had collapsed over us.” Twenty-seven people were killed in the strike, along with at least three others in a separate strike in Rafah, according to Associated Press journalists who saw the bodies arrive at two local hospitals early Tuesday.
Rafah, which is in the southern part of Gaza and where Israel has told Palestinians to seek shelter, has been repeatedly bombarded, often killing large numbers of civilians. Israel said Tuesday it had killed a prominent Hamas financier in an airstrike on Rafah, without specifying when it occurred.
In central Gaza, at least 15 people were killed in strikes overnight, according to hospital records. Among the dead were a mother and her four children, who were killed as they sat around a fire, according to an AP reporter who filmed the aftermath.
Fierce battles also raged in northern Gaza, which has been reduced to a wasteland seven weeks after Israeli tanks and troops stormed in. The military said Tuesday its forces took “operational control” of the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya. Israel has killed hundreds of Hamas militants there and detained another 500 suspected militants, according to a statement from division commander Brig. Gen. Itsik Cohen.
The claims could not be independently confirmed.
Footage online showed a scene of devastation after a strike that hit a local charity in Jabaliya, with several torn bodies near a donkey cart on a street filled with rubble and twisted metal. At least 27 people were killed in that strike and others in the district Tuesday, according to Munir Al-Bursh, a senior Health Ministry official.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Tuesday the death toll since the start of the war had risen to more than 19,600. It does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.
Hamas has continued to put up stiff resistance and lob rockets at Israel. The militants said they fired a barrage toward Tel Aviv on Tuesday, and air raid sirens went off in central Israel. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The war began after Hamas and other militants killed some 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and abducted 240 others.
Israel’s military says 131 of its soldiers have been killed in the Gaza ground offensive. Israel says it has killed some 7,000 militants, without providing evidence, and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying it uses them as human shields when it fights in residential areas. HOSPITAL RAID
Israeli forces raided the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City overnight, according to the church that operates it, destroying a wall at its front entrance and detaining most of its staff.
The facility was the scene of an explosion early in the war that killed dozens of Palestinians, and which an Associated Press investigation later determined was likely caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket.
Don Binder, a pastor at St. George’s Anglican Cathedral, which runs the hospital, said the raid left just two doctors, four nurses and two janitors to tend to over 100 seriously wounded patients, with no running water or electricity.
Binder said an Israeli tank was parked on the rubble at the hospital’s entrance, blocking anyone from entering or leaving.
Israeli troops seized northern Gaza’s Al Awda hospital on Sunday after besieging it for 12 days, the international aid group Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday. The troops stripped, bound and interrogated all males over 16, including six of the group’s staff, it said. Most were sent back into the hospital, which the troops still hold, with dozens of patients inside but no essential supplies, it said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military about the hospital raids.
Forces have raided other hospitals across northern Gaza, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes. Hospital staff have denied the allegations and accused Israel of endangering critically ill and wounded civilians. SECURITY COUNCIL TO VOTE ON NEW TRUCE PROPOSAL
The UN Security Council delayed to Tuesday a vote on an Arab-sponsored resolution calling for a halt to hostilities to allow unhindered access to humanitarian aid. Diplomats said negotiations were taking place to get the US to abstain or vote “yes” on the resolution after it vetoed an earlier case-fire call.
France, the United Kingdom and Germany — some of Israel’s closest allies — joined global calls for a cease-fire over the weekend. In Israel, protesters have called for negotiations with Hamas to facilitate the release of scores of hostages still held by the group.
CIA Director William Burns met in Warsaw with the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and the prime minister of Qatar on Monday, the first known meeting of the three since the cease-fire and the release of some 100 hostages in a deal they helped broker.
But US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the talks were not “at a point where another deal is imminent.”
Hamas and other militants are still holding an estimated 129 captives.
Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will keep fighting until it ends Hamas rule in Gaza, crushes its military capabilities and frees all the hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attack.
Israeli strike targets Syria’s Latakia, fires break out, state media reports
Updated 4 sec ago
Reuters
CAIRO: An Israeli strike targeting Syria’s Mediterranean port city of Latakia early on Thursday resulted in fires breaking out there, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.
Firefighters are working on extinguishing the fires, SANA added.
Syrian state television reported the country’s air defenses had confronted Israeli targets over Latakia.
Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years, but has ramped up such raids since last year’s Oct. 7 attack by armed group Hamas on Israeli territory.
Netanyahu says ‘state-of-the-art’ Russian weapons found in Lebanon
Israel says the aim of its military campaign against Hezbollah is to make the region safe so that about 60,000 evacuated residents of northern Israel can return to their homes
Updated 17 October 2024
AFP
PARIS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a French newspaper that Israeli forces had found “state-of-the-art” Russian weapons in searches of Hezbollah bases in south Lebanon.
Netanyahu highlighted to Le Figaro newspaper, in an interview released Wednesday, that under a 2006 UN Security Council resolution only the Lebanese army was allowed to have weapons south of the country’s key Litani river.
“However, in this area, Hezbollah has dug hundreds of tunnels and caches, where we have just found a quantity of state-of-the-art Russian weapons,” the French article quoted Netanyahu as saying.
The Washington Post, quoting Israeli officials, has reported that Russian and Chinese anti-tank weapons had been found in Israel’s raids inside Lebanon since it escalated its conflict with the Iran-backed Hezbollah last month.
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to an AFP question about the prime minister’s comments.
Israel says the aim of its military campaign against Hezbollah is to make the region safe so that about 60,000 evacuated residents of northern Israel can return to their homes.
Many left their homes because of cross-border shelling between Israel and Hezbollah after the launch of the Gaza war on October 7 last year.
“A new civil war in Lebanon would be a tragedy. It is certainly not our aim to provoke one. Israel does not intend to interfere in Lebanon’s internal affairs,” Netanyahu told Le Figaro.
“Our only aim is to allow our citizens living along the Lebanon frontier to go home and feel safe,” he added.
Hezbollah and Israel fought a gradually mounting artillery duel after the Hamas attacks on Israel set off the Gaza war.
Since Israel started raids on Hezbollah, at least 1,373 people have died in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures. The real toll is likely higher.
Why Syria’s Assad regime must toe a fine line as Israel-Iran tensions escalate
Desperate to preserve his regime, Assad has been at pains to avoid direct involvement in Gaza and Lebanon and risk Israeli retaliation
Analysts say his reluctance to meaningfully assist Hamas and Hezbollah highlights his weakness and raises doubts about his utility to Iran
Updated 17 October 2024
Robert Edwards
LONDON: Over the past year, the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad has been at pains to avoid direct involvement in Gaza and Lebanon, despite its informal alliance with Hamas and Hezbollah and professed support for their cause against Israel, not to mention the deadly Israeli strikes on Iranian military assets on Syrian territory.
Crippled by 13 years of civil war, international isolation, and economic weakness, this might seem a prudent move. Intervening in either conflict could invite a devastating retaliation from Israel and drag the country into a wider regional war.
CaptionIran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) meeting with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Tehran on May 30, 2024. ( KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)
However, Assad’s absence from the battlefield has raised questions about his role within the so-called Axis of Resistance — the loose network of Iran-backed Arab proxies that includes Hamas and Hezbollah — and, by extension, his reliability as an ally of the Islamic Republic.
Ever since Iran came to Assad’s rescue in 2011-12 when an armed uprising threatened his rule, Syria has effectively been a vassal of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, used as a land bridge to deliver weapons to Hezbollah, making it a favored target for the Israeli military.
The attacks have become more frequent since the wars in Gaza and along the Israel-Lebanon border erupted in October last year — the most significant being the April 1 strike on the Iranian Embassy annex in Damascus that killed multiple high-level IRGC commanders.
Assad’s ties with Iran and Hezbollah helped him win the Syrian civil war but have made his country a target for Israeli strikes. (AFP file photo)
“Israel has been striking alleged Hezbollah and Iran-linked targets in Syria for years, but the pace of Israeli strikes has increased since 2023,” Aron Lund, a fellow at Century International, told Arab News.
“With the war in Gaza and now also the invasion of Lebanon, Israel has adopted a much more aggressive posture against Syria. Israeli jets strike with regularity and impunity, and the Syrians are just soaking it up. They can’t do much to stop it and are probably afraid to try, for fear of further escalation.”
While Lund highlights Israel’s intensifying air campaign in Syria, Karam Shaar, a political economist and non-resident senior fellow at Newlines Institute, points to a deeper concern driving the Syrian regime’s inaction.
A handout picture released by the official Facebook page for the Syrian Presidency on October 22, 2019, shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad consulting a military map with army officers in al-Habit on the southern edges of the Idlib province. (AFP)
He suggests that Assad’s reluctance to retaliate against these Israeli strikes stems from his regime’s vulnerability.
“It knows that the Israelis might actually just topple it altogether,” Shaar told Arab News. “All it needs is a nudge for it to just come down crashing.”
Although it has enjoyed years of Russian and Iranian support, the Syrian Arab Army is today a shadow of its former self — ground down by more than a decade of underinvestment and fighting with armed opposition groups.
A United Nations Truce Supervision Organization military observer uses binoculars near the border with Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on May 11, 2018. (REUTERS/File Photo)
According to Randa Slim, director of the Conflict Resolution and Track II Dialogues Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., Syria is in no position to withstand a major Israeli offensive.
“The Assad regime is weak and cannot afford to get entangled in another war at the moment,” she told Arab News. “His army is weak, with major parts of the country outside his control. His two principal allies, Russia and Iran, cannot come to his defense at this time in case Israel decides it is time to mount a major attack on Syria akin to what is taking place in Lebanon.”
Elaborating on the point, she said: “Moscow is entangled in a protracted war against Ukraine. Tehran has its own problems to contend with domestically and is facing a potential war with Israel and the US. Assad’s modus operandi for now is to avoid getting entangled in the Axis of Resistance war against Israel.”
FASTFACTS
• Hafez Assad established Alawite-minority rule in Sunni-majority Syria in 1971, serving as its president until his death in 2000.
• Bashar Assad succeeded his father but presides over a nation riven by civil war since the uprising against his rule began in 2011.
Some experts have suggested that in the case of Gaza, it is not just Syria’s military weakness that is likely preventing a meaningful contribution: Assad’s relationship with Hamas has been sour since 2011 when the Palestinian militant group sided with the Syrian uprising against his rule.
“The relationship between Hamas and the regime is bad and has been bad since 2011, since Hamas stood in support of the Syrian revolution,” Jihad Yazigi, editor in chief of The Syria Report, told Arab News.
People wave Syrian opposition and Palestinian flags at a rally marking 11 years since the start of an anti-regime uprising in Syria's rebel enclave of Idlib on March 15, 2022. Thousands of protesters in Syria's rebel enclave of Idlib marked 11 years since an anti-government uprising, buoyed by the global outcry over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
In the case of Lebanon, the Syrian regime’s ability to project any kind of influence is a far cry from the days before 2011 when its forces exerted considerable control from within Lebanon itself.
“Remember that before 2005, it was the Syrian army that was in Lebanon,” said Yazigi. “From there, it had a say in Lebanese affairs and to an extent on Palestinian ones. Since 2011, it’s (Lebanon’s) Hezbollah that’s been on Syrian territory.”
Syrian army troops evacuate their post in the southern Lebanese coastal town of Damur on September 22, 2004, amid international pressure for a full withdrawal and an end to Damascus's interference in Lebanese affairs. (AFP/file photo)
The consensus view of experts is that, far from playing the role of a regional kingmaker, Assad’s primary concern today is maintaining power. At the same time, just as he is reliant on Iran and Hezbollah to guarantee his survival, the IRGC and its proxies are also highly dependent on continued access to Syrian territory.
“Hezbollah has no other choice but Syria as far as their strategic depth is concerned,” said Slim.
“They need Assad’s acquiescence to maintain their Iranian weapons supply route through Syrian territory as well as to use some of the regime’s weapons production facilities in Syria to manufacture parts for their weapons.
“Given Israel’s unrelenting attacks on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, Damascus is also the only place where Hezbollah and the IRGC can meet and coordinate their activities.”
Members of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent carry a woman into ambulance on Oct. 14, 2024, as people fleeing Israeli strikes in Lebanon walk to Syria through the Masnaa border crossing. (REUTERS)
The secular Syrian regime’s relationship with Iran and its Shiite and Sunni proxies has long been described as a marriage of convenience, underpinned by overlapping interests rather than ideological affinity. Some think Assad may very well sell out his axis allies if a better offer comes along.
“Hezbollah has long realized that Assad is neither a dependable nor a trustworthy ally,” Slim told Arab News. “He has always toyed with the idea of striking an agreement with Israel. In 2006, in the midst of Israel’s war on Lebanon, he authorized an indirect communication channel with Tel Aviv.
“Despite their reservations about his loyalty, they sent men and weapons in support of the Assad regime in 2011-12 primarily because they could not afford to lose this ‘strategic depth’ if the Assad regime were to be replaced by an anti-Iranian, Sunni-majority government in Damascus.”
Although Syria’s role in Lebanese and Palestinian affairs has effectively shifted over the years from active participant to passive supporter, this does not mean the Assad regime has shirked responsibility altogether.
“Even in this weakened state and despite the risks, the Syrian government does seem to be providing support for Hezbollah,” said Lund of Century International.
“Damascus has allowed Hezbollah and Iran to train and equip themselves on Syrian territory, and Syrian state institutions offer medical care and other services to Hezbollah fighters.
“Many of the heavy rockets that Hezbollah recently began firing on Israel are Syrian in origin, although we don’t know when they were provided.”
Hezbollah fighters carry the coffin of commander Ahmed Shehimi, who was killed in an Israeli raid in Syria early on March 29, during his funeral procession in southern Beirut, on April 1, 2024. (AFP)
Having been rescued by Iran and Hezbollah, Assad may have been expected by his benefactors to do far more to support his axis allies — at the very least as a sign of gratitude. It appears, however, that they recognized his limitations early on in the conflict.
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s late secretary-general, said as much shortly before he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut on Sept. 27.
“It seems that Iran and Hezbollah have, so far, agreed on a more passive role for Syria,” Armenak Tokmajyan, a nonresident scholar at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, told Arab News.
Lebanese civilians fleeing the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon are pictured at accommodations housing them in al-Harjalah, south of the Syrian capital Damascus, on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
“Just weeks before his death, Nasrallah said that ‘Syria is not required to enter the fighting because of its internal circumstances,’ adding that Syria should take on a supportive role.
“The pattern of Israeli strikes in Syria suggests that Syria is indeed playing this supportive role, such as allowing Hezbollah to store weapons on its territory.
“However, a more active involvement would likely attract unwanted Israeli attention, posing a significant risk to Assad’s regime.”
Charred cars lie in a parking lot in the aftermath of an Israeli strike in the neighborhood of Kafr Sousse in Damascus, early on July 14, 2024, in response to two drones launched towards Israel from Syrian territory. (AFP)
The expectation that he must feel eternally indebted to Iran and Hezbollah for rescuing his regime may also be an indignity too far for Assad, according to some analysts who also believe that Israeli pressure on his allies may offer just the opportunity he has been waiting for to extricate himself from Iran’s sphere of influence.
“Assad hopes that Iran and its militias will weaken after this war,” Bassam Barabandi, a former Syrian diplomat who defected from the regime in mid-2013, told Arab News, suggesting that Assad might already be quietly double-crossing the axis.
“He anticipates that Arab countries will reward him for his stance against Hezbollah and Iran by supporting the economy and reopening diplomatic channels to restore his relationships with the Arab and Western worlds.
“A significant question arises regarding how Iran would respond if it realizes that Assad has betrayed it.
Trucks wait at the entrance of the Yarmuk camp for Palestinian refugees, south of Damascus, during a delivery of humanitarian aid provided by Iran on March 26, 2024. (AFP)
Although there is ongoing discussion about the possibility of Syria moving away from Iran and closer to the Arab states, Yazigi of The Syria Report believes the Assad dynasty’s ability to distance themselves from Tehran remains limited.
“The Iranian-Syrian relationship is very important. We don’t realize it enough,” he said.
“They have had ties since the late 1970s, early 1980s. Even before Hezbollah was created, you had a strategic alliance between Syria and Iran, which dates back to the Iran-Iraq war and the Islamic Revolution. So, it is not even clear how confident and how capable Bashar is to depart too much from the Iranians.
Iranian rescuers (red) and Syrian soldiers sift through the rubble of a collapsed building in the northern city of Aleppo, searching for victims and survivors days after a deadly earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, on February 9, 2023. (AFP)
“The other aspect is if you want to build back ties with the Arab regimes, departing from the Iranians is a good thing, it’s a starter, but it’s not enough. Assad has shown a lot of difficulties making the required concessions to gain more funding from the Arabs, to make a peace deal with the Turks.”
Despite Assad’s readmission to the Arab League in 2023, one sore point that has hindered progress on the restoration of trust and economic ties is his perceived failure to crack down on the production and smuggling of narcotics, particularly Captagon, which appears to have become a valuable source of income for the sanctions-squeezed regime.
Avoiding active involvement in Gaza and Lebanon may help preserve the Assad regime in the short term, but Syria’s dire economic situation remains an existential threat.
The arrival of hundreds of thousands of people displaced from Lebanon, the bulk of them Syrians who had previously fled the civil war in their own country, could also exacerbate Syria’s internal instability.
Syrian Red Crescent personnel assist Lebanese people fleeing the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, at accommodations housing refugees in al-Harjalah, south of the Syrian capital Damascus, on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
Even though the majority are women and children, “Assad completely rejects the return of refugees, viewing them as his enemies from whom he wishes to distance himself,” Barabandi, the former Syrian diplomat, told Arab News.
For his part, Yazigi says that population movements have played a role in the past in destabilizing Syria, comparing the current situation to the wave of returnees from Lebanon following the killing of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005.
“If the uprising began in 2011, it is due to many factors, one of them is the return of hundreds of thousands of Syrian workers from Lebanon after the assassination of Hariri and the withdrawal of the Syrian army,” he said.
A volunteer with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent helps people fleeing Israeli bombardment in Lebanon as they walk across a crater caused by an Israeli strike, in the area of Masnaa on the Lebanese side of the border crossing with Syria, on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
“The Syrians faced a lot of anti-Syrian acts in Lebanon, which led to hundreds of thousands of people returning and staying in Syria without a job.
“Of course, the situation has completely changed since then. Everybody is exhausted, and nobody has in mind in Syria to do anything in the form of an uprising. But it is a (potential) factor of destabilization.”
Despite Assad’s passive support for the Axis of Resistance, some say keeping him in power in his enfeebled state likely serves Israeli and US interests far better than the alternative — regime change and all its associated chaos.
“To date, Israel has found Assad a reliable enemy,” said Slim. “They have him now at a position that serves their interests: a weak ruler over a divided and bankrupt country.”
Syrian Red Crescent personnel assist Lebanese people fleeing the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, at accommodations housing refugees in al-Harjalah, south of the Syrian capital Damascus, on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
Ultimately, Syria’s limited role in the ongoing regional turmoil reflects Assad’s delicate balancing act — caught between the competing demands of regional powers, economic weakness and the need to preserve his own regime.
“There’s no doubt that Assad is grappling with multiple challenges on various fronts,” said Tokmajyan.
“A displacement crisis that brings social and economic pressures at home, while also reducing remittances from Lebanon; the loss of an important economic lifeline in Lebanon; an ally in Hezbollah, whose capabilities are being eroded; the risk of being dragged into a war.
“All of this comes on top of Syria’s existing economic troubles. But will this lead to a revolt or the regime’s collapse? It’s hard to say. Assad has proven to be resilient so far.”
Iran’s FM arrives in Egypt for first visit since 2013: state media
The last visit to Egypt was in January 2013 when Ali Akbar Salehi traveled to Cairo during an African tour
Araghchi who is currently on a multi-country tour, arrived in the Egyptian capital after a visit to Jordan
Updated 16 October 2024
AFP
TEHRAN: Iran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, arrived Wednesday in Cairo, state media reported, the first visit by an Iranian foreign minister in almost 12 years.
The last visit to Egypt was in January 2013 when Ali Akbar Salehi traveled to Cairo during an African tour.
Araghchi who is currently on a multi-country tour, arrived in the Egyptian capital after a visit to Jordan where he met and talked to his counterpart, Ayman Safadi.
The two discussed regional developments amid Israel’s “atrocity and aggression against Gaza and Lebanon,” according to the foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei.
Araghchi, while in Amman also met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
Over the past week, Araghchi has visited Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq and Oman in an effort to ease tensions and contain the conflict from spreading into the region.
He is also expected to visit Turkiye after Egypt, according to the ministry.
On Tuesday, Araghchi spoke with his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot and the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, according to the same source.
The diplomatic measures by Tehran come with the region awaiting Israel’s retaliation for Iran’s October 1 missile attack on Israel.
Iran has said the attack was itself in retaliation for the killing of the chiefs of Iran-allied groups, as well as a commander of the Revolutionary Guards.
Iran has said that it will hit back if Israel attacks.
State Dept affirms Israel’s right to target Hezbollah in Lebanon, urges civilian protection
“We’ve seen footage that has emerged over the course of the past two weeks of rockets and other military weapons held in civilian homes,” Miller said
Washington supports limited incursions by Israel to attack and degrade Hezbollah
Updated 16 October 2024
Reuters
WASHINGTON: Israel has a right to target Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah even as it may be hiding in civilian buildings in Lebanon, but should do so in a way that protects civilians, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Wednesday.
Asked at a regular press briefing about an Israeli airstrike that destroyed the municipal headquarters in the southern Lebanon town of Nabatieh that killed 16 people including the mayor, Miller said he could not comment on the specific strike, but “we don’t want to see civilian buildings destroyed.”
“We understand that Hezbollah does operate at times from underneath civilian homes, inside civilian homes. We’ve seen footage that has emerged over the course of the past two weeks of rockets and other military weapons held in civilian homes,” he said.
“Israel does have a right to go after those legitimate targets, but they need to do so in a way that protects civilian infrastructure, protects civilians,” he said.
Washington supports limited incursions by Israel to attack and degrade Hezbollah, but the US opposes a broad bombing campaign on Beirut and attacks that don’t avoid civilian harm, Miller said.
Lebanese officials denounced Wednesday’s attack, which also wounded more than 50 people in Nabatieh, a provincial capital, saying it was proof that Israel’s campaign against the Hezbollah armed group was now shifting to target the Lebanese state.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the strike hit civilians meeting to coordinate relief efforts.
Miller said if Israel intentionally targeted such a meeting that would be “unacceptable,” but said the circumstances would need to be verified.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, on a visit to northern Israel near the border, said Israel would not halt its assault on Hezbollah to allow negotiations.
“Hezbollah is in great distress,” he said according to a statement from his office. “We will hold negotiations only under fire. I said this on day one, I said it in Gaza, and I am saying it here.”
