Israel’s conditions for a ceasefire with Lebanon include allowing the Israeli army to continue operating in Lebanese territory. Meanwhile, Israel steps up its extermination campaign in northern Gaza, targeting its last remaining hospitals.
Israel is deepening Lebanese social rifts by bombing areas that have been considered historically “safe” from Israeli attacks, dissuading the residents of those areas from sheltering displaced people from the south.
Israel bombed displacement shelters across Gaza and aid distribution points in Jabalia, while Hezbollah intensified its fire on Haifa and Tel Aviv amid Israel’s continued bombardment of southern Lebanese towns.
The Israeli ground invasion of southern Lebanon continues to face stiff resistance along the border one week on, while the Israeli army has renewed its assault on northern Gaza, laying siege to Jabalia refugee camp for the sixth time since October 7.
The mood in Washington today is similar to 2003 when the neocons of the Bush administration sought to remake the Middle East. This time, a joint vision shared by Israel and the Biden administration seeks to remake the region in the West’s vision.
In Gaza and Lebanon, Israel is projecting its force while burrowing itself deeper into a quagmire. While it may achieve brief operational successes, it fails to extinguish the spirit of the resistance or coerce it into submission.
Israel has killed 150 people across Gaza since Iran launched its retaliatory ballistic missile attack against Israel. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes continue across Lebanon, with the death toll reaching into the thousands.
Iran announced that its barrage of ballistic missiles was in retaliation for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hasan Nasrallah in Beirut.
Early on in the genocide, there was an assumption that a war with Lebanon would ease pressure on Gaza. But with the world’s attention now on the escalations with Hezbollah and Iran, Israel continues to carry out its massacres in Gaza in silence.
Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General said Hezbollah’s military capacities remain intact, while Israel has reportedly informed the U.S. that an Israeli ground invasion of southern Lebanon is “imminent.”