«A full-scale war in the Middle East it is possible but I still believe that we can reach an agreement that changes the entire region”, the US president said again, Joe Biden. Speaking in particular about the war in Gaza, the president underlined that «a two-state solution must be implemented. There is a need for change in the region.”
Dozens of American soldiers have been deployed to Cyprus following the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah and are preparing for a variety of eventualities, including the possible evacuation of American citizens from Lebanon. CNN reports it citing some sources.
Meanwhile, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, will meet the head of the White House, Joe Biden, today on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, to address with him the issues of the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine. The Elysée announced it. Before this meeting, Macron will speak with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen.
“Your boots they will enter the villages That Hezbollah has transformed into a vast military post“: these words, addressed to the troops by the army chief Israeliare the signal that the war In the south of Lebanon it could dramatically level up at any moment. The script so far has followed the evolution of the conflict a Gazai.e. the prolonged bombing of enemy positions to open the way to ground troopsthe mobilization of reservists (two brigades deployed in the north) and the request to civilians to evacuate i border villages. A Israeli forcing to which the militiamen of the Party of God they are responding tit for tat, flooding with rockets there Galilee and even going so far as to launch a for the first time ballistic missile on Tel Aviv. It’s a precipice-edge scenario, amidst feverish attempts at international diplomacy to avoid the worst. But also the American president Joe Biden in the last few hours he admitted that a «large-scale war in Middle East it’s possible.”
Missiles and bombs continue to darken the skies of north front. The Israelis reported having hit two thousand Shiite militia positions with their fighters in three days. On the other side the alarm sirens they resonated up to a hundred kilometers from the border, a Tel Avivwhen Hezbollah launched a surface-to-surface missile that, according to the Israeli army, was intercepted. The goal was the Mossad headquartersaccused of having decapitated the military leadership of the Lebanese movement by exploding thousands of pagers and walkie-talkie.
With the attack on Tel Avivalthough without apparent consequences, “Hezbollah has expanded its fire beam and will receive a very strong response,” warned the Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi visiting some brigades on the border. The general said something more, he asked his men to prepare to go into action, crossing that border: «You will meet the militiamen and you will demonstrate to him what it means to face a professional, highly trained and battle-experienced army. And you will win.”
The first stated objective of Israel in the conflict with Hezbollah is to bring the approximately 60 thousand residents escaped from the rockets. “We will not stop until they return home, we will strike with all our strength,” he assured Benjamin Netanyahu. While theIdf explained that the military operation aims to «dismantle themilitary infrastructure» that the Shiite militiamen have built over the last twenty years. So that they can no longer threaten Israel. In this framework, aground action could be triggered to push the enemy militias further north, creating a safety band wider than the current one.
TO New Yorkon the sidelines ofUN Assemblyattempts are being made to avoid this escalation and Netanyahu himself would have given the OK to negotiations for one truce in Lebanonmediated by the US and Europeans, but in the meantime Washington has decided to deploy a troop reinforcement to Cyprus. Moreover, Hezbollah is also the first to take Israel’s plans seriously. The Party of Godaccording to Wsjkept in reserve a huge arsenal of rockets, drones And anti-tank missiles to counter any enemy advance into Lebanese territory. It has also expanded its network of tunnel in the south, repositioning fighters and weapons, which continue to arrive in large quantities from the ally Iranian.
While waiting, we continue to count dead. The victims of the raids throughout the Lebanon in the last 24 hours there have been at least 50which are added to 558 of the past few days. Israel struck for the first time a village with a Christian majority north of Beirut. And the drama of the displaced: according to United Nationsthey were about 90,000 this week. In this chaos more and more governments they invite their compatriots to leave the Country of Cedars on fire, also preparing plans to evacuation.