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Top US General Says Risk of Broader War Eases a Bit after Israel-Hezbollah Exchange

US General Charles Q. Brown Junior looks on during a media statement at the American military's Ramstein Air Base, near Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo
US General Charles Q. Brown Junior looks on during a media statement at the American military's Ramstein Air Base, near Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo
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Top US General Says Risk of Broader War Eases a Bit after Israel-Hezbollah Exchange

US General Charles Q. Brown Junior looks on during a media statement at the American military's Ramstein Air Base, near Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo
US General Charles Q. Brown Junior looks on during a media statement at the American military's Ramstein Air Base, near Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo

The near-term risk of a broader war in the Middle East has eased somewhat after Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah exchanged fire without further escalation but Iran still poses a significant danger as it weighs a strike on Israel, America's top general said on Monday.
Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke to Reuters after emerging from a three-day trip to the Middle East that saw him fly into Israel just hours after Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel, and Israel's military struck Lebanon to thwart a larger attack.
It was one of the biggest clashes in more than 10 months of border warfare, but it also ended with limited damage in Israel and without immediate threats of more retaliation from either side.
Brown noted Hezbollah's strike was just one of two major threatened attacks against Israel that emerged in recent weeks. Iran is also threatening an attack over the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran last month.
Asked if the immediate risk of a regional war had declined, Brown said: "Somewhat, yes."
"You had two things you knew were going to happen. One's already happened. Now it depends on how the second is going to play out," Brown said while flying out of Israel.
"How Iran responds will dictate how Israel responds, which will dictate whether there is going to be a broader conflict or not."
Brown also cautioned that there was also the risk posed by Iran's militant allies in places such as Iraq, Syria and Jordan who have attacked US troops as well as Yemen's Houthis, who have targeted Red Sea shipping and even fired drones at Israel.
"And do these others actually go off and do things on their own because they're not satisfied - the Houthis in particular," Brown said, calling the group the "wild card."
Iran has vowed a severe response to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which took place as he visited Tehran late last month and which it blamed on Israel. Israel has neither confirmed or denied its involvement.
Brown said the US military was better positioned to aid in the defense of Israel, and its own forces in the Middle East, than it was on April 13, when Iran launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, unleashing hundreds of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.
Still, Israel, the US and other allies managed to destroy almost all of the weapons before they reached their targets.
"We're better postured," Brown said. He noted Sunday's decision to maintain two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Middle East, as well as extra squadron of F-22 fighter jets.
"We try to improve upon what we did in April."
Brown said whatever plans Iran's military might have, it would be up to Iran's political leaders to make a decision.
"They want to do something that sends a message but they also, I think ... don't want to do something that's going to create a broader conflict."
STRUGGLING WITH GAZA FALLOUT
US President Joe Biden's administration has been seeking to limit the fallout from the war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, now in its 11th month. The conflict has leveled huge swathes of Gaza, triggered border clashes between Israel and Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement and drawn in Yemen's Houthis.
Brown traveled on Monday to the Israeli military's Northern Command, where he was briefed on the threats along Israel's borders with Lebanon and Syria. In Tel Aviv, he met Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and its Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi.
Asked about Lebanese Hezbollah's military might, particularly after the strikes by Israel, Brown cautioned "they still have capability."
The current war in the Gaza Strip began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel's military campaign has driven nearly all of the Palestinian enclave's 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing at least 40,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

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Israeli Military Says It Rescues Hostage Abducted in Oct. 7 Attack

In this photo released by Soroka Medical Center on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza lies on a bed of the ‏Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel. (Soroka Medical Center via AP)
In this photo released by Soroka Medical Center on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza lies on a bed of the ‏Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel. (Soroka Medical Center via AP)
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Israeli Military Says It Rescues Hostage Abducted in Oct. 7 Attack

In this photo released by Soroka Medical Center on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza lies on a bed of the ‏Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel. (Soroka Medical Center via AP)
In this photo released by Soroka Medical Center on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza lies on a bed of the ‏Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel. (Soroka Medical Center via AP)

Israel said it rescued a hostage from an underground tunnel in Gaza on Tuesday, freeing one of the scores of people abducted during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that ignited the war in Gaza.

The rescue brought a rare moment of joy to Israelis after 10 months of war but also served as a painful reminder that dozens of hostages are still in captivity as international mediators try to broker a ceasefire in which they would be released.

The military said Qaid Farhan Alkadi was rescued from a tunnel in a “complex operation” in the southern Gaza Strip, but provided few other details. It was not immediately known if the rescue was made under fire or if anyone was killed or wounded during the operation.

Alkadi was one of eight members of Israel’s Arab Bedouin minority who were abducted on Oct. 7. He was working as a guard at a packing factory in Kibbutz Magen, one of several farming communities that came under attack. He has two wives and is the father of 11 children.

The 52-year-old is one of eight hostages to be rescued alive, and was the first to be rescued from underground, the Israeli military said.

The Israeli military released footage showing Alkadi moments after the rescue. Unshaven and wearing a white tank top, he is seen sitting and smiling with soldiers before boarding a helicopter to a hospital where he was taken for medical checks. He appeared gaunt but doctors described his condition as stable.

His large family and residents from around the Rahat area thronged the hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba to welcome him home.

As Alkadi’s family waited to see him in the hospital, one of his brothers held Alkadi’s infant son, who was born while he was in captivity and had not yet met his father, the brother said.

“We’re so excited to hug him and see him and tell him that we’re all here with him,” a family member who gave his name as Faez told Channel 12. “I hope that every hostage will come home so the families can experience this happiness.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the rescue operation was part of the army's “daring and courageous activities conducted deep inside the Gaza Strip,” adding that Israel is "committed to taking advantage of every opportunity to return the hostages.”

Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Alkadi was “rescued from an underground tunnel following accurate intelligence.” Alkadi was held in a number of locations, including in underground tunnels, during his 326 days in captivity, Hagari said.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Alkadi by phone soon after he arrived at the hospital. He said that Israel would rely on rescue operations and negotiations to bring the remaining hostages home.

“Both ways together require our military presence in the field, and unceasing military pressure on Hamas,” Netanyahu said.

Hamas-led fighters abducted some 250 people in the Oct. 7 attack, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not say how many were militants. It has displaced 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes and caused heavy destruction across the besieged territory.

Israeli airstrikes continued on Tuesday across the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian officials said at least 18 people, including eight children, were killed in the attacks.

Israel believes there are still 108 hostages in Gaza and that more than 40 of them are dead. Most of the rest were freed during a weeklong ceasefire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Two previous Israeli operations to free hostages killed scores of Palestinians. Hamas says several hostages have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue attempts. Israeli troops mistakenly killed three Israelis who escaped captivity in December.

Mazen Abu Siam, a close family friend waiting at the hospital, said the family was overjoyed to hear the news, but they were still praying for a ceasefire.

“We are waiting for a deal for one year," Siam told The Associated Press.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent months trying to negotiate an agreement in which the remaining hostages would be freed in exchange for a lasting ceasefire. Those talks are ongoing in Egypt this week, but there has been no sign of any breakthrough.

Netanyahu has faced intense criticism from families of the hostages and much of the Israeli public for not yet reaching a deal with Hamas to bring them home.

Hamas hopes to trade the hostages for a lasting ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants.

Last week, after the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages in southern Gaza, Israel’s military spokesperson, Hagari, said the army was working to gather more intelligence for rescue operations. But he added that “we cannot bring everyone back through rescue operations alone.”