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Israeli Alert on Border with Lebanon Raises Fears of War

Concerns have been heightened over the eruption of a new war between Lebanon and Israel. (AFP file photo)
Concerns have been heightened over the eruption of a new war between Lebanon and Israel. (AFP file photo)
    Tel Aviv, Beirut - Nazir Magally and Asharq Al-Awsat
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Israeli Alert on Border with Lebanon Raises Fears of War

Concerns have been heightened over the eruption of a new war between Lebanon and Israel. (AFP file photo)
Concerns have been heightened over the eruption of a new war between Lebanon and Israel. (AFP file photo)

Concerns have been heightened over the eruption of a new war between Lebanon and Israel in wake of the Iranian threats to retaliate for the assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Tehran.

The war may have likely erupted when an infiltration attempt from Lebanon to Israel was thwarted on Saturday night.

Israeli forces caught and arrested two persons trying to infiltrate the borders into the Galilee. The two Sudanese workers were attempting to enter Israel to make a living. On Sunday, the Lebanese Army Intelligence announced that it had arrested the infiltrators, after Israeli forces sent them back into Lebanese territories.

On Saturday overnight, the Israeli army fired more than 15 flare bombs over the Al-Abbad area overlooking Houla in southern Lebanon. It also launched surveillance drones over the region. The Israeli army spokesman announced that the two suspects had been arrested and were being questioned.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported on Sunday that an army intelligence patrol arrested the two persons in the outskirts of the town of Mais al-Jabal in the governorate of Marjeyoun.

The operation was carried out amid an Israeli state of alert that lasted for a full 45 minutes. The residents of nearby towns were warned of the possibility of hearing the sound of light bombs and unusual movement.

The development highlighted the amount of tension following the assassination of Fakhrizadeh. The Israeli army had announced a state of alert, while the intelligence services declared a mobilization in Israeli embassies abroad, as well as Jewish institutions in various countries of the world, for fear of Iranian retaliatory attacks.

On Sunday, the chief of the Israeli army general staff, Afif Kochavi, made an inspection tour of his army forces operating in the Golan Division on the borders with Syria to assess the situation. He also spoke with commanders and soldiers about the army’s readiness for all scenarios on the borders with Syria and Lebanon, stressing that the current situation was normal, “but all developments and possibilities in the region should be followed up.”

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Israeli Strikes Kill 15 in Gaza as Hospital in North of the Region Makes Distress Call

Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike on the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 19, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike on the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 19, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Israeli Strikes Kill 15 in Gaza as Hospital in North of the Region Makes Distress Call

Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike on the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 19, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike on the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 19, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Israeli forces killed at least 15 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, including a rescue worker, health officials said, as tanks deepened their incursion in the area and blew up homes, according to residents.

Medics said at least 12 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the area of Jabalia, in northern Gaza, earlier on Wednesday. They said at least 10 people remained missing as rescue operations continued. Another man was killed in tank shelling nearby, they said.

In the Sabra suburb of Gaza City, the Palestinian civil emergency said an Israeli air strike targeted one of their teams during a rescue operation, killing one staff and wounding three others.

The death raised the number of civil emergency service members killed since Oct 7, 2023, to 87, it said.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the two incidents.

Adding to the challenges facing the healthcare system in north Gaza areas, the civil emergency service said their vehicles were hardly operational because of shortages of fuel and equipment, citing Israel's continued refusal to allow them to bring the needed supplies.

In Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, medics said one man was killed and others wounded in an Israeli air strike on the eastern territory of the city.

Residents in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun, where the army has operated since early last month, said forces blew up dozens of houses in the three areas, adding to fears Israel was seeking to clear residents to create a buffer zone, something Israel denies.

Israel said it sent forces into the two towns and refugee camp to fight Hamas gunmen launching attacks and to prevent them from regrouping. It said it had killed hundreds of them since Oct 5.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad armed wing claimed they killed many Israeli soldiers in anti-tank and mortar fire as well as ambushes by explosive devices during the same period.

Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of three medical facilities barely operational in the north of the enclave, said the hospital came under Israeli fire on Tuesday.

"The healthcare system is still operating under extremely harsh conditions. Following the arrest of 45 members of the medical and surgical staff and the denial of entry to a replacement team, we are now losing wounded patients daily who could have survived if resources were available," said Abu Safiya.

"Unfortunately, food and water are not allowed to enter, and not even a single ambulance is permitted access to the north. Yesterday, the hospital was bombed across all its departments without warning, as we were trying to save an injured person in the intensive care unit," he added.

Speaking during a visit to Gaza on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hamas would not rule the Palestinian enclave after the war had ended and that Israel had destroyed the group's military capabilities.

Netanyahu also said Israel had not given up trying to locate the 101 remaining hostages believed to be still in the enclave and he offered a $5 million reward for the return of each one.

Qatar, a key ceasefire mediator alongside Egypt, said it informed Hamas and Israel it will stall its mediation efforts unless the two warring parties showed "willingness and seriousness" to reach a deal.

Hamas wants a deal that ends the war, while Netanyahu vowed the war can only end once Hamas is eradicated.

The 2023 attack on Israel, which shattered Israel's aura of invincibility, marked the country's bloodiest day in its history, with 1,200 people killed and over 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel responded with its most destructive offensive in Gaza, killing nearly 44,000 people and wounding 103,898, according to the Gaza health ministry, and turning the enclave into a wasteland of rubble with millions desperate for food, fuel, water and sanitation.