The spread of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to Lebanon would be “potentially apocalyptic,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths warned this Wednesday.
“I see it as the spark that will light the fuse. This is potentially apocalyptic,” Martin Griffiths, whose mandate expires at the end of the month, warned reporters in Geneva.
Hezbollah opened a war front with Israel in support of Hamas a day after the Palestinian movement carried out an Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250. 116 civilians remain hostage in the Gaza Strip, 42 of whom have died, according to the Israeli army.
In response, Israel launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip that has already killed 37,718 people, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-led government’s Health Ministry.
Declaring that the “intensive” phase of fighting, especially in Rafah, was “close to ending,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the war would continue to destroy Hamas, which has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007 and is considered a terrorist organization by the United Nations. States, the European Union and Israel.
The goal, Netanyahu said, is “the return of the hostages” held in the Gaza Strip and “the eradication of the Hamas regime.”
In fact, the Israeli army this Wednesday bombed the Gaza Strip, where soldiers were fighting against Hamas in Rafah, after the United States once again warned Israel of the risk of regional conflict in the event of war against Israel.
In northern Palestinian territory devastated by nearly nine months of war, Civil Defense said three children and a woman were killed early Wednesday in an Israeli attack on a house in Beit Lahia. Tank shots were recorded in Gaza City.
Although the intensity of the shootings has eased in recent days, escalating attacks on both sides of the border over the past week and threats between Israel and Hezbollah have raised fears of a new war.
“A war between Israel and Hezbollah could easily escalate into a regional war with catastrophic consequences for the Middle East,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned on Tuesday at a meeting with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant in Washington.
“We are working closely to reach an agreement, but we also need to prepare for all possible scenarios,” Gallant said.
On the 19th of this month, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the Islamist movement with dominant influence in Lebanon, warned that “not a single place” in Israel would be safe from his movement’s missiles, a day after the Israeli army announced that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon” had been “confirmed”.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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