Israel threatens to expand war if Hezbollah truce collapses

Israel threatens to expand war if Hezbollah truce collapses
Israeli soldiers carry their belongings as they prepare for a military leave near their positions on the border with Lebanon on Dec. 3, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 03 December 2024
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Israel threatens to expand war if Hezbollah truce collapses

Israel threatens to expand war if Hezbollah truce collapses
  • “If we return to war we will act strongly, we will go deeper,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said
  • “If until now we separated the state of Lebanon from Hezbollah... it will no longer be [like this]“

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: Israel threatened on Tuesday to return to war in Lebanon if its truce with Hezbollah collapses, and said this time its attacks would go deeper and target the Lebanese state itself, after the deadliest day since the ceasefire was agreed last week.

In its strongest threat since the truce was agreed to end 14 months of war with Hezbollah, Israel said it would hold Lebanon responsible for failing to disarm militants who violated the truce.

“If we return to war we will act strongly, we will go deeper, and the most important thing they need to know: that there will be no longer be an exemption for the state of Lebanon,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said.

“If until now we separated the state of Lebanon from Hezbollah... it will no longer be [like this],” he said during a visit to the northern border area.

Despite last week’s truce, Israeli forces have continued strikes in southern Lebanon against what they say are Hezbollah fighters ignoring the agreement to halt attacks and withdraw beyond the Litani River, about 30 km (18 miles) from the frontier.

On Monday, Hezbollah shelled an Israeli military post, while Lebanese authorities said at least 12 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon.

Katz called the Hezbollah attack “the first test” and described Israel’s strikes as a strong response.

The Beirut government must “authorize the Lebanese army to enforce their part, to keep Hezbollah away beyond the Litani, and to dismantle all the infrastructure,” Katz said.

“If they don’t do it and this whole agreement collapses then the reality will be very clear.”

Top Lebanese officials urged Washington and Paris to press Israel to uphold the ceasefire, after dozens of military operations on Lebanese soil that Beirut has deemed violations, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

The sources said caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a close Hezbollah ally who negotiated the deal on behalf of Lebanon, spoke to officials at the White House and French presidency late on Monday.

Mikati, quoted by the Lebanese news agency, said that diplomatic communications had intensified since Monday to stop Israeli violations of the ceasefire. He also said a recruitment drive was under way by the Lebanese army to strengthen its presence in the south.

US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters on Monday that the ceasefire “is holding” and that the US had “anticipated that there might be violations.”

Neither the French presidency nor the foreign ministry were immediately available to comment. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot spoke to his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar on Monday, saying both sides should adhere to the ceasefire.

The truce came into effect on Nov. 27 and prohibits Israel from conducting offensive military operations in Lebanon, while requiring Lebanon to prevent armed groups including Hezbollah from launching attacks on Israel. It gives Israeli troops 60 days to withdraw from south Lebanon.

INTERNATIONAL MONITORING

A mission chaired by the United States is tasked with monitoring, verifying and helping enforce the truce, but it has yet to begin work.

Berri on Monday called on the mission to “urgently” ensure Israel halts its breaches, saying Beirut had logged at least 54 Israeli violations of the ceasefire so far.

Israel has said its continued activity in Lebanon is aimed at enforcing the ceasefire.

Lebanon’s Mikati met in Beirut on Monday with US General Jasper Jeffers, who will chair the monitoring committee.

Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that France’s representative to the committee, General Guillaume Ponchin, would arrive in Beirut on Wednesday and that the committee would hold its first meeting on Thursday.

“There is an urgency to finalize the mechanism, otherwise it will be too late,” the source said, referring to Israel’s gradual intensification of strikes despite the truce.


How Israeli raids, settler violence and annexation plans are driving the West Bank toward crisis

How Israeli raids, settler violence and annexation plans are driving the West Bank toward crisis
Updated 8 sec ago
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How Israeli raids, settler violence and annexation plans are driving the West Bank toward crisis

How Israeli raids, settler violence and annexation plans are driving the West Bank toward crisis
  • UN agencies warn of escalating violence in the West Bank, including unlawful killings, injuries, and mass displacement of Palestinians
  • Planned settlement expansion could split the occupied territory, undermine a contiguous Palestinian state, and violate international law

LONDON: While global attention remains focused on the war in Gaza, the occupied West Bank has been sliding deeper into crisis, largely out of sight. Israeli military raids and settler violence against Palestinians have escalated sharply, intensifying tensions across the territory.

The UN Human Rights Office has warned of growing settler violence “with the acquiescence, support, and in some cases participation of Israeli forces.”

In a July 30 statement, the UN agency described “a pattern of the use of unnecessary and disproportionate force that resulted in the unlawful killing and injury of Palestinians” in the West Bank.

The report further alleged that Israeli authorities are pursuing a wider strategy of displacement and annexation — claims the government rejects, insisting instead that its actions are a response to security threats posed by Palestinian militants.

“State policy and legislative actions appear aimed at emptying certain areas of the West Bank of the Palestinian population, advancing the settlement enterprise, and consolidating the annexation” of large parts of the territory, the statement added.

That warning was followed almost immediately by a significant political development, as Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Defense Minister Israel Katz publicly declared that the current moment offered an opportunity to annex the West Bank — a move long opposed by much of the international community.

“Ministers Katz and Levin have been working for many years to implement Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” their offices said in a joint statement on July 31, using the biblical name for the West Bank. “At this very moment, there is a moment of opportunity that must not be missed.”

The statement did not explain why now is the right opportunity, but it came on the heels of recent announcements by Western governments, including France and the UK, that they are prepared to recognize a Palestinian state.

Just two days earlier, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that the UK would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September unless Israel moved to end the crisis in Gaza, commit to a ceasefire, and revive a two-state solution.

“There is an understandable focus on Gaza given the genocide that is going on, the horrific amount of destruction, loss of life, the starvation of a civilian population,” Chris Doyle, director of the London-based Council for Arab-British Understanding, told Arab News.

“Of course, that is far, far worse than anything that is currently happening in the West Bank.” But, he warned, the difference in scale does not diminish the danger.

“I think what is scary about the West Bank is that many Palestinians there feel that they are next — that what has happened in Gaza will be happening to them.”

That fear is not unfounded.

“We’ve already seen an uptick in Israeli military operations, particularly in the north of the West Bank, inside refugee camps,” said Doyle.

“We’ve seen demolitions at record levels, record levels of settler violence, all helped by the Israeli military, and the forced displacement of so many communities.”

He added that ultra-nationalist elements within the Israeli government, “particularly those who are really engaged with the ultra-nationalist settler movement,” are “doing everything they can to exploit the situation in Gaza to push forward with their plans in the West Bank.”

That concern is echoed by Israeli rights group B’Tselem, which warned in July of “clear and imminent danger that the genocide will not remain confined to Gaza.”

In its report, titled “Our Genocide,” B’Tselem warned that the assault on Gaza is inseparable from escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and within Israel.

Indeed, violence in the West Bank has spiked since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza, and escalated further after Israel launched Operation Iron Wall on Jan. 21, which the Israeli government says is aimed at tackling militant groups in the territory’s north.

International monitors, including the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Human Rights Watch, say the campaign has become increasingly indiscriminate, killing numerous noncombatants, including children.

Save the Children reports at least 224 children were killed by Israeli forces or settlers between January 2023 and early 2025. OCHA says that from Oct. 7, 2023, to mid-July 2025, some 968 Palestinians — including 204 children — were killed in the West Bank.

Civilians killed during this period include foreign nationals, such as Palestinian-American Khamis Al-Ayyad, whose family is seeking an investigation into his death in a settler attack on July 31.

UN figures show around 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced — the largest such movement since the 1967 war — most of them from three refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem.

Settler violence and military-imposed access restrictions have uprooted more than 2,200 more.

House demolitions are also climbing. A new directive by the Israeli Civil Administration allows the military to raze Palestinian structures and expel around 1,200 residents from long-inhabited areas.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned such actions could constitute “forcible transfer, which is a war crime.”

The UN agency said in late June that such actions “could also amount to a crime against humanity if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.”

Israel says demolitions target unpermitted buildings, though Palestinians and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs note that such permits are nearly impossible to obtain.

In June, the UN recorded the highest monthly injury toll from settler attacks in over 20 years. OHCHR counted 757 such attacks in the first seven months of 2025 — a 13 percent rise compared to the same period last year.

UN General Assembly President Philemon Yang called these developments “a critical moment in the long history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

On July 28, he warned that “while the situation in Gaza is dramatic, we must not lose sight of the deeply concerning and equally urgent situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

Indeed, on Aug. 6, the Israeli government discussed building thousands of new housing units in the E1 area, east of occupied East Jerusalem. The project would link the Ma’ale Adumim settlement to Jerusalem, effectively bisecting the West Bank and isolating Palestinian communities.

“Not only would implementing the E1 doomsday settlement project split the West Bank into north and south, but also cement the separation of Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, as well as displacing around 12,500 Palestinians,” said Doyle.

“All of this, therefore, amounts to an extremely serious situation in the West Bank, which already exists under a regime of apartheid, where Israeli Jewish citizens of the State of Israel in settlements enjoy superior rights to Palestinians who are their neighbors.”

The E1 plan, stalled since 2021 under US and EU pressure, envisions building more than 3,000 homes to the east of Jerusalem and is widely seen as a death blow to a future contiguous Palestinian state.

In a joint statement in July, 31 Western nations, including the UK and France, announced their “strong opposition” to the project, calling it “a flagrant breach of international law” that would “critically undermine the two-state solution.”

However, the international community should be doing far more, said Doyle.

He warned that the escalating situation in the West Bank “does point to a fundamental failure of the international community, not just over the last 21-22 months, but actually over decades, to put an end to the settlement project — to reverse it.

“All of this, of course, has now been ordered by the International Court of Justice that says that Israel must withdraw from the settlements and pay reparations. And it is incumbent upon international actors to back that up and to take action to ensure that they are in no way complicit with Israel’s regime of occupation.”

The ICJ ruled in July 2024 that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem is illegal under international law. It found that Israeli settlements and use of natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territories are unlawful.

The court ordered Israel to end its occupation, dismantle settlements, provide full reparations to Palestinians, and facilitate the return of displaced people.

With the West Bank facing ever-increasing violence, mass displacement, and aid restrictions, the question looms: Will the world act to prevent it becoming another Gaza?


Israel expands Eli settlement, further fragmenting Palestinian territory in occupied West Bank

Israel expands Eli settlement, further fragmenting Palestinian territory in occupied West Bank
Updated 9 min 43 sec ago
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Israel expands Eli settlement, further fragmenting Palestinian territory in occupied West Bank

Israel expands Eli settlement, further fragmenting Palestinian territory in occupied West Bank
  • Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission says aim of the expansion is to separate the central West Bank from its northern region
  • The settlement, located north of Ramallah on Highway 60, is built on land that belonged to Palestinians from the villages of Al-Sawiya, Al-Lubban and Qaryut

LONDON: Israeli authorities have approved plans to transform several large illegal outposts around the Eli settlement in the occupied West Bank into neighborhoods that expand the colony, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said Tuesday.

The settlement, located north of Ramallah on Highway 60, was built on lands that belonged to Palestinians from the villages of Al-Sawiya, Al-Lubban and Qaryut.

Muayyad Shaaban, the head of the commission, said the aim of the expansion was to separate the central West Bank from its northern region by creating “a colonial bloc” between the cities of Ramallah and Nablus.

Israel intends to build 50 housing units in a 0.86 hectare area inside Eli, plus 650 housing units in large illegal outposts east of Eli as part of two expansion plans covering a total area of 63.8 hectares.

In July, Israeli authorities reviewed 39 settlement plans, 34 in the West Bank and five in Jerusalem. They approved 22, one of them in Jerusalem, containing a total of 4,492 housing units.

Shaaban said Israel continues “to impose facts on the ground, on Palestinian soil, which will fragment the Palestinian territory and impose a system of isolated enclaves to eliminate the possibility of a future Palestinian state.”

He added that such serious violations by Israel not only infringe on the rights of the Palestinian people but also contravene international law and resolutions, the Wafa News Agency reported.


Denmark to participate in aid airdrops over Gaza

Humanitarian aid packages are airdropped over the Gaza Strip on Saturday. (Reuters)
Humanitarian aid packages are airdropped over the Gaza Strip on Saturday. (Reuters)
Updated 12 August 2025
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Denmark to participate in aid airdrops over Gaza

Humanitarian aid packages are airdropped over the Gaza Strip on Saturday. (Reuters)
  • UN-mandated experts have warned that Gaza is slipping into famine while international organizations have for months condemned the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on aid distribution in Gaza

COPENHEGEN: Denmark will take part in airdropping humanitarian aid over Gaza, in an operation coordinated by Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, Danish media reported Tuesday.

“We have decided to participate in an airdrop over Gaza,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told public broadcaster DR.

“There is currently an open window until the end of August, during which Israel has allowed access to its airspace,” he added.

He noted that the method was “by no means an optimal way to deliver emergency aid.”

“It is a kind of emergency solution but it is also where we are now,” the minister said.

The United Arab Emirates and Jordan had requested Denmark’s assistance, news agency Ritzau reported.

The supplies will be dropped from a C-130 aircraft that will fly over the Gaza Strip once or twice before August 22, according to Lokke, who did not give details about the size of the Danish contribution.

Concern has escalated about the situation in the Gaza Strip after 22 months of war, which started after Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out a deadly attack against Israel in October 2023.

UN-mandated experts have warned that Gaza is slipping into famine while international organizations have for months condemned the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on aid distribution in Gaza.

Western countries, including Britain, France and Spain, have recently partnered with Middle Eastern nations to deliver humanitarian supplies by air to the Palestinian enclave.

 


Israel PM says ‘will allow’ Palestinians to leave Gaza

Israel PM says ‘will allow’ Palestinians to leave Gaza
Updated 12 August 2025
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Israel PM says ‘will allow’ Palestinians to leave Gaza

Israel PM says ‘will allow’ Palestinians to leave Gaza
  • Netanyahu said “we are not pushing them out, but we are allowing them to leave”
  • In the Gaza Strip, Israel for years has tightly controlled the borders and barred many from leaving

JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel would let Palestinians leave the Gaza Strip, as the military prepares a broader offensive in the territory.

Past calls to resettle Gazans outside of the war-battered territory, including from US President Donald Trump, have sparked concern among Palestinians and condemnation from the international community.

In an interview with Israeli broadcaster i24NEWS, as the military prepares a broader offensive in Gaza, Netanyahu said “we are not pushing them out, but we are allowing them to leave.”

“Give them the opportunity to leave, first of all, combat zones, and generally to leave the territory, if they want,” he said, citing refugee outflows during wars in Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan.

In the Gaza Strip, Israel for years has tightly controlled the borders and barred many from leaving.

“We will allow this, first of all, within Gaza during the fighting, and we will certainly allow them to leave Gaza as well,” Netanyahu said.

For Palestinians, any effort to push them force them off their land would recall the “Nakba,” or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.

Earlier this year, Trump stirred controversy by openly suggesting that the United States should take control of Gaza and expel its 2.4 million inhabitants to Egypt and Jordan.

Netanyahu also previously said his government was working to find third countries to take in Gaza’s population, following Trump’s suggestion they be expelled and the territory redeveloped as a holiday destination.

Far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition have called for the “voluntary” departure of Gaza’s Palestinians.

Last week, Israel’s security cabinet approved plans to expand the war into the remaining parts of Gaza not yet controlled by the military.

The vast majority of Gaza’s people have been displaced at least once during the war, triggered by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.


Jordan’s king meets Syrian FM, US envoy over Syria developments

Jordan’s king meets Syrian FM, US envoy over Syria developments
Updated 12 August 2025
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Jordan’s king meets Syrian FM, US envoy over Syria developments

Jordan’s king meets Syrian FM, US envoy over Syria developments
  • Both meetings focused on supporting Syria’s security, stability, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

AMMAN: King Abdullah II of Jordan on Tuesday met separately with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani and US Ambassador to Turkiye and Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack to discuss the latest developments in Syria, the Jordan News Agency reported.

Both meetings, which were also attended by Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah II, focused on supporting Syria’s security, stability, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

King Abdullah highlighted the importance of US support for Syria’s reconstruction in a way that protects the rights of all Syrians, and said Jordan was ready to share its expertise to strengthen Syrian institutions.

He also called for closer Jordanian-Syrian cooperation in combating terrorism and curbing arms and drug smuggling.

Al-Shaibani and Barrack were in Amman for a tripartite Jordanian-Syrian-US meeting to follow up on talks last month on Syria’s situation and reconstruction efforts.

On Monday, King Abdullah and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed developments in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as mutual concerns and Saudi-Jordanian relations, at NEOM Palace.