Jerusalem: Israel's defence minister issued a warning, saying that Israel will expand its operations and target the Lebanese state itself if the tenuous ceasefire with Hezbollah breaks down.
He made his remarks the day after Israel launched a barrage of airstrikes in Lebanon that killed about a dozen civilians. Those strikes came after the Lebanese militant group fired a volley of projectiles as a warning over what it said were previous Israeli ceasefire violations.
Speaking to troops on the northern border Tuesday, Defence Minister Israel Katz said any violations of the agreement would be met with “a maximum response and zero tolerance.” He said if the war resumes, Israel will widen its strikes beyond the areas where Hezbollah's activities are concentrated, and “there will no longer be an exemption for the state of Lebanon.” Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel last year in solidarity with Hamas militants who are fighting in the Gaza Strip. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage, PTI reported.
Israel's blistering retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,502 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war in Gaza has destroyed vast areas of the coastal enclave and displaced 90% of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
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Palestinians lined up for bags of flour distributed by the UN in central Gaza on Tuesday morning, some of them for the first time in months amid a drop in food aid entering the territory.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, gave out one 25-kilogram flour bag to each family of 10 at a warehouse in the Nuseirat refugee camp, as well as further south in the city of Khan Younis.
COGAT, the Israeli army body in charge of humanitarian affairs, said it facilitated the entry of a shipment of 600 tons of flour on Sunday for the World Food Program. Still, the amount of aid Israel has allowed into Gaza since the beginning of October has been at nearly the lowest levels of the 15-month-old war.
UNRWA's senior emergency officer Louise Wateridge told The Associated Press that the flour bags being distributed Tuesday were not enough.
“People are getting one bag of flour between an entire family and there is no certainty when they'll receive the next food,” she said.
Wateridge added that UNRWA has been struggling like other humanitarian agencies to provide much-needed supplies across the Gaza Strip. The agency this week announced it was stopping delivering aid entering through the main crossing from Israel, Kerem Shalom, because its convoys were being robbed by gangs. UNRWA has blamed Israel in large part for the spread of lawlessness in Gaza.
The International Criminal Court is seeking to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister over accusations of using “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel rejects the allegations and says it has been working hard to improve entry of aid.
Netanyahu says the war isn't over against Hezbollah and vowed to use "an iron fist" against the Lebanese militant group for any perceived violations of a week-old ceasefire.
“At the moment we are in a ceasefire, I note — a ceasefire, not the end of the war," Netanyahu said at the start of the government meeting Tuesday. He said the military would retaliate for “any violation — minor or major.” Netanyahu also thanked US President-elect Donald Trump for his recent demands for Hamas to release the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza. Trump posted on social media Monday that if the hostages are not freed before he takes office in January there would be “HELL TO PAY.” Netanyahu convened Tuesday's meeting in northern Israel, where around 45,000 Israelis had been displaced by the war as of last week, according to the prime minister's office.
German authorities have arrested a Lebanese man accused of being a member of Hezbollah and working for groups controlled by the militant organization in Germany.
Federal prosecutors said the suspect, identified only as Fadel R. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested in the Hannover region on Tuesday. The man is suspected of membership in a foreign terrorist organization and is not accused of direct involvement in any violence.
The Lebanese army is looking for more recruits as it beefs up its presence in southern Lebanon after the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.
During an initial 60-day truce, thousands of Lebanese troops are supposed to deploy in southern Lebanon, where UN peacekeepers also have a presence. Hezbollah militants are to pull back from areas near the border as Israel withdraws its ground forces.
The Lebanese army has about 80,000 troops, with around 5,000 of them deployed in the south.
Syria's state news agency says a drone strike hit a car in a suburb of the capital, Damascus, killing one person.
The agency did not give further details or say who was killed.
It said the attack occurred Tuesday on the road leading to the Damascus International Airport south of the city.
The area is known to be home to members of Iran-backed militant groups. Israel is believed to have carried out a number of strikes in the area in recent months as it has battled Iran-backed Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.
Iran's ambassador to Lebanon made his first public appearance in Beirut since he was wounded in an attack involving exploding pagers in mid-September.
Mojtaba Amani, who returned to Lebanon over the weekend after undergoing treatment in Iran, visited on Tuesday the scene south of Beirut where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sept. 27.
Speaking about the airstrike that destroyed six buildings and killed Nasrallah and others, Amani said Israel should get for its act “the highest medal for sabotage, terrorism, blood and killing civilians.” Amani suffered serious injuries in his face and hands when a pager he was holding exploded in mid-September. The device was one of about 3,000 pagers that exploded simultaneously, killing and wounding many Hezbollah members.
Last month, a spokesperson for the office of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the pager attack was approved by Netanyahu.