Moshe Hazan lives in Kiryat Shmona, in a small house at the foot of the mountain that forms the border between Israel and Lebanon. He is retired. And he explains with a smile on his face, calm and while his wife approaches him with socks in her hand, that “everyone [in Kiryat Shemona] is outside, evacuated in hotels paid for by the Government. We only come home for three or four hours to pick up and drop off things.” “It seems like it will get longer,” he concludes.
Are you referring to the hostilities between Israel and Hizbullah? To the Gaza war? To the tension flooding the Middle East? Hazan, a Jew, born in Morocco and an Israeli for sixty years, nods and does not respond, but for now the facts seem to agree with him.
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, met yesterday in Tel Aviv with the senior staff of the Hebrew State, from its president, Isaac Herzog, to its prime minister, Beniamin Netanyahu, through the war cabinet of national unity, the minister of Defense, that of Foreign Affairs, and even the leader of the opposition. He arrived with a desire to “put pressure” on Israel and in his meetings he urged Israeli leaders to protect civilians in the Gaza war (the daily death toll in Gaza is “too high,” he says) and to set the course toward a solution, which would involve a Palestinian State.
No immediate consequences are foreseen. And many leaders in the Middle East are likely wondering right now whether the US voice is heard and influential today as it did in the past. Because in war nothing changes.
Israel announced last week that the offensive in the strip was entering a “more selective” phase, more in line with the US request to protect civilians. Also that he would withdraw some troops. But yesterday, in parallel with Blinken's meetings in Tel Aviv, the Israeli army attacked in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, and at least forty people who Israel identifies as Hamas militiamen died. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also informed Blinken that Israel will intensify the offensive in the area until its leaders are found. And he reiterated that “an increase in pressure on Iran is fundamental and can prevent regional escalation in more territories.”
Just a few hours after Blinken arrived in Israel, Hizbullah in turn attacked an important Israeli base with drones, the headquarters of the northern command in Safed, about 14 kilometers from the Lebanese border, without causing any casualties. It was his response to the murder on Monday of his special forces commander, Uisam al Tauil. And the Israeli forces killed three pro-Iran militia members in Lebanese territory in retaliation.
The escalation is worrying. He can't find a pause. And he is given voice by the interim Prime Minister of Lebanon, Najib Mikati, who yesterday Tuesday did not hesitate to express: “We seek permanent stability and ask for a lasting peaceful solution, but in return we receive warnings of a war against Lebanon.”
Yesterday Blinken also expressed interest in dealing with post-Hamas Netanyahu in Gaza; of the post-war fringe. And there is not much agreement here either. The US always reiterates that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) should be involved. Israel disputes it, because the ANP remains vetoed by a part of the Cabinet, which is the same part that proposes “voluntary” relocations of Gazans outside the enclave and which Blinken called “irresponsible” before arriving in Israel.
In Gaza the tension cannot be reduced. Neither in the West Bank (last night Israeli forces killed a Palestinian near Ramallah, its de facto capital), nor in Lebanon, nor in Syria, nor in Iraq, nor in the Red Sea due to attacks on ships by the Houthis of Yemen ( Yesterday the US Navy shot down around twenty drones and missiles launched by the rebels). Not even in Iran.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, the country's leader in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, is credited with this phrase: “If the Arabs lay down their weapons, there will be peace; but if Israel lays down its weapons, there will be no Israel.” The idea seems to continue conditioning the conflict in Gaza and on the seven fronts that Israel claims to fight.
The Gaza Ministry of Health, meanwhile, has raised the death toll from the war to more than 23,000. Gaza has entered its fourth month of war.
