Israel-Hezbollah Clashes Means ‘Greater War’ Likely

Northern Israel is on fire. Hezbollah rockets fired from Southern Lebanon has been a constant reminder that a war-situation is here to stay and likely to develop.

A batch of 55 rockets were fired on Safad and the sorrounding areas adding to the scorching of the region. These rockets were launched from southern Lebanon and hit Israeli settlements and military bases in northern Israel adding to nervousness of the dwingling number of people who are still there.

They are just the latest batch at the wail of many sirens across northern Israel.

Since last night and into Saturday morning a total of 60 rockets fell on the area including over the border into Safad and Tiberius in the Upper Galilee and the vacuous Israel town of Kiryat Shmona,  the Israeli media reported.  

Fires raged in the different forest areas of this region soon after the rockets landed as testified by pictures and images on the social media adding to deep tensions and fear of a wider regional war.

The latest barrage of rockets was in retaliation for Israeli overnight airstrikes on towns in southern Lebanon which included the Beqaa and Nabatieh and which injured many Lebanese civilians.

The Israeli-Hezbollah crossfire clashes have increased in the passed few months but the upward momentum was noticed since the early summer. 

The Hebrew media has been rife in its reporting of the active northern front stating the Hezbollah rockets into these areas have become a routine affair. 

But this is a source of major worry for men like Benny Gantz who once served as a member in Netanyahu’s war cabinet but is now deeply at odds with him. 

‘Hit Hezbollah hard’

Gantz, a major contender for the Israeli leadership, says the present government needs to dampen its 11-month war on Gaza that killed over 41,000 civilians and to concentrate on the dangerous developments happening in northern Israel.

He said Israel must have an action plan and hit Hezbollah hard, adding the Israeli air force “has thousands of targets in Lebanon” Gantz said on Israel’s Channel 12. 

Meanwhile the cross-border war continues at its present tempo while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to leave Gaza but at the same time orders his military to maintain a war position on Hezbollah and southern Lebanon while continuing his strikes on different positions in Gaza.

But reports of the raging fires continue to be bad news for Israel. Hundreds of thousands have already left the north and are in temporary placements on hotels. The latest patch of fires are creating more displacements. One social media post points to the fact that 62,000 settler Israelis are fleeing the north for safety, pointing out that more than 40 percent of these wont return back.

CrossFireArabia

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

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Amnesty Condemns Netanyahu’s Visit to Hungry

Responding to reports that Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has invited and plans to host Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Hungary on Wednesday, Erika Guevara-Rosas the head of Global Research, Advocacy and Policy of Amnesty International said:

“Prime Minister Netanyahu is an alleged war criminal, who is accused of using starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally attacking civilians and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.  As a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Hungary must arrest him if he travels to the country and hand him over to the Court. Any trip he takes to an ICC member state that does not end in his arrest would embolden Israel to commit further crimes against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“Netanyahu’s reported visit should be seen as a cynical effort to undermine the ICC and its work, and is an insult to the victims of these crimes who are looking to the Court for justice. Hungary’s invitation shows contempt for international law and confirms that alleged war criminals wanted by the ICC are welcome on the streets of a European Union member state.

“Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary must not become a bellwether for the future of human rights in Europe. European and global leaders must end their shameful silence and inaction, and call on Hungary to arrest Netanyahu during a visit which would make a mockery of the suffering of Palestinian victims of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its war crimes in other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and its entrenched system of apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights it controls.

“Amnesty International calls on the ICC Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute all Israel’s crimes. Hungary should equally do so by applying universal jurisdiction principles. Powerful leaders, like Netanyahu, accused by the ICC of war crimes and crimes against humanity, must no longer enjoy the prospect of perpetual impunity.”

“The ICC was established to ensure accountability for victims of genocide and other crimes under international law, and so that crimes which shock the human conscience would “never again” be accompanied by impunity. In ‘bringing power to justice’, the ICC is now facing a global backlash from powerful leaders seeking to undermine the international rule of law and stamp out the prospect of accountability for the most powerful.”

Background

In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as al-Qassam brigades commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Since then, leaders from ICC member states France, Germany, Italy, Hungary and Poland have stated or implied that they would not arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he travelled to their respective countries. The United States has also enacted sanctions against the ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan.

A cornerstone principle of the ICC’s founding Rome Statute is that all individuals subject to ICC arrest warrants must be arrested and surrendered to the Court without recourse to immunity when they are within the jurisdiction of ICC member states, including on their territory.

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