{"id":293705,"date":"2024-08-25T11:42:29","date_gmt":"2024-08-25T11:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=293705"},"modified":"2024-08-26T06:11:23","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26T06:11:23","slug":"hezbollahs-retribution-pulls-middle-east-to-edge-of-all-out-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=293705","title":{"rendered":"Hezbollah\u2019s retribution pulls Middle East to edge of all out war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Nuki \u2013 The Telegraph Aug 25, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Not since Yom Kippur in 1973 has the Middle East been so close to all out war.<\/p>\n

That conflict, also known as the Ramadan War, raged for 19 days between Israel and a coalition of Arab states<\/a> led by Egypt and Syria. It claimed up to 20,000 lives, including some 2,500 Israeli soldiers. Many thousands more on both sides were maimed and injured.<\/p>\n

It is a reminder of what is at stake today after the biggest exchange of fire on the Israel-Lebanon border.<\/p>\n

Exactly what happened in the early hours of Sunday morning<\/a> remains obscured by the fog of war and the desperate need for both sides to establish deterrence through strength \u2013 real and perceived.<\/p>\n

Israel says it moved first and pre-emptively after detecting Iranian-backed Hezbollah was poised to launch a major strike in revenge for the assassination of Fuad Shukr<\/a>, one of its most senior commanders, in Beirut on July 31.<\/p>\n

Rear-Adml Daniel Hagari, Israel\u2019s military spokesman, said 100 Israeli jets had hit 40 sites<\/a> in southern Lebanon, destroying thousands of rocket launchers that were primed for use against Israel.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah said Israel\u2019s defences had failed and implied that it had successfully hit 11 Israeli sites including a \u201cspecial military target\u201d in central Israel in an attack involving more than 320 Katyusha rockets and a \u201clarge number\u201d of drones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe enemy\u2019s claims about the pre-emptive action<\/a> it carried out, the targets it struck and its disruption of the resistance\u2019s [Hezbollah] attack are empty,\u201d said the group in a statement.<\/p>\n

The attack was just the \u201cfirst phase\u201d of its retribution for Israel\u2019s killing of Shukr, it added, suggesting that may follow.<\/p>\n

Whether or not the latest exchange can be contained is likely to be determined by the actions and diplomacy of the US and Iran.<\/p>\n

Both say they want to avoid a regional war and both have considerable influence over the two sides but do not control them.<\/p>\n

Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary<\/a>, called his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Sunday morning to stress \u201cthe importance of avoiding regional escalation\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response, Israel said it was not looking for a wider war but added that its \u201cdefence establishment is determined to defend the citizens of Israel and will use all the means at its disposal to remove imminent threats\u201d.<\/p>\n

Likewise Abbas Araghchi, Iran\u2019s new foreign minister, called for dialogue to resolve bilateral issues in a call with the EU\u2019s top diplomat on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our foreign policy, it is our responsibility to minimise the costs of the [US] aggression to the greatest extent possible,\u201d he said, indicating a desire in Terahn to lower tensions in the region.<\/p>\n

Another positive \u2013 although a faint one \u2013 was that the Gaza ceasefire and hostage talks were continuing in Cairo on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah\u2019s leader in Lebanon<\/a>, was set to address the latest developments in a televised speech at 4pm UK time on Sunday \u2013 perhaps providing greater clarity on the group\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n

The hope will be that Nasrallah, who is close to Iran, claims success in Hezbollah\u2019s overnight actions and stands down his fighters, saying that honour has been restored.<\/p>\n

Whether or not that would be enough for Israel, only time will tell.<\/p>\n

Since the start of the war on Oct 7, Israel has had to evacuate 60,000 to 80,000 people from an area of some 650 square kilometres along the Lebanon border \u2013 about 3 per cent of its total land mass \u2013 because of Hezbollah\u2019s rockets.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>, Israel\u2019s prime minister, said on Sunday: \u201cWe are determined to do everything to protect our country, return the residents of the north safely to their homes and continue to uphold a simple rule: whoever hurts us \u2013 we hurt them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The spectre of an all-out regional war looms as 100 Israeli jets launch strikes into southern Lebanon and Hezbollah retaliates with hundreds of drones and rockets <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":82252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-293705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-10-gaza-war","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=293705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293706,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293705\/revisions\/293706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/82252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=293705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=293705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=293705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}