Israel’s ‘scorched earth’ policy in Gaza forcing West to ‘walk tightrope:’ Official

A Palestinian student walks home after attending a class in a tent set up on the rubble of the house of teacher Israa Abu Mustafa, Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sept. 4, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 04 September 2024
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Israel’s ‘scorched earth’ policy in Gaza forcing West to ‘walk tightrope:’ Official

  • ‘The way Israel has prosecuted the fight will make it less safe in the world’
  • ‘The relentlessness and ferocity have made this so difficult to manage for Israel’s allies’

LONDON: Israel’s “scorched earth” policy in Gaza is forcing Western countries to “walk a tightrope” in their relations with Tel Aviv, a Western official has told The Times.

Speaking anonymously, the official warned that Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza would make the country less safe.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in the Palestinian enclave since Israel launched its invasion in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

The UK angered Israel by banning 30 arms export licenses to the country this week.

In response, the official told The Times: “This is such a tightrope walk for all the Western democracies: Imperative to show support for Israel in this tragic moment of need, but the civilian casualties, the rules of engagement, the relentlessness and ferocity have made this so difficult to manage for Israel’s allies.

“Ultimately, the way Israel has prosecuted the fight will make it less safe in the world and for a country that can and has been so stealthy about striking back at its enemies, it continues to be a head-scratcher for me why the leadership there thinks this scorched-earth policy is the best way to manage it all.”

In executing the arms export ban, the UK government considered public statements by far-right members of the Israeli government, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

He has called for the killing of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention, and proposed the building of an illegal Jewish-only settlement in Gaza.

Israel receives the vast majority of its arms imports from the US and Germany. In August, the Biden administration approved more than $20 billion in new weapons sales to Israel.

The figure includes components to make more than 100 million artillery shells, with Israel exhausting much of its stockpile in Gaza since last year.


Lebanon rocket fire kills two in Israel: first responders

Updated 5 sec ago
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Lebanon rocket fire kills two in Israel: first responders

Emergency medic Dor Vakinin said “we had to determine the death of both of them“

JERUSALEM: Rocket fire from Lebanon killed two men in their 40s in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya on Tuesday, first responders said.
Emergency medic Dor Vakinin said a rocket hit a warehouse and after “medical examinations... we had to determine the death of both of them.” A barrage of 10 rockets had been fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, the Israeli military said in a statement.

UN force says Israeli work on so-called Alpha Line with Syria saw ‘severe violations’ of ceasefire

Updated 33 min 13 sec ago
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UN force says Israeli work on so-called Alpha Line with Syria saw ‘severe violations’ of ceasefire

  • The Israel military also has begun demolishing villages in Lebanon, where other UN peacekeepers have come under fire
  • “Such severe violations of the (demilitarized zone) have the potential to increase tensions in the area and is being closely monitored by UNDOF,” it added
The Israel military also has begun demolishing villages in Lebanon, where other UN peacekeepers have come under fire
“Such severe violations of the (demilitarized zone) have the potential to increase tensions in the area and is being closely monitored by UNDOF,” it added

DUBAI: United Nations peacekeepers warned Tuesday that the Israeli military has committed “severe violations” of a ceasefire deal with Syria as its military continues a major construction project along the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria.
The comments from the UN Disengagement Observer Force, which has patrolled the area since 1974, come after an Associated Press report Monday that published satellite imagery showing the extent of the works along the frontier.
The work, which UNDOF said began in July, follows the completion by the Israeli military of new roadways and what appears to be a buffer zone along the Gaza Strip’s frontier with Israel. The Israel military also has begun demolishing villages in Lebanon, where other UN peacekeepers have come under fire.
While such violence hasn’t broken out along the Alpha Line, UNDOF warned Tuesday the work risked further inflaming tensions in the region.
“Such severe violations of the (demilitarized zone) have the potential to increase tensions in the area and is being closely monitored by UNDOF,” it added.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Syrian officials have declined to comment on the construction, though UNDOF described Syrian officials as having “strongly protested” the work.
As Israel conducted the construction work, which UNDOF described as “extensive engineering groundwork activities,” it has protected earth-moving equipment with armored vehicles and main battle tanks, the peacekeepers said. Troops and earth-moving equipment have crossed the Alpha Line into the demilitarized zone in Syria, known to UNDOF as the “area of separation.”
“Violations of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement have occurred where engineering works have encroached into the AOS,” the peacekeepers said in a statement, using an acronym for the area. “There have been several violations by (Israel) in the form of their presence in the AoS because of these activities.”
UNDOF has repeatedly protested the work, which it described as violating the ceasefire deal over the months of construction so far.
“Based on the engagement, (Israel) has indicated that the current earthworks are being carried out for defensive purpose to prevent unauthorized crossing and violations by civilians,” the peacekeepers added.
Israel sent a 71-page letter in June to the UN outlining what it described as “Syrian violations of the Alpha Line and armed presence in the area of separation (that) occur daily.” The letter cited numerous Israeli-alleged violations by Syrian civilians crossing the line.
Syria has constantly accused Israel of launching attacks against it from territory it occupies in the Golan Heights. Israel has frequently struck Syria over the years, particularly after the start of the Mideast wars following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel.
Israel seized control of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. The UN Secretary Council voted to create UNDOF to patrol a roughly 400-square-kilometer (155-square-mile) demilitarized zone and maintain the peace there after the 1973 Mideast war. A second demarcation, known as the Bravo Line, marks the limit of where the Syrian military can operate.
UNDOF has around 1,100 troops, mostly from Fiji, India, Kazakhstan, Nepal and Uruguay, who patrol the area.
Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 — a move criticized by a UN resolution declaring Israel’s action as “null and void and without international legal effect.” The territory, some 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) in size, is a strategic high ground that overlooks both Israel and Syria.
Around 50,000 Jewish settlers and Arabs who are mostly members of the Druze sect of Shiite Islam live there.
In 2019, President Donald Trump unilaterally announced that the United States would “fully recognize” Israel’s control of the territory, a decision that has been unchanged by the Biden administration. However, it’s the only other country to do so, as the rest of the world views it as occupied Syrian territory.

Lebanon security official says Israel strikes house east of Beirut

Updated 12 November 2024
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Lebanon security official says Israel strikes house east of Beirut

  • Israeli warplanes hit a house between Baalshamieh and Dhour Al-Abadiyah

BEIRUT: A Lebanese security official said an Israeli strike hit a villa east of Beirut on Tuesday, with state media confirming the rare attack outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds.

The security official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the “Israeli strike caused an unspecified number of casualties.” The National News Agency later said Israeli warplanes hit a house between Baalshamieh and Dhour Al-Abadiyah

At least five people were killed and two were injured in the strike, health ministry said.


Iranian capital builds ‘defensive tunnel’ after Israeli strikes

Updated 12 November 2024
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Iranian capital builds ‘defensive tunnel’ after Israeli strikes

DUBAI: Iran is building a “defensive tunnel” in the capital Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday, following strikes by Israel on targets in the country.
The tunnel, located near the city center, will link a station on the Tehran metro to the Imam Khomeini hospital, thus allowing direct underground access to the medical facility.
“For the first time in the country, a tunnel with defensive applications is being built in Tehran,” the head of transport for Tehran City Council told Tasnim.
Last month, Israel carried out its first officially-recognized strikes in Iran, hitting missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in the country’s west, as a response to Iran’s Oct.1 attack on Israeli territory.


Wave of Israeli strikes hit south Beirut after evacuation warning

Updated 24 min 57 sec ago
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Wave of Israeli strikes hit south Beirut after evacuation warning

  • Since September 23, Israel has intensified its air campaign, mainly targeting Hezbollah strongholds

BEIRUT: Israel launched at least 10 air strikes on south Beirut Tuesday morning, Lebanese state media said, shortly after Israel’s army urged residents of several neighborhoods to evacuate the Hezbollah bastion.
“Israeli warplanes launched a very violent tenth strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs,” the official National News Agency reported.
AFPTV footage showed grey smoke covering the area, with big plumes rising after each strike.
Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli army told residents of four south Beirut neighborhoods to leave immediately, warning it would strike Hezbollah targets there.
“You are located near facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah, against which the Israel Defense Forces will act in the near future,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.
The post included a map showing the buildings it would target in the Lebanese capital’s south.
Witnesses told AFP they heard gunfire in the area ahead of the strikes — warning shots by residents for people to leave following the evacuation call.
NNA also reported Israeli strikes across Lebanon’s south that destroyed a building in the main southern city of Nabatiyeh and also targeted the eastern city of Hermel.
Last month, Israeli strikes razed Nabatiyeh’s historic marketplace, with another wave of attacks also hitting its municipality building and killing several including the mayor.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified its air campaign, mainly targeting Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon’s east and south and in southern Beirut. A week later, it sent in ground troops.
It came after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges of fire, launched by Hezbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.
More than 3,240 people have been killed in Lebanon since the clashes began last year, according to the health ministry, the majority of them since late September.