Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in NEW YORK for the UN General Assembly makes sure everyone understands his country is repeating what it has done in Gaza….
Hunt down Hezbollah targets….
With no regard for collateral damage….
Reports are that Israeli will launch a ground incursion also…..
World wide appeals for a halt in the actions fall on deaf ears….
The Biden admin continues to support Israel…..
Hostages?
What hostages?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the Israeli military would keep striking Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, appearing to pour cold water on efforts by the United States and other nations to broker a three week cease-fire.
“We continue to hit Hezbollah with all our might,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement released as he arrived in New York City. He added, “This is the policy.”
Mr. Netanyahu’s comments came ahead of a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, slated for Friday, where world leaders have been issuing urgent calls for cease-fires in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, warning of the risk of a wider Middle East war.
The United States, its European allies and several Arab states put forward a proposal for a three-week cease-fire to stop the cycle of violence between Israel and Hezbollah. It was poorly received by Israeli officials. Hezbollah has yet to respond.
The Biden administration believed that Israel’s government was “on board” with the idea when the United States and ten other countries unveiled it Wednesday night — otherwise the group would not have publicized it, John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, said on Thursday.
Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed militia, have been trading fire since the war in Gaza began last October, but Israel intensified its attacks over the last week, with one of the biggest bombing campaigns in recent military history. Israeli strikes have killed hundreds of people in Lebanon and spread fear and desperation. Roughly 500,000 people have been displaced.
The air war did not let up on Thursday. Lebanon’s health ministry said that 92 people were killed and over 150 were injured in Israeli strikes.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that it had killed another high-ranking Hezbollah commander in a bombing in Beirut and said it had struck 220 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon after the group fired 45 rockets into northern Israel.
Bombing also continued in Gaza. The Israeli military said it had struck a school compound being used as a shelter in Gaza, which it said housed a Hamas command-and-control center. It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on former schools. Palestinian Civil Defense officials said 35 people were killed in Israeli strikes across the enclave on Thursday, with 15 killed in the bombing on the school compound, including women and children.
Here’s what else to know:
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Hurdles to a cease-fire: Analysts said it would be hard for either side to accept the proposal because it falls short of their respective conditions for a truce. Efforts to bring about a cease-fire deal in Gaza and secure the release of Israeli hostages there have similarly been blocked by conflicting demands from Israel and Hamas.
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Israeli preparations: On Thursday, the Israeli military released a video of the commander of its Air Force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, telling his forces that Israel was preparing for a possible ground invasion in Lebanon, and saying that the military was intent on doing whatever was necessary to prevent Hezbollah from being resupplied with more arms from Iran, its backer.
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Hezbollah losses: The militant group on Thursday confirmed the death of Mohamed Hussein Sarour, who the Israeli military said had overseen the group’s drone operations and acted as an emissary to Yemen’s Houthis. Hezbollah provided no details on his role, but referred to him as by an honorific title reserved only for the group’s senior members.
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Sirens sound in central Israel: Early on Friday morning, the Israeli military said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen that set off alarms throughout the greater Tel Aviv area. Loud booms were heard as far away as Jerusalem. The military said the sounds were caused by the interception process. It was not immediately clear who had fired the missile. Houthi rebels control much of Yemen and have tried to hit Israel’s densely populated urban core before, including in recent weeks. The Houthis also launched a drone earlier this summer that slipped past Israel’s air defense systems and killed one person in Tel Aviv……
The “war’ is seriously messing up the Israeli Economy….
As Israel nears the anniversary of the Hamas-led assault, with no Gaza cease-fire in sight and a possible invasion of Lebanon looming, Lotan’s business is barely hanging on. And her frustration with the government — for its handling of the war, and the downstream effects on the economy — is mounting.
The human cost of Oct. 7 on this small country has been immense. Nearly everyone knew someone who was killed, injured or kidnappedthat day, or deployed to the front lines in the months that followed. Often lost in the turmoil and tragedy of the past year is the toll of the conflict on the Israeli economy.
The country has seen its credit score downgraded and its gross domestic product shrink sharply. Tens of thousands of businesses have closed, and a growing number of jobs are being moved offshore. Israeli reservists have put careers on hold — or struggled to juggle them with military service.
While Israel’s massive high-tech industry has remained resilient, construction and agriculture — which relied heavily on Palestinians whose work permits were canceled by Israel after Oct. 7 — have been hit hard. Tourism has plunged by more than 75 percent, the Central Bureau of Statistics said in June, leaving many shop fronts shuttered in the usually bustling thoroughfares of Jerusalem’s Old City.
Defense spending, meanwhile, has at least doubled, with the Central Bank warning that the war could cost $67 billion through 2025 — a prediction made before Israel’s recent escalation in Lebanon and the mobilization of two reserve brigades to the northern front on Wednesday.
“The economy is in serious danger unless the government wakes up,” said Dan Ben-David, who heads the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research. “Right now they are completely disconnected from anything that is not war … and there is no end in sight.”….
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) leadership is signaling to its forces that it will conduct a major ground operation into Lebanon imminently.
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