Situation at a glance: Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah

Israel’s army and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon have once again engaged in heavy fighting during the night. The pro-Iranian militia fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel during the night, reaching further than ever since Hezbollah began attacking Israel almost a year ago. The missiles were fired in several salvos, the Times of Israel reported, citing the army. Most of them were intercepted. Israel’s air force said it attacked around 110 militia positions in southern Lebanon in several waves in the evening, including operational rocket launchers and “terrorist infrastructure”. Around 400 targets have been attacked since Saturday afternoon, it said. In the early hours of the morning, sirens blared in several areas in northern Israel.

In view of the escalation, the army tightened restrictions for residents in northern Israel early in the morning. Classes are not allowed to take place in the Golan Heights and in the coastal city of Haifa, among other places. Workplaces may only be visited if there is a shelter nearby, the Times of Israel reported. Outdoor gatherings are limited to a maximum of 10 people, and indoors to 100 participants.

USA calls on citizens to leave Lebanon

In view of the escalation, the USA is calling on its citizens to leave Lebanon. Due to the unpredictable developments “and the recent explosions throughout Lebanon” including the capital Beirut, the US Embassy is “strongly advising its compatriots to leave Lebanon while commercial options are still available,” the US State Department said. Flights are still available, but with reduced capacity.

Meanwhile, according to the Arabic TV station Al-Jazeera, Israeli soldiers entered the company’s offices in the occupied West Bank early in the morning and ordered a temporary closure. Heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers entered the building and ordered a 45-day closure, they said. They did not give a reason for this decision. The Israeli government had already used an emergency law in May to stop the station’s operations in Israel.

Report: Israel closes Al Jazeera office in West Bank

The so-called Al-Jazeera law allows Israel’s government to close down foreign TV stations if they are deemed to pose a risk to the security of the state. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had described the Arabic station as a “mouthpiece” of the Islamist Hamas that had damaged Israel’s security. Al-Jazeera had rejected the accusations and called it a “criminal act”.

The already tense situation in the West Bank has worsened significantly since the massacre by Hamas and other extremist groups in Israel on October 7 last year and the Gaza war that it triggered. Since then, according to authorities in Ramallah, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations, armed clashes and attacks by extremists.

Meanwhile, there is growing concern that the conflict between Israel’s armed forces and Hezbollah, which is allied with Hamas, is turning into a wildfire in Lebanon. “Extensive attacks have been carried out” in the south of the neighboring country after Hezbollah’s preparations to bombard Israeli territory were discovered, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in the evening. The approximately 400 Hezbollah rocket launchers hit in Lebanon included thousands of rocket launch tubes.

Report: USA hopes for diplomatic solution

On Friday, Israel’s army carried out an attack on a suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut, killing 16 Hezbollah members, including senior Hezbollah military commander Ibrahim Akil, who the Israeli military said was the target of the attack. Several other senior Hezbollah commanders were also killed. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, at least 37 people were killed in the attack, including three children.

According to officials, the US government is “extremely concerned” about the risk of a full-scale war between Israel and Lebanon, the news portal Axios reported. But Washington hopes to use Israel’s increasing military pressure on Hezbollah to reach a diplomatic agreement so that civilians on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border can return to their homes.

Israel wants to use diplomatic and increasing military pressure to get Hezbollah to withdraw from the border area, as required by a UN resolution. As soon as the region near the border is safe again, 60,000 Israeli refugees are to return to their homes. However, the pro-Iranian Shiite militia will not stop its attacks on Israel until a ceasefire is reached between Israel and its Islamist ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel and the USA are looking for ways to decouple the Hezbollah militia from Hamas, Axios reported.

Mass protests in Israel again

Efforts to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the hostages still being held there by Hamas have been going in circles for weeks. According to local media reports, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Israel in the evening to demand a ceasefire and the release of the hostages. The organizers even spoke of hundreds of thousands of participants in Tel Aviv and other cities.

“Stop the bloodshed,” read one protest sign. “Liri – sorry,” said the father of a kidnapped woman at a rally in Tel Aviv. Above all, some right-wing extremist ministers are to blame for the fact that no agreement has yet been reached with Hamas to end the war and release the hostages, said the father.

Critics of Prime Minister Netanyahu accuse him of sabotaging the indirect negotiations with the Islamists. Netanyahu governs with ultra-religious and right-wing extremist coalition partners who reject concessions to Hamas. Netanyahu, who is facing corruption charges, is dependent on these partners for his political survival.