Situation at a glance: Appeals for a ceasefire – attacks in the Middle East continue

The prospects of success of the ceasefire called for by the USA, Germany and other countries in the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia remain uncertain. Numerous government officials are urgently warning of further escalation in the Middle East, but mutual attacks there continue unabated. According to authorities, almost 100 people were killed in Lebanon in one day, and people in the Gaza Strip continue to die almost every hour. A speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday at the United Nations General Assembly in New York is eagerly awaited.

A group of states including the USA and Germany as well as influential Arab countries are calling for a 21-day break in fighting in order to achieve a diplomatic solution to the conflict within that time. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the intended negotiations should lead to an end to the war in the region and also to the release from Israel of the hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. According to the US statement, the call for a ceasefire was coordinated with the Israeli side. However, Netanyahu quickly made it clear that Hezbollah would continue to be attacked. Many countries still hope that he could send a signal of relaxation to the UN.

International voices are urging the proposal to be accepted

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin warned of devastating consequences if Israel and Hezbollah do not come to an agreement. According to his government spokesman, at a meeting with Israeli opposition politician Benny Gantz, Scholz once again emphasized that he believes a diplomatic solution is possible. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also warned in New York of a comprehensive regional escalation.

EU Council President Charles Michel said with regard to Israel that it was absolutely irresponsible to drag Lebanon into the spiral. The Palestinian people have the right to their own state. Denying him this would “undermine the security of Israel and all Jews.” Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib called for international intervention.

Israel’s military to “carry out further missions” in Lebanon

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galant announced further military operations in Lebanon. “We still need to carry out more missions” to enable the safe return of displaced Israelis to their homes in the north, he said, according to his office. Israel’s government has declared this to be one of its war aims and therefore wants to force Hezbollah to withdraw from the border area.

Israeli ground troops completed a combat exercise in mountainous terrain with lots of thickets near the border with Lebanon, according to the military. Israel’s army is preparing for a possible ground offensive in the northern neighboring country. However, this could also be a matter of military threatening gestures in order to force Hezbollah to find a diplomatic solution.

Attacks continue – many deaths in just one day

According to its own statements, the Israeli army attacked 220 targets in the neighboring country that were attributed to Hezbollah – including individual militia members, weapons depots and rocket launchers. Conversely, around 170 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, at least 92 people were killed and more than 150 were injured in Israeli bombings within one day.

Another key Hezbollah member was killed in one of the attacks in a suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut. The commander of the militia’s drone unit, Mohammed Hussein Srur, led numerous attacks on Israel with flying robots and cruise missiles, the military said. Hezbollah confirmed his death.

The Iran-backed Shiite militia said it fired, among other things, 80 rockets at the Israeli town of Safed. According to Israeli reports, a house in a neighboring town was hit and a man was also injured by shrapnel.

There were rocket alarms again overnight in several areas in central Israel and in the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv. According to the army, the warning sirens sounded in response to a – ultimately intercepted – missile from Yemen, where the Islamist Houthi rebels repeatedly fire rockets at targets in Israel. The rocket alarm was most recently triggered on Wednesday when a missile fired by Hezbollah reached the Tel Aviv area for the first time.

People are fleeing to civil war-torn Syria

As a result of intense Israeli air strikes that have killed more than 700 people since Monday, tens of thousands are seeking refuge in emergency shelters in Lebanon. According to the Interior Ministry, over 70,000 displaced people have been admitted there so far.

The exact number of internally displaced persons is currently difficult to determine. Many people have fled to relatives, others are sleeping on the streets. Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told CNN that he assumed there were 400,000 to 500,000 internally displaced people.

Syrians in Lebanon face difficult decision

According to the Lebanese Interior Ministry, around 13,500 people have fled to Syria since Monday – mostly Syrian citizens. According to the UN refugee agency, Lebanese also fled to the neighboring country, where civil war has been raging since 2011.

According to government figures, 1.5 million Syrian refugees live in Lebanon, which only has around six million inhabitants. More than 100 of them have died in Israeli bombings in recent days, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory. The people who have fled the horror of war in their country have to make tough decisions: stay in Lebanon under Israeli fire or return to areas controlled by the Syrian government, where they risk arrest and deportation.

Fighting in the Gaza Strip also continues

In the shadow of the bombings in Lebanon, the fighting in the Gaza Strip also continues. According to hardly verifiable Palestinian information, at least eleven people were killed and 22 others were injured in an Israeli attack on a former school building in the north of the area. The Hamas-controlled health authority in the Gaza Strip said there were also minors among the dead. Accordingly, displaced people are said to have been housed in the building in the refugee district of Jabaliya.

Israel’s army said terrorists from the Islamist Hamas had used the former school building as a command center and planned attacks on the Jewish state there. Before the attack, the army took numerous measures to reduce the danger to civilians. Israel accuses Hamas of deliberately barricading itself in civilian buildings and using innocent people as human shields. As a rule, the information provided by both sides can hardly be verified independently.