GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 413

War And Peace

Israel Slams Hezbollah

Just as they did to Hamas, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) is hammering Hezbollah into submission as we read in a report from The Times Of Israel:

Israeli fighter jets carried out two waves of airstrikes on Lebanon’s coastal city of Tyre, and further sorties on the country’s south and Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut on Friday, as the Israel Defense Forces said some 30 rockets and several drones were launched at Haifa and the Galilee.

Details are given of the results from the IDF strikes:

The Lebanese health ministry said airstrikes on two villages in southern Lebanon killed five medics from a rescue force affiliated with Hezbollah. AFP reported that an airstrike in Beirut toppled an 11-story building.

Israel noted where they struck:

The IDF said targets included command centers, intelligence infrastructure, weapon depots and observation posts belonging to Hezbollah. Before the strikes, the IDF issued evacuation warnings to civilians in the area.

Many of the sites belonged to Hezbollah’s Aziz regional division, responsible for rocket fire on Israel from the western sector of southern Lebanon, according to the IDF.

Hezbollah countered with their strikes were aimed:

Hezbollah said it had targeted with rockets and artillery Israeli ground troops who had encroached on the southern Lebanese towns of Khiyam and Deir Mimas, respectively located some 6 kilometers (4 miles) and 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) north of the border with Israel.

“Enemy reconnaissance aircraft” were flying over Deir Mimas, which has been largely emptied of residents, warning people “not to leave their homes,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported, adding that it was the first time Israeli troops had reached the village.

As for terrorist attacks, the IDF said they took down a drone headed for the Galilee area as well as shooting rockets out of the air targeting the same territory:

In the latest attacks on northern Israel on Friday evening, the IDF Home Front Command said a drone from Lebanon exploded in the Western Galilee area, without causing any injuries.

Drone infiltration warning sirens sounded for around half an hour in northern communities including Nahariya, Acre and the Krayot area north of Haifa amid the incident.

Earlier, the IDF said that air defenses shot down some of the barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon at the Western Galilee and Haifa areas, while others impacted.

Some drones never even got out of Lebanon:

The barrage came as the IDF said it had shot down two drones from Lebanon before they entered Israeli airspace in the afternoon, and five projectiles from Lebanon set off sirens in Haifa overnight before being intercepted.

Peace Is Close?

The rest of the Times article segues to the ongoing attempts at a cease fire which, as we just heard isn’t stopping both sides from continuing their strikes on each other:

There were no reports of injuries in the latest attacks from Lebanon, which came as Israeli and American officials expressed optimism about securing a ceasefire with Hezbollah to end the cross-border hostilities raging since the day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre that sparked the war in Gaza.

The US and France are leading the efforts:

The White House said Friday evening that United States President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed efforts to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon during a phone call earlier in the day.

As we touched on in previous podcasts, there are issues that are holding things up and they are significant ones with the first one having to do with French involvement:

On Friday afternoon, Channel 12 published details on what it said were the remaining points of contention between Israel and Hezbollah to reach a ceasefire in the north.

One issue, according to the report, was Israel’s insistence that France cannot be part of the agreement or be a member of the international committee that will monitor a deal’s implementation. This is due to its perceived hostility toward Israel in recent months under Macron’s administration. Macron has recently repeatedly called for an arms embargo on Israel, characterizing it as the path toward ending the war, sparking a diplomatic crisis.

Another disagreement is on the Israel/Lebanon border:

The second issue cited in the report was 13 land points along the Israel-Lebanon border that are disputed due to boundary demarcation issues. The network said Israel was demanding language in the agreement that would allow it to unilaterally choose not to engage in negotiations over disputed points.

Another sticking point is future attacks:

Channel 12 reported that Lebanon had accepted that the US would issue a letter that supports Israel’s freedom to act in Lebanon against “imminent threats,” but that final wording on the issue of arms transfers within Lebanon had not been finalized.

The negotiators signaled that almost all of the details are approved, but wouldn’t tell us what issues could be in the way:

A senior official told Channel 12: “Most of the details have been agreed upon, but what remains open is very sensitive and could still derail the agreement.”

One Israeli source was quite hopeful that an arrangement could happen:

The report came after Washington’s envoy Amos Hochstein discussed the ceasefire with senior Lebanese, Hezbollah and Israeli officials over the past week, touting progress in the talks. A senior Israeli defense official also said there was a high likelihood of a deal.

What is so secret that it can’t be mentioned, especially if it could be a dealbreaker? I suspect it is a demand that Hezbollah is making that would make them look bad if it came out, but don’t quote me on that just yet. My opinion was and still is that Hezbollah needs to be annihilated just like Hamas. They simply can’t be trusted as they broke the 2006 deal which got us to this point in time. Why should we think they’ll adhere to any future one?