Report: Hezbollah's response against Israel has become imminent
Hezbollah’s “powerful” response to the Dahieh airstrike that killed its military chief Fouad Shukur and six other people “has become imminent, after mediators exhausted the chance to reach a ceasefire and exchange of captives in Gaza,” a Lebanese political leader said.
“Hezbollah refrained from carrying out the decided strike over the past period to allow the mediators to finalize a settlement based on U.S. President Joe Biden’s initiative and Egypt and Qatar’s proposals, but Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s intransigence and his insistence on obstructing the negotiations … prevented the success of the Doha talks last week, and will also destroy the last chance to stop the war and return the captives during the Cairo discussions tomorrow,” the political leader told al-Joumhouria newspaper.
The Israel-Hezbollah clashes have killed 585 people in Lebanon since October 8, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including at least 128 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.
Fears of an escalation have mounted since Hezbollah and Iran vowed to respond after an Israeli strike on Beirut last month killed Hezbollah commander Shukur, shortly before an attack in Tehran blamed on Israel killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
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