Israel is bracing for a “significant week,” Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Saturday, amid reports that Jerusalem believes Hezbollah will respond in the next few days to last month’s assassination of the Lebanese terror group’s senior commander.
Fuad Shukr, who was at the time the head of Hezbollah’s military wing, was killed in his Beirut apartment by an Israeli air strike in July, and the country has since been bracing for a response by the terrorist organization.
According to Ynet, the attack will come “in the coming days” and is coordinated with Hezbollah’s patron, Iran. The Iranians, however, are not expected to strike alongside Hezbollah, Ynet reported, despite having vowed to seek retribution for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month, which Iran attributes to Israel.
Senior Israeli officials speaking to Ynet said the Hezbollah response is expected regardless of the outcome of intensive hostage-ceasefire talks being held this week. “[Hezbollah] don’t really care about the Palestinians,” the officials said. “In retrospect, they could use [the negotiations] as an excuse [to attack].”
Channel 12 and the Haaretz daily also reported that the Hezbollah response will come within days.
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Channel 12 said Israel has sent a clear warning to Hezbollah that if it attacks Tel Aviv, it will prompt a harsh Israeli response in Beirut and against “major assets” of Lebanon and Hezbollah.
Hagari said Saturday the country is “ahead of a significant week amid the ongoing negotiations in Cairo, the fighting in Gaza and [on] the northern border. Our readiness is very high in attack and defense.”
IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari delivers an English-language address, June 16, 2024. (Screenshot)
Speaking at an evening press conference, Hagari called on the public to continue to be alert. He added that the military will update on “any development immediately.”
There was, however, no immediate change to the Home Front Command’s orders to the public.
The warnings come as US Air Force General Charles Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, began an unannounced visit to the Middle East Saturday to discuss ways to avoid all-out regional war.
Brown began his trip in Jordan and said he will also travel to Egypt and Israel in the coming days to hear the perspectives of military leaders. Brown said the US is closely monitoring Iran’s movements and sending reinforcements with the aim of deterring the ayatollahs.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
The fire continued Saturday evening when a barrage of at least eight rockets was fired from Lebanon at the Golan Heights, according to the IDF.
Some of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses. There were no injuries.
No sirens sounded amid the attack.
Earlier, a suspected drone that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon was shot down by air defenses over the Western Galilee, the IDF said.
A suspected drone that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon was shot down by air defenses over the Western Galilee a short while ago, the IDF says. pic.twitter.com/xRiIjXiizU
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 24, 2024
So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 19 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 428 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon, but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 73 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.
Some media outlets have attributed the lack of an attack so far from Hezbollah and Iran to their desire to not disrupt negotiations held in Doha and Cairo over the past week, which could bring about a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages.
While the US was optimistic about the prospects of a deal following a summit in Doha last weekend, it is unclear if an agreement will be reached as negotiations continue in Cairo.
The framework for a deal presented by US President Joe Biden on May 27 included three stages, with the first six-week period seeing a pause in Israeli ground operations and withdrawal of troops in exchange for the release of 33 hostages in the categories of women, children, elderly and wounded, alongside Israel freeing 990 Palestinian prisoners.
The current point of contention holding up negotiations is the Israeli presence on the Philadelphi Corridor, the strip of land in Gaza bordering Egypt, which the IDF captured in May. Hamas demands Israel withdraw from the border, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is adamant that Israel will remain, as the border has served Hamas in smuggling resources.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meets troops along the Philadelphi Corridor, the Egypt-Gaza border area, August 21, 2024. (Ariel Heremoni/Defense Ministry)
It is believed that 105 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 confirmed dead by the IDF. Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that.
Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 30 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 40,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
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