Forced Into a Conflict on Two Fronts

 

"Take this warning seriously."

"Please get out of harm's way now."

"Once our operation is finished, you an come back safely to your homes."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

 

"IAF strikes will continue."

"Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah stands guilty of] dragging Lebanon and the entire region into escalation." 

"We will do whatever is necessary to return residents [of northern Israel] to their homes. We have detailed plans, which we have presented to the political leadership."

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, IDF spokesperson

Missiles intercepted over Israel as airstrikes in Lebanon continue – still from video

 

The infamous, murderous pogrom of October 7 when thousands of Palestinian terrorists breached the border wall separating Gaza and Israel in a Hamas-led savage assault on Israeli civilians living in farming kibbutzim close to the Gaza border, leaving 1,200 children, women and men and IDF border patrol soldiers dead, another 240 captured and taken hostage into Gaza, led to the Israel Defense Forces some days later entering Gaza in a ground and aerial sweep to destroy the Hamas terrorist group governing Gaza.

Even before the IDF had entered Gaza on its southern border, Hezbollah forces in Lebanon began bombarding northern Israel with rocketry and drones, setting hilltops and forest and farms ablaze and with its day after day bombing forcing the relocation of 60,000 Israelis seeking safety deeper inside Israel from the constant bombardment. Hezbollah's actions also served of necessity for Israel to deploy its military on two fronts; south and north.

Anywhere in the world bombs shot off by one neighbour at another is recognized as a declaration of war, one requiring a defensive/offensive response for self-preservation. The civilians across borders are recipients of the fallout of conflicts, and it has ever been thus. All the more so when Palestinian terrorists specialize in using civilians among them as living human shields. By establishing their headquarters, weapons depots and barracks among dense population bases, they deliberately endanger innocents while banking on their opponent to take more care to avoid harm to their civilians than they do themselves.

Hezbollah's incessant bombing of northern Israel, despite the return fire of the IDF has driven Israel finally to conduct massive airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, with the intention of preventing the Iranian proxy in its deadly war against Israel, in a continuation of its of firing cross-border rockets.  In the first day of the heavy barrage with the Israeli Air Force fighter jets' massive airstrikes, the IAF had attacked over 800 Hezbollah targets, primarily weapons sites.

Thousands of Lebanese civilians have now fled the south of the country, the major highway leading out of the southern port city of Sidon jammed with vehicles streaming toward Beirut. Hezbollah had attempted to launch a cruise missile from a civilian residence, successfully thwarted. A DR-3 model with a flight range of 20 km, the cruise missile carried a warhead of up to 300 kg. Hezbollah claimed to have fired dozens of rockets toward Israel, including military bases, as well as targeting the facilities of the Rafael defence firm in Haifa.

Rocket alarms sound in Israel as explosions occurr and dozens of interceptions were reported. Close to a year of steadily escalating conflict punctuated with a heavy exchange of fire has led to Hezbollah launching 150 rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel, retaliating for IAF strikes that hit a top commander and dozens of fighters. Hezbollah pledged its strikes in solidarity with Hamas would continue, while Israel is focused on its commitment to return all its citizens to its northern border, to return to their homes.

Israel's military has identified entire communities in south Lebanon that have been converted into bases, with hidden rocket launchers and other allied military infrastructure. The situation has seen the United States declaring its intention to dispatch additional troops to the region, responding to the spike in violence. No details were released with respect to numbers or the assigned tasks associated with an increase of the 40,000 U.S. troops currently in the region.

"In light of increased tension in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution, we are sending a small number of additional US. military personnel forward to augment our forces that are already in the region."

"But for operational security reasons, I'm not going to comment on or provide specifics."

Major General Pat Ryder, U.S. military press secretary

"They are dragging us to a point where we do not wish to go."

"There is no winner in warfare. We are only fooling ourselves [if we believe that]."

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian

That declaration of war-unwillingness, and wish for peace and security to prevail, from the very source of terrorism throughout the Middle East and beyond, the foremost threatening terrorist theocracy whose sponsorship, arming, training and collaborative direction of its many terrorist proxies, from Yemen to Iraq, Lebanon to Gaza, states, portraying itself as an innocent victim of circumstances beyond its control. 

The Israeli military said a strike in Beirut on Tuesday killed the head of Hezbollah’s rocket forces  Reuters