Israel-Hamas war: Israel and Hezbollah trade fire in major escalation
The White House says peace talks in Cairo are continuing despite an escalation of conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah. Follow updates.
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The White House said that Gaza truce talks in Cairo have made progress and were expected to continue at a working level for several days despite clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
“There continues to be progress, and our team on the ground continues to describe the talks as constructive,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“So despite the rocket and drone attack by Hezbollah over the course of the weekend, which Israel did a terrific job defending against, it has not affected the actual work on the ground by the teams trying to get this ceasefire deal in place,” Kirby said.
The United States has repeatedly voiced optimism for talks on reaching a truce proposed by President Joe Biden in the more than 10-month conflict, despite repeated differences voiced between Israel and Hamas.
Kirby said that senior White House official Brett McGurk stayed in Cairo for an extra day to allow further talks at a lower level.
“He’ll probably depart relatively soon and leave the discussion and the work to working group members,” Kirby said.
“We expect that these working group discussions will at least take place over the next few days, but whether it goes longer, or could end sooner, I think really is going to be up to those in the room,” he said.
Israel’s military struck the Gaza Strip on Monday a day after truce talks in Cairo coincided with a major but brief cross-border escalation involving Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Gaza war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, has drawn in Tehran-aligned armed groups across the Middle East, repeatedly heightening fears of a broader regional conflagration.
It comes as Iran praised the drone and missile assault by Hezbollah on Israel, saying its arch-foe had lost the ability to prevent such attacks amid heightened regional tensions.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the powerful group, which is backed by Tehran, launched a large-scale attack on Israel’s Glilot base - “the main Israeli military intelligence base”.
But Israel’s military said the installation was not hit.
“The Zionist regime may be able to hide, distort or censor some facts regarding Lebanese Hezbollah operations, but it knows very well that the existing facts will not change,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani posted on X.
“The Israeli terrorist army has lost its effective offensive and deterrent power and now must defend itself against strategic strikes.”
Kanani noted that the Hezbollah attack “extended deep into the occupied territories”, and said the “strategic balance has undergone fundamental changes” to the detriment of Israel.
He also criticised the United States for its “comprehensive” support for Israel, which had failed to “predict the time and place” of Hezbollah’s actions.
Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf compared the attack to the “defeat” of Israeli forces in the 2006 war with Hezbollah.
“Today’s defeat of the regime was on a par with the defeat in the 2006 operation, and they cannot hide this defeat,” he posted on X.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X: “We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it - unlike Israel”.
Hezbollah said its attack on Sunday was an “initial response” to Shukr’s killing.
The result was perhaps the biggest exchange of fire in 10 months of a war which began with a Hamas attack launched from Gaza and has triggered both new violence on the Lebanon-Israel border and fears of a broader conflagration in the Middle East.
The Israeli military said around 100 of its fighter jets had struck more than 270 targets, “90 per cent” of which “were short-range rockets aimed at northern Israel”.
Hezbollah denied that thousands of launchers had been destroyed or that Israel had thwarted a larger attack. It said its own operation “was completed and accomplished”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet the strikes were “not the final word” in the campaign against Hezbollah.
A soldier in the Israeli navy was killed in combat and two more wounded, the military said, with an official telling AFP their boat may have been hit by one of their own side’s air-defence interceptors.
Hezbollah announced two of its fighters had been killed, while its ally the Amal movement also reported the death of a member.
Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said six militants were “killed in the strikes”.
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HAMAS FIRES ROCKET INTO ISRAEL
Hamas has fired a rocket toward Tel Aviv for the first time in months after Hezbollah launched a wide-scale attack against Israel involving rockets and drones.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, one rocket fell in an open area in the central Israeli city of Rishon Letzion.
Hamas’ armed wing said that it fired a rocket at Tel Aviv in response to what it said was the “Israeli massacres against civilians”.
It was the first time rocket sirens had sounded in Rishon Lezion since January 29, The Jersualem Post reports.
It came as talks over a possible Gaza deal ended without agreement in Cairo, with neither Hamas nor Israel agreeing to several comprises presented by mediators, according to two Egyptian security sources cited by the The Times of Israel.
AIRLINES PULL TEL AVIV FLIGHTS
Ten airlines have pulled their flights to and from Tel Aviv.
British Airways said: “We’ve been continually monitoring the situation in the Middle East and have taken the operational decision to suspend our flights to and from Tel Aviv up to and including Wednesday 28 August” a spokesman for the airline said.
“Safety is always our top priority, and we’re contacting customers to advise them of their travel options.”
Other airlines that cancelled their flights to Israel include Air France, Dutch Transavia, Hungary’s Wizz Air, Malta’s Corendon, Ethiopian Airlines, the Greek Aegean Airlines, and the Greek Universal Airlines.
US SENATOR TO IRAN: ‘BLOW UP YOUR OIL REFINERIES’
US Senator Lindsey Graham pitched a fiery strategy for securing the release of Israeli hostages: threaten to bomb Iran.
Well known for his Conservative foreign policy, Graham (Republican, South Carolina) implied during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union that Tehran has the influence needed to entice Hamas into releasing the hostages.
“If I were the state of Israel, I would tell the ayatollah if these people do not come home alive — the ones that are left alive — and if we don’t get the bodies of the fallen, we’re going to blow up your oil refineries,” he said.
“That’s the only way you’re going to get the hostages released — is to put pressure on Iran.”
100 ISRAELI JETS DESTROY HEZBOLLAH ROCKETS
Israel said it carried out a wave of pre-emptive strikes across southern Lebanon to intercept a large-scale rocket and drone attack by Hezbollah.
The IDF said fighter jets destroyed thousands of the Iran-backed group’s rocket launchers killing three Hezbollah fighters.
Hezbollah claimed it still managed to fire 320 rockets and drones at Israel in retaliation for the assassination of a senior commander last month, in a major escalation after 10 months of traded hostilities.
“Approximately 100 IAF fighter jets struck and eliminated thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels, aimed for immediate fire toward northern and central Israel,” the Israeli Defense Forces said.
“More than 40 Hezbollah launch areas were struck.”
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: “We have conducted precise strikes in Lebanon in order to thwart an imminent threat against the citizens of Israel. We are closely following developments in Beirut, and we are determined to use all the means at our disposal in order to defend our citizens.”
But Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz was quoted as saying the nation “does not seek a full-scale war”.
Lebanon’s health ministry said three people were killed in the Israeli strikes in the country’s south.
An “Israeli drone strike on a car in the village of Khiam” killed one person, the health ministry said in a statement.
The Amal movement, a Hezbollah ally, later announced a fighter from Khiam had been killed.
The health ministry said that “the Israeli occupation attack on the village of Tiri” killed two people, without saying whether they were fighters or civilians.
It had earlier also reported two people including a Syrian man were wounded in “a series of Israeli raids” in the south.
The region has been on high alert since the death of Shukr and the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in a bold attack in Iran last month.
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