What happens if Hezbollah invades Israel in its war with Hamas

As Israel assembles its forces for a major offensive in Gaza and gives extra time for Palestinian citizens to flee south, the danger of the war escalating across other parts of the Middle East is growing.

On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian warned Israel to back off attacking Gaza, warning that if Hezbollah joined the battle any step it would take “will cause a huge earthquake in the Zionist entity”. A major attack on Israel from the north by Hezbollah would put the Israeli Defence Forces under severe pressure while it is heavily engaged in Gaza.

Hezbollah, supplied by Iran, has an army of 20,000 battle-hardened fighters, some of whom are in position along Israel’s borders with Lebanon. It is believed to have about 130,000 rockets and missiles, including precision missiles capable of hitting targets in Israel. Hezbollah officials have said the group was “not neutral in this battle” and its missile attacks on Israel were unleashed to show solidarity with Hamas because “our history and guns and our rockets are with you”.

The US, which has private channels to communicate its concerns to Tehran, has used them to warn the militant theocracy against widening the war, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has revealed. US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington was sending a second carrier group to the eastern Mediterranean “to deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war”. The USS Eisenhower and its escort ships will join the carrier group led by the USS Gerald R. Ford, deployed last week.

The Israeli hostage question

Reactions to the situation from other nations, such as China, and from some politicians in Australia have been callous and unfair given the attack unleashed on Israeli citizens by Hamas. China’s response is disturbing. According to Global Times, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told his Iranian counterpart Israel’s actions have “have gone beyond the scope of self-defence”.

As grieving Israelis bury more than 1300 people who were killed and try to track 155 people taken hostage, including foreign nationals, news emerged that one victim of the initial attack was Holocaust survivor Gina Semiatichova, 90. She was shot in the head at point-blank range by Hamas terrorists who dragged her from the bomb shelter near her home at Kibbutz Kissufim, a farming community near the border with Gaza. Hamas militants who attacked Israelis were armed with clear written orders – kill as many people as possible, then take hostages. In view of such atrocities, Israel has the right to defend itself. And it would do the rest of the civilised world a major service if its ground offensive in Gaza obliterated Hamas.

Israeli army soldiers patrol at an undisclosed position in northern Israel near the borer with Lebanon on October 15

Teals, Greens stance on Israel outrageous

Australians with a sense of justice and a well-founded fear of terrorism understand that imperative. That is why most people will be outraged by the stance taken by Sydney teal independents Kylea Tink (North Sydney) and Sophie Scamps (Mackellar) and Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie (Clark) in the House of Representatives on Monday. The four joined Greens leader Adam Bandt as he tried, unsuccessfully, to amend a statement of support for Israel with one condemning “war crimes perpetrated by the State of Israel, including the bombing of Palestinian civilians”. Some in the Jewish community are indignant that teals benefited from a $500,000 donation from successful Jewish retail business family the Milgroms to Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200, reported on the organisation’s website.

Teal Independent and Member for North Sydney Kylea Tink.

Climate 200 backed the teals at last year’s federal election. Climate 200 contributed $636,271 in cash and $172,141 in kind to Ms Tink’s campaign. Before the election, Dr Scamps’s website said Climate 200 had “pledged to match donations received from our community”. The Greens’ amendment, thankfully, was defeated 107 to seven. It was incredible, Executive Council of Australian Jewry leader Alex Ryvchin said, that the Greens could not condemn “mass rape, torture, tying up families and burning them alive, and the abduction and captivity of children and the elderly”. Come the next election, it should not be forgotten by voters.

Israel ground attack

As the world awaits Israel’s ground attack it is impossible not to feel compassion for the suffering of innocent Palestinians. Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is right when he says Hamas does not represent their views – though they voted it in, once, in 2006. No elections have been allowed since. When the horror from the ground offensive begins, Palestinians, and the world, should not forget the sickening “don’t flee” decree from Hamas in response to Israel urging 1.1 million people to leave northern Gaza. Many, wisely, have done so. Hamas’s cruel order telling them to stay put, where they face death and intense suffering, proves the terrorists’ disdain for Palestinian lives.