The spread of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to Lebanon would be “potentially apocalyptic”, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths warned today.
“I see this as the spark that will light the fuse. It is potentially apocalyptic,” warned Martin Griffiths, whose mandate ends at the end of the month, to journalists in Geneva.
Hezbollah opened the war front with Israel in support of Hamas the day after the attack carried out by the Palestinian movement, on October 7, in southern Israel, which caused the death of 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and led to the kidnapping of around 250 civilians – 116 remain hostages in Gaza, 42 of whom died, according to the Israeli army.
In retaliation, Israel launched an offensive against the Gaza Strip, which has already caused 37,718 deaths, most of them civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health of the Hamas-led government.
Announcing that the “intense” phase of fighting, particularly in Rafah, “is about to end”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed that the war will continue to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007 and considered a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union and Israel.
The objective”, according to Netanyahu, is to “recover the hostages” held in Gaza and “uproot the Hamas regime”.
In fact, the Israeli army today bombed the Gaza Strip, where fighting pitted soldiers against Hamas in Rafah, after the United States once again warned Israel of the risk of a regional conflict in the event of a war against the Lebanese Hezbollah.
In the north of Palestinian territory, devastated by almost nine months of war, Civil Defense declared that three children and a woman had been killed in the early hours of today in an Israeli attack on a house in Beit Lahia. Tank shots were recorded in the city of Gaza.
Although the exchange of fire has decreased in intensity in recent days, the escalation of attacks on both sides of the border last week and the threats exchanged between Israel and Hezbollah have raised fears of a new war.
“A war between Israel and Hezbollah could easily become a regional war, with disastrous consequences for the Middle East,” warned United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Tuesday when meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, in Washington.
“We are working closely to reach an agreement, but we also have to prepare for all possible scenarios,” said Gallant.
On the 19th of this month, Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, an Islamist movement with a dominant influence in Lebanon, warned that “no place” in Israel would be spared from his movement’s missiles, a day after the Israeli army announced that the “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon” had been “validated”.
