ISRAEL HITS LEBANON AS BLINKEN URGES CALM IN REGION
▶ Hezbollah elite unit chief killed in targeted attack as tension escalates
Israel killed the commander of an elite Hezbollah unit in a strike on Lebanon yesterday, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shuttled between Middle Eastern capitals, amid efforts to prevent the war in Gaza from spilling over into a regional conflict.
In a sign that Mr Blinken’s efforts continue to have limited sway over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, Israeli forces killed Wissam Tawil as he drove through his hometown of Kherbet Selem, 100km south of Beirut.
A Hezbollah source said the car Tawil was travelling in was hit by bomb. Some reports said it was a drone strike.
“With greater pride and honour the Islamic Resistance mourns the martyr Commander Wissam Hassan Tawil,” Hezbollah said.
More than 150 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon since cross-border clashes began after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7. Hezbollah is backed by Iran and has aimed to support Hamas by maintaining a low-level second front against Israel.
The killing of Tawil threatens to escalate the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which has so far been largely limited to air strikes and shelling in border areas.
“Things will flare up now,” said a security source.
It is the second potential escalation by Israel, after a drone strike killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh Al Arouri in southern Beirut last week.
Hezbollah had previously warned that assassinations on Lebanese territory would be a red line. The group launched more than 60 rockets at an Israeli base on Saturday, an “initial response” to the killing of Al Arouri.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said last week that the group would not “remain silent about a violation of this level because this means that all of Lebanon will be exposed”.
Washington is keen to contain the conflict in Gaza and avoid a spillover into a wider regional conflict, pitting the US and Israel against Iran and its aligned groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Mr Blinken visited the UAE and Saudi Arabia before travelling to Israel yesterday.
In a social media post, Mr Blinken said he met President Sheikh Mohamed yesterday “to discuss efforts to prevent the conflict in the region from widening and address humanitarian needs in Gaza”.
“I underscored our continued commitment to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” he said.
He then arrived in Saudi Arabia, where he was greeted by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan in the tourist destination of AlUla.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosted US officials – including US Senator Lindsey Graham – in AlUla on Sunday, where they reviewed “friendly relations between the two countries”, regional and global developments and issues of common interest, state news agency Spa reported.
A veteran Palestinian politician said that Mr Blinken was in the region to tell Israel that the “playing with fire that started with the assassination of [Al Arouri] should stop, perhaps by agreeing first to a ceasefire in Gaza”.
Senior officials across the Middle East have told The National about the conversations that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been having in Arab capitals, on his fourth visit to the region since the outbreak of war in Gaza.
The senior US official is on a Middle East tour designed to calm tension.
Mr Blinken, who was expected to land in Israel last night, is in the region “to tell Israel that the US doesn’t want to see a bigger escalation and that the playing with fire that started with the assassination of [senior Hamas official Saleh Al Arouri] should stop, perhaps by agreeing first to a ceasefire in Gaza”, a veteran Palestinian politician in the enclave said.
Last week, Israel assassinated Al Arouri in a missile strike in Beirut, a move that was widely interpreted as an escalation in retaliatory fighting between Israel and Lebanon-based militant group and Hamas ally Hezbollah.
“The current week is decisive in terms of battles and the fear of the outbreak of a bigger regional war,” the Palestinian politician said.
“If a political solution is not reached, then the prospects for a regional war will keep increasing.” The US is Israel’s most important ally, providing vast amounts of military aid and routinely shielding it from condemnation at the UN.
The Biden administration has come under international criticism for maintaining such levels of support, even as Israel continues its campaign in Gaza, costing many thousands of civilian lives.
The war in Gaza, now in its fourth month, threatens to drag Israel’s regional enemies into a conflict that stretches beyond borders.
More than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed as Israel pounds the enclave in what it claims are attempts to destroy Hamas.
During a stop in Jordan at the weekend, Mr Blinken sought to assure King Abdullah II that the US would continue to put enough pressure on Israel to prevent a permanent uprooting of Palestinians as a result of the Gaza war, a western Middle
In Jordan at the weekend, Mr Blinken sought to assure King Abdullah that the US would continue to pressure Israel
East diplomat told The National. “Jordan wants the Palestinians to return to northern Gaza and the Israeli escalation in the [occupied] West Bank to stop,” the diplomat said.
“The problem is that the Israelis have been listening very little to the Americans, and the king knows that.”
Mr Blinken also discussed the “day-after” scenarios for the war, a major plank of US foreign policy to wrap up the
conflict in a way that prevents Hamas from re-emerging as a threat to Israel.
“That too has lost its momentum because the war has got very messy,” the diplomat said.
“Israel is still not in control of Gaza and it seems to be covering for its failures by expanding the war in Lebanon. That, too, worries the Jordanians.”
Despite regional fears about a looming conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued his hawkish rhetoric against Hezbollah yesterday.
“We gave [Hezbollah] an example of what is happening to their friends in [Gaza]; this is what will happen here in the north,” he said.
The comments came hours after Israel killed a senior commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in an attack on south Lebanon.
A recent breakdown in Hamas-Israeli talks brokered by the US and regional countries is also stoking fears about an expansion of the conflict raging in Gaza.
Mr Blinken also visited Doha, during which Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said Qatar’s role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas was continuing despite the challenge posed by recent events.
“Having one of the senior leaders of Hamas being killed is something that can affect such a complicated process,” Sheikh Mohammed said.
“Yet we are not giving up – we are moving forward.
“We are continuing our discussions with the parties and trying to achieve, as soon as possible, an agreement that can bring assistance for humanitarian relief and the release of the [Israeli] hostages.”
The families of six Israelis who were taken hostage in Gaza on October 7 were also in Qatar for meetings with the Qataris, aimed at reviving talks to return their relatives, according to some reports in Israeli media.
“We have to reiterate that Qatar is a mediator between all parties, but it cannot control Hamas,” a source from the Qatari Foreign Ministry told The National.
“We understand that there are challenges towards hashing out a new deal for the hostage releases and we’re doing everything we can to keep talks open as long as we can.”