The Israeli military said on Saturday that since the outbreak of the Gaza war on Oct. 7 it had struck more than 50 targets in Syria linked to the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari
The Israeli military said on Saturday that since the outbreak of the Gaza war on Oct. 7 it had struck more than 50 targets in Syria linked to the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah.
The remarks, in a briefing by chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari that mainly discussed efforts to beat back Hezbollah attacks launched in solidarity with Hamas, were a departure from Israel's usual reticence about Syria operations.
"Everywhere Hezbollah is, we shall be. We will take action everywhere required in the Middle East," Hagari said.
Israeli forces have attacked 34,000 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including 120 border surveillance outposts, 40 caches of missiles and other weaponry and more than 40 command centres, Hagari said. He put the number of enemy dead at more than 200.
Hagari said Israel had deployed three army divisions along its side of the Lebanese border in anticipation of Hezbollah getting involved after Palestinian Hamas launched a shock cross-border attack on Oct. 7, triggering the war in the Gaza Strip.
With tens of thousands of its northern residents having evacuated, Israel has threatened to escalate the Lebanon fighting unless Hezbollah backs off from the border - and has sought Western help in finding a diplomatic solution in Beirut.
Writing by Dan Williams
Two French soldiers are dead. Killed in the same ambush, by the same fighters, in the same corner of southern Lebanon that the international community has spent twenty years trying, and failing, to pacify.
The United States has halted a shipment of about $500 million in cash bound for Iraq and suspended parts of its security cooperation with Baghdad, in a move aimed at pressuring the Iraqi government over the actions of Iran-backed militias, Iraqi sources told Reuters.
Iran seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, tightening its grip on the strategic waterway, after U.S. President Donald Trump called off attacks indefinitely with no sign of peace talks restarting.
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