IMPERIALIST WAR MONGER

Beirut Will Turn into Gaza’: Netanyahu Warns Iran-Backed Lebanese Group Hezbollah

Published By: Shankhyaneel Sarkar
News18.com
DECEMBER 09, 2023


Israeli PM Netanyahu warned Hezbollah not to launch an all-out war against Israel in case it does not want Beirut to turn into Gaza City. (Image: Reuters)

Netanyahu warned Hezbollah against opening up a new front in the war and told them to ditch plans of launching an all-out attack on Israel.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday warned Hezbollah against launching an all-out war on his country unless they want the Lebanese capital Beirut to turn into Gaza.

“I also suggest that our enemies pay attention to this spirit because if Hezbollah decides to open an all-out war, then with its own hands it will turn Beirut and southern Lebanon, which are not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Younis,” Netanyahu said.

Weeks of fighting have left 17,177 people dead in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll from Hamas which rules the coastal strip.

Lebanese militia-cum-political outfit Hezbollah has not joined the war directly but is participating in asymmetric warfare against Israel. More than 110 people have been killed on the Lebanese side of the border since October, mostly Hezbollah fighters and more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally.

This week itself Hezbollah confirmed that it fired an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanese territory which went on to kill a civilian in northern Israel on Thursday. “Terrorists launched an anti-tank missile from Lebanese territory toward the area of Matat. Additional launches from Lebanon toward Israel were also identified. (Our) helicopters, tanks and artillery are striking the sources,” the Israeli army said.

Lebanese movement Hezbollah said in a statement that it had targeted the “Matat barracks” with “appropriate weapons and caused confirmed casualties”.

Israel is technically at war with Lebanon and this week Israeli fire on a military post near the country’s southern border killed a Lebanese soldier. “The Lebanese Armed Forces were not the target of the strike,” the Israel Defense Forces said, adding it regretted the incident.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNIFIL) said its headquarters were subjected to heavy shelling several times. “The Lebanese Armed Forces have not engaged in conflict with Israel. During the last days, we have seen a rapid and alarming increase in violence,” UNIFIL said this week.