Israel Unbowed by International Pressure Over War with Hezbollah

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was firm in his statements over recent days defending the actions taken against Hezbollah, despite warnings from the UN and several world governments. “Our goals are clear; our actions speak for themselves,” he said on Friday. In a separate statement, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said “We will continue pursuing our enemies in order to defend our citizens...the series of operations in the new phase of the war will continue until we achieve our goal: ensuring the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes.”

US President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday as he headed into a cabinet meeting that “We’ve tried from the beginning to make sure that the people of northern Israel, as well as southern Lebanon, are able to get back to their homes and go back safely."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and “Our whole team is working with the intelligence community to try and get it done, and we are going to keep at it until we get it done, but we have a ways to go,” he added.

US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told reporters that “There was no US involvement,” in the recent Israeli strikes, adding that “we believe that there is still time and space for diplomacy to work. We don’t want to see escalation. We don’t want to see a second war, a second front in this war opened up at the border with Lebanon...everything we’re doing is going to be involved in trying to prevent that outcome. There is no reason for an expanded military conflict in Lebanon to be inevitable.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was less supportive of Israel's actions, with his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric telling reporters that Israel was being irresponsible and could be leading the region into a large conflict.

“We are very concerned at the heightened escalation across the Blue Line, including the deadly strike we saw in Beirut today,” Dujarric told reporters. “We urge all parties to de-escalate immediately. All must exercise maximum restraint. We also urge the parties to immediately return to the cessation of hostilities and to fully implement [UN] Security Council Resolution 1701; the region is on the brink of a catastrophe. All efforts should be made in urgently pursuing diplomatic activity. All efforts should focus on urgently finding a diplomatic activity.”

The UN Security Council held a special session on the Israeli-Lebanese crisis on Friday in New York. Several UN officials and Lebanese government officials used the meeting as a platform to vilify Israel and accuse it of all manner of crimes and atrocities. Little mention was made during these meetings of the nearly 8,500 rockets, missiles and UAV's Hezbollah has fired into Israel since October 8th, 2023.

Meanwhile, in Israel, the Health Ministry ordered hospitals in northern Israel to move patients to protected areas on Sunday amidst an increase in rocket attacks. This was just one of several measures taken by the government and the IDF Home Front Command amidst the increase in attacks from Hezbollah. School was also cancelled in the Golan Heights, Galilee, Haifa Bay area, and northern valleys as far south as Beit Shean. Public gatherings were also restricted to 10 people outdoors and 100 indoors. Many work places were also closed unless there was an adequate bomb shelter that employees could reach quickly in case of an alert.