The U.S. announced Sunday that it will continue to bolster its forces in the Middle East and said it is determined not to allow Iran to respond to Israel’s recent attacks on Lebanon and their killing of a senior general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, General Abbas Nilforoushan.
Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, was killed Saturday in an Israeli strike in Beirut, prompting Iranian leadership to call for an urgent UN Security Council meeting.
Israel’s bombing campaigns in Lebanon have largely distracted the public from its ongoing genocide in Gaza, as the death toll in the enclave hit 41,431 and the number of those injured neared 100,000. Thousands remain missing under the rubble.
Israel continues to escalate all-out war with Hezbollah and carried out a major airstrike on a building in a Beirut suburb—killing at least 45, including children.
Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, said in a speech last week that Israel “crossed all rules, laws, and red lines” with its pager attack on Lebanon and said the attack should be considered a war crime or a “declaration of war.”
Israel’s deadly pager attack on Lebanon served no clear strategic objective other than terrorizing the country and embarrassing the military group, analysts said.
Israel’s security cabinet on Saturday said returning Israelis to their homes in the stolen land in the north—along the border with Lebanon—will be named an official goal of the war, raising the likelihood of a major escalation.
Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, announced Sunday that his group completed its retaliatory response to Israel’s high-profile assassination…
“In the days after October 7, President Biden had a message for Hezbollah: ‘Don’t.’ Now it’s time for Biden to send the same message to Israel: Don’t launch a new war in Lebanon, don’t keep evading a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, don’t assume American support if you start a regional war,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN’s Executive Director.
Iran sent a clear message to Israel on Friday that a full-scale war with Lebanon would be an “obliterating war.”