On November 11, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued a stark warning to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group that the latter was on the brink of making a huge mistake should it persist in staging attacks close to Israel’s northern border, cautioning that it would be the Lebanese citizens who would pay the price should tensions escalate.
Speaking while on a visit to troops at the IDF’s 91st Division base in northern Israel, Gallant declared that the Hezbollah leadership was “close to making a grave mistake,” The Times of Israel reported.
“Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a war that may happen, and it is making mistakes,” Gallant said. “If it makes mistakes of this kind, the ones who will pay the price are first of all the citizens of Lebanon. What we are doing in Gaza we know how to do in Beirut,” the minister posited.
On November 10, Israel killed seven Hezbollah fighters close to the Lebanese border, bringing to 78 the number who have died since the Hamas cross-border attack in southern Israel last month. Subsequently, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah named the seven dead fighters in a statement, saying that they had been “martyred on the road to Jerusalem,” a phrase frequently used by Hezbollah when alluding to the deaths of its militants.
The increased death toll in Lebanon, as well as the killing of 18 Palestinians by Israeli forces in the West Bank on November 9, prompted Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to proclaim that a wider intensification of the conflict seemed unavoidable.
Also, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that there had been “an upgrade” in the group’s operations on its front with Israel.
“There has been a quantitative improvement in the number of operations, the size and number of targets, as well as an increase in the type of weapons,” Nasrallah said, as per Reuters reports.
Regarding the Hezbollah threat, Gallant said that the “noses of [our] planes are pointing north,” adding that the Israeli Air Force was employing only one-tenth of its assets in Gaza.
During a sit-down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on November 13, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Islamist militants would undermine the United States and Europe if Israel is defeated in its present conflict with Hamas, saying Western states would be next in line if Israel loses.
Although the Israeli prime minister admitted that Washington had been very supportive of Israel’s military action in Gaza, he dismissed calls for a ceasefire, maintaining it would amount to a surrender to Hamas.
Netanyahu urged Israel’s allies to support his government’s actions, stating “We have to win not only for our sake, but for the sake of the Middle East,” as well as “for the sake of our Arab neighbors” and the world at large.
“We have to win to protect Israel. We have to win to safeguard the Middle East. We have to win for the sake of the civilized world. That’s the battle we’re fighting, and it’s being waged right now. There is no substitute for that victory,” he elaborated, adding, “If we don’t win now, then Europe is next and you’re next.”
Claiming “our fight is your fight,” the Israeli leader proceeded to claim that an “axis of terror” exists between Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and the Iranian government, alleging that Tehran’s “minions” seek to “bring the Middle East [and] the world back to the Dark Ages.”
“On the other side stands Israel, the modern Arab states, of course the United States, all the forces that want to see peace, prosperity for the Middle East and for the world,” Netanyahu continued.
Rather than directly urge for a ceasefire, U.S. officials have suggested shorter “humanitarian pauses” to permit aid to enter the beleaguered Gaza Strip. Nonetheless, as the death toll climbs in Gaza, some administration officials have called for restraint from Israeli forces, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently bemoaning that “far too many” Palestinians had been killed in Israel’s bombing campaign.
On November 11, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan lashed out at the collective West for a perceived lack of action regarding what he said was a “massacre in Palestine,” adding that the Israeli government was acting like a “spoiled child” in its retaliation to Hamas’ attacks on October 7.
Addressing his audience at a joint Arab-Islamic summit organized by the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, Erdoğan decried Western nations for double standards and pointed out what he viewed as contrasts in their reactions to other global conflicts. The Turkish leader added that “the Israeli government is acting like the spoiled child of the West, and it has to compensate for the damages that it causes.”
“It is a shame that Western countries, always a voice for human rights and freedoms, remain silent on the massacre in Palestine,” Erdoğan said, based on reports from the Anadolu news agency. “We are faced with unprecedented barbarism in history, where hospitals, schools, and refugee camps are bombed and civilians are massacred.”
In his remarks, Erdoğan declared that Western countries “are not even making a call for a ceasefire to Israel.” On November 9, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House that he saw “no possibility” for a ceasefire in Gaza, contending that a ceasefire would be in Hamas’ favor instead.
Moreover, Erdoğan singled out the importance of providing fuel to places in urgent need in Gaza, especially hospitals, and said that Türkiye will provide 10 flights of essential supplies to El Arish airport in Egypt to be sent to Gaza. The Turkish leader also recommended creating an OIC fund to rebuild Gaza, saying that Türkiye would provide extensive support.
Israel has been conducting an unprecedented military bombardment of the densely populated Gaza enclave in response to Hamas’ assault on its territory on October 7 last month and as part of Netanyahu’s resultant promise to eradicate Hamas. Israeli officials said on November 10 that about 1,200 of its citizens — mostly civilians — were killed in the attack, altering its prior estimates downwards.
Over 11,000 people have died over the past four weeks as a result of artillery and airstrikes in Gaza, Palestinian health officials have said, with about 40 percent of them children.
Independent aid organizations have also warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis as vital supplies decrease and more and more people seek medical treatment in a healthcare system already stretched to its limits.
