MOSCOW, Oct. 18 USA privately calls on Israel not to launch a military campaign against the Hezbollah movement, since a mistake by the Israeli army would lead to a much larger war, the Times of Israel newspaper reports.
«The Biden administration is privately urging Israel not to launch a military campaign against Hezbollah as Washington works to prevent the ongoing war from spreading beyond Gaza… The US has warned Israel to be careful with its military response to Hezbollah attacks.» , explaining that the IDF's mistake in Lebanon could have ignited a much larger war,» the publication reported, citing two officials familiar with the situation.
According to the Times of Israel, officials explained that the US «recognizes that Israel «must respond to increasing attacks on its northern border by Hezbollah since the Hamas attack on October 7.»
The newspaper reports, citing officials, that the United States has expressed its readiness to join the Israeli army in the fight against Hezbollah if the movement “initiates a war against Israel.”
On Wednesday night, the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, in connection with the attack on a hospital in the Gaza Strip, declared Wednesday a “Day of Rage” and called on its supporters for mass demonstrations.
Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip was hit on Tuesday. Gaza's health ministry said 471 people were killed and more than 300 were injured, most of them women and children. Palestinians and Israelis blamed each other for the attack, with the Palestinian Foreign Ministry saying the attack was carried out by Israeli planes and the Israeli army saying the hospital was hit by a rocket launched unsuccessfully by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.
On the morning of October 7, Israel was subjected to an unprecedented-scale rocket attack from the Gaza Strip as part of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, announced by the military wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement. In addition, after massive rocket attacks, the organization’s fighters penetrated into the border areas in southern Israel. In response, the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Iron Swords against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Within days of the attack, the Israeli military took control of all settlements near the Gaza border and began conducting air strikes on targets, including civilians, in the strip. Israel also announced a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip: the supply of water, food, electricity, medicine, and fuel was suspended.
The number of victims in the Gaza Strip reached 3,478 people, and the death toll of Israeli residents exceeded a thousand; several thousand Israelis and Palestinians were injured. Several dead and missing Russians, as well as citizens of other countries, were reported. According to various sources, Hamas may hold about 150 Israelis captive. The movement itself stated that there are about 200-250 prisoners in the Gaza Strip.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called on the parties to stop hostilities. According to the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the settlement of the Middle East crisis is possible only on the basis of a “two-state” formula approved by the UN Security Council, which provides for the creation of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict, related to the territorial interests of the parties, has been a source of tension and clashes in the region for many decades. A UN decision with the active role of the USSR in 1947 determined the creation of two states — Israel and Palestine, but only the Israeli one was created. Israel, while declaring agreement with the two-state principle, did not completely liberate the Palestinian territories.