US President Joe Biden held a much anticipated call with Israel’s Prime Minister – believed to have been their first conversation in weeks.
Benjamin Netanyahu and President Biden may have discussed Israel’s reaction to Iran’s last-week missile attack amid the escalating tensions across the Middle East.
The White House confirmed that US Vice President Kamala Harris joined the call on Tuesday, but details of what was discussed have yet to be released.
Yoav Galant, Israel’s Defence Minister, has said that Israel will launch a retaliatory strike against Iran which will be “deadly precise and above all shocking”.
Gallant said, “They won’t understand what happened or how it happened. They will see the results.”
Four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Lebanese town near the southern city Sidon.
A couple walking their dog in the small Israeli village of Kiryat Smona was killed by Hezbollah missiles fired from Lebanon.
The first Israeli civilians have died since the border conflict erupted 12 days ago.
Haifa in Israel’s port city was also hit by rockets, causing at least five injuries.
Israel has said that it has carried out over 1,100 airstrikes since its ground invasion in southern Lebanon began on 30 September.
In an update released on Wednesday evening, Israel Air Force stated that it used fighter jets and helicopters to attack Hezbollah sites, and also attacked 300 targets along the northern Gaza coast as part of the Jabalia fighting.
Netanyahu had previously vowed Iran would “pay the cost” for the Iranian missile barrage, which Tehran claimed was in response to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, and the high-profile assassinations by Hezbollah of leaders such as the late Hassan Nasrallah.
The US has defended Israel’s right to retaliate but also appeared to try to limit its response towards Iran.
The government of Lebanon estimates that 1.2 million people fled their homes in the last year. Nearly 180,000 people are currently in centres approved for the displaced.
More than 400,000 people, including 200,000 Syrian refugees, have fled to war-torn Syria. The head of the UN refugee agency called this situation “tragic absurdity”.
Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political and military organisation in Lebanon that wields considerable influence, has remained defiant in the face of a series devastating blows, including the death of its leader and many of its top commanders.
On Monday, the group said it was “confident…in the ability of our Resistance to oppose Israeli aggression”.
Israel’s government, which has designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization, has pledged to ensure that tens and thousands of displaced residents can return to their homes near Lebanese borders after a year-long cross-border conflict sparked by war in Gaza.
Hezbollah started firing rockets at northern Israel on 8th October 2023, the day after Hamas launched a deadly attack against southern Israel.