Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Middle East Latest: Israeli Minister Warns of Wider Strikes on Lebanon if Ceasefire Collapses
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 24 hours ago on
December 3, 2024

Barbed wires set in an area in front of a house of the Kibbutz Manara, which is located near to the border with Lebanon, in northern Israel, Monday Dec. 2, 2024. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Israel’s defense minister warned that if the shaky ceasefire with Hezbollah collapses, Israel will widen its strikes and target the Lebanese state itself.

He spoke the day after Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes that killed nearly a dozen people in Lebanon. Those strikes came after the Lebanese militant group fired a volley of projectiles as a warning over what it said were previous Israeli ceasefire violations.

Speaking to troops on the northern border Tuesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said any violations of the agreement would be met with “a maximum response and zero tolerance.”

He said if the war resumes, Israel will widen its strikes beyond the areas where Hezbollah’s activities are concentrated, and “there will no longer be an exemption for the state of Lebanon.”

Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel last year in solidarity with Hamas militants who are fighting in the Gaza Strip. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.

Israel’s blistering retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,502 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war in Gaza has destroyed vast areas of the coastal enclave and displaced 90% of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.

———

Here’s the Latest:

Palestinians Get Food Aid in Central Gaza, Some for the First Time in Months

NUSEIRAT REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip — Palestinians lined up for bags of flour distributed by the U.N. in central Gaza on Tuesday morning, some of them for the first time in months amid a drop in food aid entering the territory.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, gave out one 25-kilogram flour bag (55 pounds) to each family of 10 at a warehouse in the Nuseirat refugee camp, as well as further south in the city of Khan Younis.

Jalal al-Shaer, among the dozens receiving flour at the Nuseirat warehouse, said the bag would last his family of 12 for only two or three days.

“The situation for us is very difficult,” said another man in line, Hammad Moawad. “There is no flour, there is no food, prices are high … We eat bread crumbs.” He said his family hadn’t received a flour allotment in five or six months.

COGAT, the Israeli army body in charge of humanitarian affairs, said it facilitated entry of a shipment of 600 tons of flour on Sunday for the World Food Program. Still, the amount of aid Israel has allowed into Gaza since the beginning of October has been at nearly the lowest levels of the 15-month-old war.

UNRWA’s senior emergency officer Louise Wateridge told The Associated Press that the flour bags being distributed Tuesday were not enough.

“People are getting one bag of flour between an entire family and there is no certainty when they’ll receive the next food,” she said.

Wateridge added that UNRWA has been struggling like other humanitarian agencies to provide much needed supplies across the Gaza Strip. The agency this week announced it was stopping delivering aid entering through the main crossing from Israel, Kerem Shalom, because its convoys were being robbed by gangs. UNRWA has blamed Israel in large part for the spread of lawlessness in Gaza.

The International Criminal Court is seeking to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister over accusations of using “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel rejects the allegations and says it has been working hard to improve entry of aid.

Netanyahu Vows an ‘Iron Fist’ Against Hezbollah if They Break the Ceasefire, and Thanks Trump for Tough Talk on Gaza Hostages

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war isn’t over against Hezbollah and vowed to use “an iron fist” against the Lebanese militant group for any perceived violations of a week-old ceasefire.

“At the moment we are in a ceasefire, I note — a ceasefire, not the end of the war,” Netanyahu said at the start of the government meeting Tuesday. He said the military would retaliate for “any violation — minor or major.”

Netanyahu also thanked U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for his recent demands for Hamas to release the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza. Trump posted on social media Monday that if the hostages are not freed before he takes office in January there would be “HELL TO PAY.”

Netanyahu convened Tuesday’s meeting in northern Israel, where around 45,000 Israelis had been displaced by the war as of last week, according to the prime minister’s office. Netanyahu said the government was focused on getting them back in their homes and rehabilitating the area.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Trump Considers DeSantis for the Pentagon With Hegseth Under Pressure Over Allegations: AP

DON'T MISS

California Falling Short of Enrollment Goal as Mental Health Courts Roll Out Statewide

DON'T MISS

Celebrate 85 Years of the Tower Theatre With Comedy, Music, and Film

DON'T MISS

Adam Gray Declares Victory Over Incumbent Rep. John Duarte After Latest Vote Tally

DON'T MISS

Fresno State QB Mikey Keene Says He’s Entering Transfer Portal

DON'T MISS

Chad Chronister, Donald Trump’s Pick to Run the DEA, Withdraws Name From Consideration

DON'T MISS

Three Bulldogs Selected to All-MW First Team in Football

DON'T MISS

US Moves to End a Minimum Wage Waiver for Disabled Workers

DON'T MISS

Transgender Powerlifter Asks Minnesota Supreme Court to Let Her Compete in Women’s Events

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Crash Claims Life in Tuesday’s Fog

UP NEXT

Celebrate 85 Years of the Tower Theatre With Comedy, Music, and Film

UP NEXT

Adam Gray Declares Victory Over Incumbent Rep. John Duarte After Latest Vote Tally

UP NEXT

Fresno State QB Mikey Keene Says He’s Entering Transfer Portal

UP NEXT

Chad Chronister, Donald Trump’s Pick to Run the DEA, Withdraws Name From Consideration

UP NEXT

Three Bulldogs Selected to All-MW First Team in Football

UP NEXT

US Moves to End a Minimum Wage Waiver for Disabled Workers

UP NEXT

Transgender Powerlifter Asks Minnesota Supreme Court to Let Her Compete in Women’s Events

UP NEXT

Fresno County Crash Claims Life in Tuesday’s Fog

UP NEXT

Is Enron Back? If It’s a Joke, Some Former Employees Aren’t Laughing

UP NEXT

Fresno Firefighters Tackle Another Structure Blaze. How Many Have There Been This Year?

Adam Gray Declares Victory Over Incumbent Rep. John Duarte After Latest Vote Tally

14 hours ago

Fresno State QB Mikey Keene Says He’s Entering Transfer Portal

16 hours ago

Chad Chronister, Donald Trump’s Pick to Run the DEA, Withdraws Name From Consideration

16 hours ago

Three Bulldogs Selected to All-MW First Team in Football

17 hours ago

US Moves to End a Minimum Wage Waiver for Disabled Workers

17 hours ago

Transgender Powerlifter Asks Minnesota Supreme Court to Let Her Compete in Women’s Events

18 hours ago

Fresno County Crash Claims Life in Tuesday’s Fog

18 hours ago

Is Enron Back? If It’s a Joke, Some Former Employees Aren’t Laughing

18 hours ago

Fresno Firefighters Tackle Another Structure Blaze. How Many Have There Been This Year?

18 hours ago

US Closes Investigation Into E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Onions in McDonald’s Quarter Pounders

18 hours ago

Trump Considers DeSantis for the Pentagon With Hegseth Under Pressure Over Allegations: AP

WASHINGTON — The nomination of Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Pentagon, is under pressure as senators...

43 minutes ago

43 minutes ago

Trump Considers DeSantis for the Pentagon With Hegseth Under Pressure Over Allegations: AP

4 hours ago

California Falling Short of Enrollment Goal as Mental Health Courts Roll Out Statewide

4 hours ago

Celebrate 85 Years of the Tower Theatre With Comedy, Music, and Film

14 hours ago

Adam Gray Declares Victory Over Incumbent Rep. John Duarte After Latest Vote Tally

16 hours ago

Fresno State QB Mikey Keene Says He’s Entering Transfer Portal

President-elect Donald Trump arrives to speak at a meeting of the House GOP conference, followed by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP/Alex Brandon)
16 hours ago

Chad Chronister, Donald Trump’s Pick to Run the DEA, Withdraws Name From Consideration

17 hours ago

Three Bulldogs Selected to All-MW First Team in Football

17 hours ago

US Moves to End a Minimum Wage Waiver for Disabled Workers

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend