The Israeli army announced on Tuesday June 18 that it had approved operational plans for an “offensive in Lebanon”, after days of escalation with Hezbollah in the border area, on the sidelines of the war in the Strip. Gaza.
The Israeli military command thus clarified that these plans had been “approved and validated”, during a meeting between generals devoted to an “assessment of the situation”. The same day, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz threatened Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of the Islamist movement Hamas, with destruction following a “total war.”
Information to remember:
⇒ Israel approved “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon”
⇒ The United States refutes Israeli accusations of blocking arms deliveries
⇒ Israeli intelligence allegedly knew of Hamas plan to take hostages
Netanyahu wants to continue occupying Palestinian territories for the ‘foreseeable future’
In an interview published Wednesday June 19 in Le Figaro, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu estimated that “the Palestinian state does not exist”, affirming that Israel “must maintain control of security, from the Jordan to the sea” for the “foreseeable future”.
Asked about the creation of a Palestinian state, the Israeli Prime Minister judged that “the Palestinians living in the territories controlled by them […] must have all the powers to govern themselves, but none to threaten us.” Benjamin Netanyahu thus justified the occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, estimating that “if we abandon our control” over this territory, “Iran will ‘would seize it immediately.’
Also questioned about Joe Biden’s plan for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, he repeated that it is “the leaders of Hamas who are obstructing an agreement”, believing that the demand for a “cease -permanent fire […] will leave these terrorists masters of Gaza.
Israel will get what it needs, Blinken tells Netanyahu
The United States displayed its disbelief on Tuesday, June 18, after comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The same day, during a speech in Tel Aviv, he considered it “inconceivable” that the Biden administration could delay the delivery of weapons to Israel for its war in Gaza.
-“How is it possible that the weapons and ammunition that we bought with our money are slow to arrive from the United States?” asked the Israeli Prime Minister on Tuesday. “We really don’t know what he’s talking about,” responded White House spokesperson Karine Jean Pierre on Tuesday. With the exception of a “special shipment of ammunition […], there are no other breaks. None,” she told the press.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken indicated that the United States was “continuing to examine” a delivery of bombs to Israel which had been suspended for fear that they would be used in Rafah , but ensure that Israel has “what it needs to defend itself.”
Netanyahu to meet families of dead hostages in Gaza
Benjamin Netanyahu invited relatives of hostages killed in the Gaza Strip to a meeting at his residence, several families told AFP on Tuesday June 18, as criticism multiplied over his response to the hostage crisis.
The Prime Minister will receive some of the families this Thursday and the other on Sunday, according to information collected from four families. During a press briefing, David Mencer, spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s office, refused to confirm the invitation.
“I was invited to meet the Prime Minister,” confirmed to AFP Sharon Sharabi, whose two brothers, Yossi and Eli Sharabi, were kidnapped on October 7 from Kibbutz Beeri, where they lived. He said he intended to accept this invitation on June 23. In February, the army told him that his brother Yossi had been killed and that his body was in the hands of Hamas.
Of the 116 people still hostage in the Gaza Strip, 41 have died, according to the Israeli army. A family member of a hostage who died in captivity told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that she had declined the invitation.
Israeli intelligence knew of plan to take hostages
According to an investigation broadcast on Tuesday June 18 by Israeli public broadcaster Kan, Israeli military intelligence was aware shortly before October 7 of a planned Hamas attack whose aim was to take several hundred hostages in Israel.
The media reports that unit 8200, responsible for wiretapping, wrote a report on September 19 detailing the training of elite units of the Palestinian Islamist movement with a view to raids against military positions and kibbutzim in the south of Israel. That is less than three weeks before Hamas launched its devastating attack on October 7.
Intelligence officials within the military’s Southern Command, which is responsible for the Gaza Strip, were aware of the report, Kan added, citing unnamed security officials. According to the broadcaster, the memo noted that the Islamist movement was targeting “200 to 250 hostages.” Asked by AFP about the media’s revelations, an Israeli military spokesperson indicated that the army was “investigating the events that occurred on October 7 and what preceded them.”