This is a major escalation that could greatly expand the war and drag hezbollah deeper into the war, which was already involved in skirmishes with Israel in Lebanese regions that Israel occupies.

Note: the verbiage of the article is minimizing the focus on Israel, and they spend half the article justifying the attack as “not an attack on Israel” an effort to minimize how much of an escalation this is.

  • CyclohexaneOP
    10•5 months ago

    Lebanon main govt will recognize the game and let it be. Hezbollah will be upset and launch the same rockets they were going to launch anyway.

    This is the optimistic output, and I hope that’s what happens. But this is a major escalation from Israel, aiming to provoke hezbollah. It would not be any surprising if Hezbollah escalates back accordingly.

    Israel does not gain from this assassination in the way you think. Hamas’ effectiveness is not reduced one bit and Israel knows it. Their only goal is to escalate with Hezbollah, and justify expanding their attacks into Lebanon.

    I just hope that Hezbollah makes a calculated response that does not give Israel the pretext they’re looking for. So far, hezbollah has only attacked Israel in Lebanese territory, not Palestinian. Attacking Israel in Palestine would be a significant escalation but also an appropriate response.

    • @bartolomeo@suppo.fi
      -3•5 months ago

      How would Hezbollah attack Israel in Palestine? By marching through Israel all the way to WB or Gaza?

      • CyclohexaneOP
        4•5 months ago

        They don’t have to go that far. They can target Israel in occupied Akka (the occupiers call it Acre).

        • @bartolomeo@suppo.fi
          4•4 months ago

          Thanks, I had never heard of that city.

          In 1947, Acre, as part of Mandatory Palestine, had a population of 13,560, of which 10,930 were Muslim and 2,490 were Christian.

          Israel’s Carmeli forces attacked on May 16 and, after an ultimatum was delivered that, unless the inhabitants surrendered, ‘we will destroy you to the last man and utterly,’[48] the town notables signed an instrument of surrender on the night between 17–18 May 1948.

          • @bartolomeo@suppo.fi
            4•4 months ago

            Before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War broke out, the Carmeli Brigade’s 21 Battalion commander had repeatedly damaged the Al-Kabri aqueduct that furnished Acre with water, and when Arab repairs managed to restore water supply, then resorted to pouring flasks of typhoid and dysentery bacteria into the aqueduct, mas part of a biological warfare programme. At some time in late April or early May 1948, - Jewish forces had cut the town’s electricity supply responsible for pumping water - a typhoid epidemic broke out. Israeli officials later credited the facility with which they conquered the town in part to the effects of the demoralization induced by the epidemic.[47]