Israel said on Friday it would evacuate more than 20,000 residents from Kiryat Shmona, one of the biggest towns on its northern border with Lebanon, following a heavy cross-border exchange of fire in the area the day before.
It also levelled a northern Gaza district after giving families still there a half-hour warning to escape, as it made clear that a command to invade Gaza was expected soon.
The Israel-Lebanon border has seen constant, but so far limited, clashes since a war in Gaza erupted two weeks ago. Israel had already declared some areas along the frontier as closed military zones, forcing residents to move away, but this is the largest evacuation from the lush hills of the eastern Galilee region.
The Lebanese army reported a journalist killed by Israeli gunfire on Thursday in an area across the border from Kiryat Shmona where Israeli forces and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group had a heavy exchange of fire. “We reaffirm that the killing of civilians and the assault on the security of our country will not go without response or punishment,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
Daniel Hagari, spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said, “This kind of evacuation, which has already been done in a number of towns on the northern border, allows the IDF to expand its operational freedom to act against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation.”
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Amid the fighting, Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant said the country did not have plans to maintain control over civilians in Gaza after its war against the Hamas militant group. The defence minister’s comments to lawmakers were the first time a top Israeli official discussed its long-term plans for Gaza. Gallant said Israel expected a three-phase war, starting with airstrikes and ground maneuvers. It anticipates then defeating pockets of resistance, and finally, ceasing Israel’s “responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip.” Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in Khan Youni, a town in the territory’s south, and ambulances carrying men, women and children streamed into the local Nasser Hospital. The hospital, Gaza’s second largest, already was overflowing with patients and people seeking shelter.
The Israeli military said it had struck more than 100 targets across Gaza linked to the territory’s Hamas rulers, including a tunnel and arms depots.
Though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called areas in south Gaza “safe zones” earlier this week, Israeli military spokesman Nir Dinar said on Friday, “There are no safe zones.”
Persistent violence along the Israel-Lebanon border has raised fears that fighting between Israel and Hamas Islamists in Gaza could spiral into a broader, regional conflict.
Israel’s military said one of its drones “struck a terrorist in Lebanese territory” overnight. It also said it targeted Hezbollah assets in response to rockets fired from Lebanon. In a statement, the military also said majority of the hostages being held in Gaza are alive.
Evacuees from Kiryat Shmona will be put up in state-subsidised guesthouses, Israel's Defense Ministry said, joining tens of thousands of Israelis who have already left their homes near the southern Gaza border. There are fresh concerns that Israel’s war with Hamas will spark a bigger conflict in the Middle East, after the US said its military bases in Iraq and Syria are increasingly under attack. An American destroyer also shot down cruise missiles and drones launched by Yemen toward Israel.
Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak travelled to Egypt to urge leaders in the Middle East to avoid regional escalation of the Israel-Hamas conflict. China’s envoy for Middle East issues Zhai Jun will also attend the summit in Cairo to discuss the conflict.
Biden requests $106 bn for Israel, Ukraine, border
President Joe Biden unveiled a nearly $106 billion request for emergency funds to arm Israel and Ukraine and to reinforce the US-Mexico border, in hopes that a comprehensive package could help speed passage through the fractured political climate on Capitol Hill. Besides $61.4 billion for assistance to Ukraine, the White House has asked Congress for $14.3 billion to boost Israel’s defenses.