Air strikes and rockets have been exchanged between Israel and Hezbollah, which accuse each other of violating the 60-day ceasefire deal struck just one week ago.
The Iran-backed terror group reportedly fired at an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) position near the Lebanese border on Monday, calling it a “defensive warning strike” made in response to Israeli violations of the fragile truce, which Joe Biden last week described as a blueprint to ending the war in Gaza.
But Benjamin Netanyahu stressed it was Hezbollah that had violated the deal, adding that “Israel will respond strongly to this.”
We are determined to continue to enforce the ceasefire, and to respond to any violation by Hezbollah—minor or serious.
Lebanese authorities reported numerous deaths relating to the strikes.
The IDF said in a statement that it had struck terrorist infrastructure sites that “posed a threat to the State of Israel and were a violation of the ceasefire understandings.”
White House officials attempted to quash suggestions the ceasefire was crumbling, saying “sporadic strikes” were to be expected and that “largely speaking the ceasefire is holding.”
Strikes also came as President-Elect Donald Trump warned that if the hostages being held in Gaza have not been released by the time he enters office on January 20th, “there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity.”
In true Trumpian fashion, he added that they will be hit harder “than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America.”
His message was markedly different from that of David Lammy, the UK Foreign Secretary. He was reported yesterday to have sat next to the mother of the last remaining British citizen being held hostage in Gaza—to have “hugged her and said he was a Tottenham fan like her hostage daughter Emily”—only later to criticise Israel over the “unacceptable humanitarian situation in Gaza.”
“He is,” saidThe Times of Israel writer Sheldon Stone, “an enormous disappointment as foreign secretary.”
