Israel, preemptive strikes to stop Hezbollah. And in Lebanon the revolt breaks out –

The Israelis hoped that “with the new and sophisticated attacks on Hezbollah’s communications tools and with the elimination of several key men of its armed wing, the group would be convinced to withdraw from the border between Israel and Lebanon”, wrote Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times, clearly implying that the ‘calculation’ has once again proven wrong. Despite the international appeals relaunched also in view of the 79th Unga in New York, which starts today, Tel-Aviv and Hezbollah militants have in fact intensified their attacks across the border. The step back, many analysts observe, is far away for now even if, in words, the two sides equally maintain that they do not want to start a dangerous military escalation in the region.

“Israel does not want a large-scale war,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly repeated, while reiterating the “vital necessity” of protecting his people and restoring security to the north of the country. The new wave of “widespread” attacks launched by the IDF against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon are, government sources quoted by Israeli media say, “responses to the incessant and large-scale attacks” that Hezbollah has been carrying out against Israeli population centers for over a year. Tel Aviv also notes that the latest raids by pro-Iranian Lebanese militants have seen the use of longer-range rockets and this too is a symptom of a war that has entered a new phase: today, according to the same source, the lives of almost half a million Israelis are at risk, well in addition to the hundreds who were in the border areas and who have already been evacuated.

The IDF has always defended the purely defensive nature of its war in response to the massacre of October 7 last year. The aim, it reiterates, is to definitively annihilate the pro-Iranian militants of Hezbollah who “hold hostage” both Palestinians and Lebanese citizens and who are the only real threat to the stability of the entire region. The one pulling the strings, however, is Iran, a state that, for Israel, threatens not only the Middle East but all of Europe and global security. Steven Cook, senior analyst and professor of Middle East and African studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, in a debate organized by the think tank on the possibility of a wider war in the region in light of Iranian promises of revenge, assured that “Hezbollah is not popular in Lebanon” and that “many Lebanese do not want war and do not even want Hezbollah to drag them into war”. Avoiding escalation, finding an agreement, bringing the hostages home are priorities for a good part of the Israelis. In the coming days, the word will pass to the international community and the UN, where Israel is asking for the immediate implementation of resolution 1701 and the end of Hezbollah’s armed presence in southern Lebanon.