Call between US president and Israeli prime minister expected to take place in wake of Biden expressing outrage over the deaths
Reuters has spoken with Israelis who have been displaced from their communities in the far north of the country, close to the UN-drawn blue line that has separated Israel from Lebanon since 2000.
Israel evacuated a number of communities, totalling about 60,000 people, almost immediately after the 7 October attack in southern Israel. There has been an almost constant exchange of fire between Israel’s military and Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli forces inside Lebanon.
Shay Hanegbi said they had only expected the evacuation to last a few weeks, but “It has ended up going on and on. You don’t see the end. We feel adrift.”
Natalie Levy, 29, has been displaced with her husband and two young children from Liman, 2 miles from Lebanon. She said that after the 7 October Hamas attack, “I felt like we were next.”
Israel has long feared an attack from the north, and a security official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, told the news agency:
What we saw in the south on 7 October was basically Hamas “stealing the thunder” from Hezbollah. If anything, Hezbollah is more of a border threat than Hamas was.
There were appeals for peace among the displaced. Sarit Oved, displaced from kibbutz Matsuva, said “I don’t want any more loss of life, on either side.”
Levy said “The people of Gaza that are not involved in terror are going through a very hard time. And my heart is with them. But my heart is also with the people of Israel who are also going through a hard time.”
Reuters notes that about 90,000 people have also been displaced in Lebanon, being forced to move north away from the blue line. Israeli military strikes inside Lebanon have killed about 270 Hezbollah fighters and about 50 civilians.
Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, and partially occupied parts of the country from 1985 to 2000.
Overnight the Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing the foreign ministry of Oman, reported that “a number of wounded Palestinians affected by the Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have arrived in the Sultanate to receive treatment.”
It said that Oman’s foreign ministry thanked Egypt for facilitating the transportation of the wounded.
Israel’s military has issued its daily operational briefing in which it claims to have killed “a number of terrorists” and to have “located weapons over the past day”. It also claims it has “struck terrorist infrastructures and eliminated terrorists using tank fire.”
In the update, Israel’s military says it is operating in central Gaza and in the area of Al Amal in Khan Younis.
It said that on Wednesday “numerous launches were identified crossing from the Gaza Strip into Israeli communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip”, and that Israeli forces struck at the sources of the launches.
None of the information supplied by the Israeli military has been independently verified.
There is limited access to Gaza for journalists. In February a coalition of broadcasters wrote an open letter appealing for the Israeli government to allow more access for foreign journalists, without success. Casualty counts being issued during the conflict also cannot be independently verified.
Authorities in Gaza state that over 32,000 people have been killed as a result of the continuous Israeli aerial bombardment and ground offensive inside Gaza since 7 October. Israel has previously claimed that it has killed over 9,000 fighters from Hamas and other anti-Israeli groups in the territory.
World Central Kitchen (WCK), whose aid workers were killed by Israel’s military in Gaza on Monday, have demanded that Israel retain all the relevant documents, communications, video and audio recordings of the fatal strikes on their convoy to facilitate an independent investigation.
PA Media reports that in a statement the charity said:
This was a military attack that involved multiple strikes and targeted three WCK vehicles. All three vehicles were carrying civilians; they were marked as WCK vehicles; and their movements were in full compliance with Israeli authorities, who were aware of their itinerary, route, and humanitarian mission.
An independent investigation is the only way to determine the truth of what happened, ensure transparency and accountability for those responsible, and prevent future attacks on humanitarian aid workers.
