Palestinians fear the crisis in Lebanon is diverting the world’s attention from Gaza, where Israeli attacks this week have killed dozens, and diminishing already bleak prospects for a year-long ceasefire that has ravaged the region. Has destroyed.
An escalation in conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah over the past two weeks has led to clashes between Israeli and Hezbollah forces inside Lebanon and raised fears of a wider regional war.
Both Israel and its enemies in Gaza, Hamas, say the Lebanon conflict could help end the Gaza conflict, but some analysts, officials from mediator countries and Gazans are skeptical.
“The focus is on Lebanon, which means the war in Gaza will not end soon,” said Hussam Ali, a 45-year-old resident of Gaza City. He said his family has been displaced seven times since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began. on October 7 last year, told Reuters via a chat app.
When Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel late Tuesday, provoking Israel’s promise of a “painful” response, some Gazans welcomed the visible shelling in the sky above as a sign that Tehran was aiming for them. Was fighting.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, said the prospects for a Gaza ceasefire agreement, which would lead to the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and Palestinians jailed by Israel, were remote before tensions in Lebanon escalated. He said, regional conflict could put pressure on Israel to reach a settlement in Gaza.
But focusing on Lebanon risks prolonging the war in Gaza, said Ashraf Abouelhoul, managing editor of Egypt’s state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram, which has helped mediate months of ceasefire talks.
“The most dangerous thing is not that the media attention is going elsewhere, but the fact that no one in the world is talking about any agreement or ceasefire anymore, and this is leading to Israel’s military aggression and plans. Gaza is free to continue,” he said.
stalled conversation
There is no sign of a reduction in Israel’s attacks against Hamas inside Gaza. On Thursday, local doctors reported at least 99 Palestinian deaths in the past 24 hours.
Egypt, which is concerned about Israeli attacks on the other side of its border with Gaza and has lost billions of dollars in Suez Canal revenue during the war, is disappointed that its mediation efforts failed to secure a ceasefire. Are.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that the US was focused on ensuring a ceasefire, although Hamas had “refused to engage” for several weeks.
Hamas officials and Western diplomats said in August that talks had stalled due to new Israeli demands to keep troops in Gaza.
Nomi Bar-Yaakov, an expert on Middle East diplomacy, said, “While Israel has been saying since October 7 that military force and pressure on Hamas and Hezbollah would help bring hostages home, we have seen that exactly the opposite is true.” At London-based think-tank Chatham House.
“Israel’s stepped-up campaign against Hezbollah is putting the ceasefire in Gaza on the back burner,” he said, noting that the focus is now on trying to destroy as much of Hezbollah’s military arsenal as possible.
An official briefed on Gaza ceasefire talks told Reuters that nothing would happen until after the US presidential election on November 5, “because no one can effectively pressure (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu , which is the major obstacle to the Gaza ceasefire agreement”.
The official said that during last week’s UN General Assembly meetings, Hezbollah wanted to link a 21-day ceasefire proposal with Israel to the Gaza ceasefire agreement, but Israel rejected this and the plan was scrapped. Top Israeli officials publicly rejected the idea of an early ceasefire with Hezbollah.
Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week has complicated the prospects for mediation, two Egyptian security sources said. Sources said Egypt’s efforts have been limited to preventing any further tensions.
rockets
At the start of the Gaza war Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in support of Hamas, leading to the evacuation of thousands of residents who Israel says need to return home.
Nearly 1,900 people have been killed and more than 9,000 wounded in Lebanon’s nearly year-long cross-border fighting, according to Lebanese government figures, with most of the deaths occurring in the past two weeks.
More than one million Lebanese have been forced to flee their homes.
The number of casualties is still much lower than in Gaza, where the health ministry says at least 41,788 Palestinians have been killed and 96,794 wounded since October 7 last year.
The Gaza war began when Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli data.
“We feel for the Lebanese people and we don’t want them to go through the same devastation and starvation that we are enduring,” said Ghada, a 50-year-old mother of five who lives in a tent in the central Gaza city of Der. Al-Balah, where one million people are taking shelter.
“I’m afraid the world has lost interest in what happens to us here.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
