{"id":36050,"date":"2024-04-26T10:58:37","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T10:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/26\/middle-east-crisis-army-begins-work-on-floating-pier-meant-to-get-more-aid-to-gaza-u-s-says\/"},"modified":"2024-04-26T10:58:37","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T10:58:37","slug":"middle-east-crisis-army-begins-work-on-floating-pier-meant-to-get-more-aid-to-gaza-u-s-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/26\/middle-east-crisis-army-begins-work-on-floating-pier-meant-to-get-more-aid-to-gaza-u-s-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle East Crisis: Army Begins Work on Floating Pier Meant to Get More Aid to Gaza, U.S. Says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Israel\u2019s defense minister has said that the country\u2019s military has eliminated half of Hezbollah\u2019s commanders in southern Lebanon. But analysts doubt whether Israel\u2019s increasing use of targeted killings would weaken the militant group.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon and is Iran\u2019s most powerful regional proxy, has had intense cross-border clashes with Israeli forces ever since the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on Oct. 7. With little sign of the conflict abating and with diplomatic talks yet to result in a cease-fire<\/a>, Israel has in recent months begun killing Hezbollah fighters in targeted strikes<\/a>, reflecting an apparent shift in military strategy.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHalf of the Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated,\u201d Israel\u2019s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said during a visit on Wednesday to Israeli troops along the northern border with Lebanon. \u201cThe other half are in hiding,\u201d he added, without providing a specific number or evidence of his claim.<\/p>\n

A Hezbollah official and a senior Lebanese intelligence official, both of whom spoke anonymously to discuss the sensitive subject, denied Mr. Gallant\u2019s numbers on Thursday. <\/p>\n

Some experts expressed skepticism about whether Israel\u2019s targeted killings could achieve its goal of pushing Hezbollah north of the Litani River in Lebanon, thereby preventing cross-border attacks and allowing the tens of thousands Israeli civilians displaced by the fighting<\/a> to return.<\/p>\n

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The funeral of Hezbollah members in Nabatieh, Lebanon, in October.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Zohra Bensemra\/Reuters<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt is psychological warfare,\u201d said Kassem Kassir, a Lebanese political analyst and expert on Hezbollah who is close to the group. He added that Mr. Gallant\u2019s statement was a means \u201cto convince the Israeli audience that the army is achieving its goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reality, Mr. Kassir said, out of 100,000 Hezbollah fighters, no more than 20 of the roughly 270 members that the group has acknowledged have been killed were commanders.<\/p>\n

Mr. Gallant\u2019s comments, analysts said, reflected a growing unanimity among Israeli officials that Hezbollah poses the clearest threat on its borders. On Sunday, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel\u2019s emergency war cabinet, declared that Israel\u2019s border with Lebanon constituted its \u201cgreatest and most urgent challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Publicly, the Israeli military has named nine Hezbollah fighters whom it has eliminated and described as \u201ccommanders\u201d on the Telegram messaging app since Oct. 7. Some were described as senior figures in Hezbollah\u2019s elite Radwan unit<\/a>, and others were said to have been involved in the group\u2019s drone operations. The claims could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need this veneer of success, and so are highly publicizing these assassinations,\u201d said Amal Saad, a lecturer in politics and international relations at Cardiff University in Wales who researches Hezbollah. \u201cIt is compensation for lack of any military achievement,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

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The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab, in southern Lebanon, in November.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Hussein Malla\/Associated Press<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Hezbollah seldom releases details about the ranks of its slain fighters, often denying the Israeli military\u2019s claims about their roles. Analysts say, however, that the group\u2019s responses to targeted strikes are often indicative of the significance of the fighters killed.<\/p>\n

Rym Momtaz, a Paris-based research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who specializes in the Middle East, said: \u201cIsrael has killed a few of their commanders in their south. That is not something they have denied, and of course this is an issue, but Gallant is overstating and exaggerating here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another analyst noted that wartime estimates of battlefield tolls could be suspect. \u201cAll parties probably have a vested interest in showing that they\u2019re doing great and minimizing their losses,\u201d said Matthew Levitt, director of the counterterrorism program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a research organization.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah has lost a significant number of fighters and commanders during the war with Israel, Mr. Levitt said. But \u201cthe reality is that Hezbollah has a deep bench,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Elias Hanna, a military analyst and former brigadier general in the Lebanese Army, said that regardless of how many of Hezbollah\u2019s commanders have been killed, Israel\u2019s pivot to targeted assassinations \u201cwould not affect\u201d Hezbollah\u2019s \u201cmodus operandi.\u201d He added, \u201cIt\u2019s a war of attrition and positional warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n

After airstrikes killed what Israel described as two Hezbollah commanders, the militant group claimed responsibility for a drone and missile attack in northern Israel last week<\/a> that killed one soldier and wounded 16 other soldiers and two civilians. It was one of Hezbollah\u2019s most damaging attacks in Israel in recent months.<\/p>\n

Johnatan Reiss and Anushka Patil contributed reporting.<\/p>\n

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\u2014 <\/span>Euan Ward<\/a><\/span> and Hwaida Saad<\/a><\/span> Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Israel\u2019s defense minister has said that the country\u2019s military has eliminated half of Hezbollah\u2019s commanders in southern Lebanon. But analysts doubt whether Israel\u2019s increasing use of targeted killings would weaken the militant group. Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon and is Iran\u2019s most powerful regional proxy, has had intense cross-border clashes with Israeli forces ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/26\/multimedia\/26mideast-crisis-promo-2amET-jfhb\/26mideast-crisis-promo-2amET-jfhb-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[41,5779,4509,734,863,4615,43,11796,862,38801,221,1396],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36052,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36050\/revisions\/36052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}