{"id":78700,"date":"2024-06-22T09:32:18","date_gmt":"2024-06-22T09:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/22\/deadly-strike-hits-area-of-gaza-where-displaced-people-were-sheltering\/"},"modified":"2024-06-22T09:32:18","modified_gmt":"2024-06-22T09:32:18","slug":"deadly-strike-hits-area-of-gaza-where-displaced-people-were-sheltering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/22\/deadly-strike-hits-area-of-gaza-where-displaced-people-were-sheltering\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadly Strike Hits Area of Gaza Where Displaced People Were Sheltering"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Secretary General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, the chief of the United Nations, said on Friday that \u201cthe people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.\u201d<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Yuki Iwamura\/Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

After months of escalating violence along Israel\u2019s northern border with Lebanon, the chief of the United Nations warned on Friday that \u201cthe risk for the conflict in the Middle East to widen is real \u2014 and must be avoided.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters in New York, the chief, Secretary General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, said that \u201cone rash move\u201d by Israel or Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese group targeting Israel in allegiance with Hamas fighters in Gaza, could trigger a \u201ccatastrophe that goes far beyond the border and, frankly, beyond imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

World leaders have tried for months to calm tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, trying to prevent a full-fledged war. But instead of quelling the conflict, strikes and counterstrikes across the border have become more intense \u2014 and the rhetoric of leaders on both sides has only become more bellicose in recent days, prompting Mr. Guterres to express what he called \u201cprofound concern\u201d that all-out war would erupt.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMany lives have already been lost, tens of thousands of people have been displaced and homes and livelihoods have been destroyed,\u201d Mr. Guterres said. He added that \u201cthe people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Smoke rising from the southern Lebanese village of Khiam after an Israeli airstrike on Friday.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Rabih Daher\/Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Several rocket launches were identified crossing from Lebanon into northern Israel on Friday, the Israeli army said.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Atef Safadi\/EPA, via Shutterstock<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ever since Hezbollah began trading fire with Israeli forces in the wake of the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7, over 100 civilians in Israel and Lebanon have been killed, and more than 150,000 have been displaced from their homes. The exchanges have also sparked wildfires on both sides of the border.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military said in statements on Friday that it had \u201csuccessfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanese territory\u201d and that \u201ca number of launches were identified crossing from Lebanon into several areas in northern Israel.\u201d The military said that it responded with artillery fire in southern Lebanon on Friday and aircraft strikes on \u201cterror targets\u201d in four areas, including Hezbollah military structures, and that \u201cthroughout the night\u201d Israeli fighter jets had \u201cstruck Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel Katz, the Israeli foreign minister, said in a post on social media<\/a> on Friday that \u201cIsrael cannot allow the Hezbollah terror organization to continue attacking its territory and citizens, and soon we will make the necessary decisions.\u201d He added that \u201cthe free world must unconditionally stand with Israel\u201d against Iran and the militant groups that it backs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur war is also your war,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Katz\u2019s comments were an apparent response to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese militia, who said on Wednesday that there would be \u201cno place safe from our missiles and our drones\u201d in Israel if a full-fledged war broke out.<\/p>\n

Mr. Nasrallah also threatened to draw Cyprus into the conflict if it allowed Israel to use its airports and bases in a wider regional war. Cyprus and Israel have a bilateral defense agreement, and the countries have conducted joint exercises in the past. But President Nikos Christodoulides of Cyprus said that his country was \u201cabsolutely not involved in any way,\u201d in remarks posted on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr. Nasrallah\u2019s threat confirmed the fears of world leaders trying to contain the conflict, highlighting how quickly the fighting could further escalate and extend. President Biden, hoping to defuse the simmering conflict, dispatched one of his senior aides, Amos Hochstein, to Israel on Monday and to Lebanon on Tuesday to press for a diplomatic solution.<\/p>\n

Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n