President Joe Biden spoke Thursday afternoon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the White House saying in a readout that Biden “reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.” Vice President Kamala Harris also participated in the call. Biden also discussed efforts to support Israel’s defense and the importance of reducing tensions in the region, officials said.
Quick Read
- Biden speaks with Netanyahu to reaffirm U.S. commitment to Israel’s security
- President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
- Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security against threats from Iran, including proxy groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
- The discussion also covered support for Israel’s defense and reducing regional tensions.
- Efforts to salvage talks amid escalations
- U.S., Egyptian, and Qatari mediators are scrambling to salvage talks after the killings of Hamas’ top political leader in Iran and a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon.
- These killings have increased fears of an escalation into a wider war, with the region waiting to see how Iran and Hezbollah will respond.
- Israeli airstrike kills four in Lebanese village
- Lebanon’s Health Ministry reports an Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Chamaa killed four Syrian citizens and wounded five Lebanese citizens.
- Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his fighters halted attacks along the border following the strike that killed a top military commander in Beirut.
- Hezbollah later fired rockets at northern Israel in retaliation for the airstrike.
- Israel said the strike that killed the commander was in retaliation for a rocket attack that killed 12 in Majdal Shams, Syria.
- Yemen’s Houthi rebels preparing to respond to Israel
- Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, leader of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, said efforts are underway to militarily respond to Israel following the killings of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
- Al-Houthi emphasized the need for a military response to the significant escalation by Israel.
- Hezbollah leader says conflict with Israel has entered a ‘new phase’
- Hassan Nasrallah warned that the conflict with Israel has entered a “new phase” following the killings of top militant figures.
- Nasrallah kept his comments vague, vowing a “very well-studied retaliation” without specifying the form it would take.
- International officials working to prevent a wider war
- Efforts are underway to prevent a cycle of retaliation from escalating into a greater war.
- Since October, Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire almost daily, causing deaths and evacuations but have stayed within limits.
- Iranian supreme leader prays over Hamas leader’s body
- Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prayed over the body of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in a presumed Israeli assassination.
- Haniyeh’s remains are to be transferred to Qatar for burial.
- U.S. Secretary of State appeals for restraint in the Middle East
- Antony Blinken, speaking in Mongolia, urged all parties in the Middle East to avoid actions that could escalate conflict.
- Blinken emphasized the need for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza to break the cycle of violence.
- Hezbollah plans to resume attacks
- Hezbollah announced plans to resume attacks on Friday, ending the period of mourning for their commander but not as part of the retaliation for his killing.
- Israeli strikes and Hezbollah’s response
- Israel confirmed a strike that killed Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur and an Iranian military adviser in Beirut.
- Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire, with Hezbollah denying responsibility for a strike that killed 12 children in Majdal Shams.
- Nasrallah reiterated that Hezbollah’s strikes target military installations and only fire on civilian areas when civilians are harmed in Lebanon.
The Associated Press has the story:
Biden speaks with Netanyahu to reaffirm U.S. commitment to Israel’s security
Newslooks- WASHINGTON — (AP)
President Joe Biden spoke Thursday afternoon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the White House saying in a readout that Biden “reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.” Vice President Kamala Harris also participated in the call. Biden also discussed efforts to support Israel’s defense and the importance of reducing tensions in the region, officials said.
The conversation comes as U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators are scrambling to salvage talks in the wake of back-to-back killings of Hamas’ top political leader in Iran and a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon. Those killings have increased fears of an escalation into a wider war, leaving the region waiting to see how Iran and ally Hezbollah will respond.
Four killed in Israeli strike on Lebanese village, officials say
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Health Ministry says an Israeli airstrike on a southern village has killed four people and wounded five. The ministry said the four killed in Thursday’s airstrike on the village of Chamaa were Syrian citizens. It said five Lebanese citizens were wounded in the same airstrike.The leader of the militant Hezbollah group said in a speech Thursday that his fighters had stopped carrying out attacks along the border following an Israeli airstrike on Beirut on Tuesday that killed a top military commander with the group.
Hezbollah later said that it fired dozens of Katyusha rockets toward the Matzuva kibbutz in northern Israel in retaliation for the airstrike. Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah will resume attacks on Friday but this will not be part of the retaliation that the group plans to carry for the death of commander Fouad Shukur.
Israel said the strike that killed Shukur was in retaliation for a rocket attack on Saturday that killed 12 young people in the town of Majdal Shams in Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Nasrallah on Thursday repeated the group’s denials that it fired the rocket that struck Majdal Shams.
In the thousands of rockets it has fired since October, Hezbollah has insisted it targets military and intelligence installations. Hezbollah says it only fires on civilian areas when civilians are killed or wounded in Lebanon. Before Saturdays bloodshed in Majdal Shams, its strikes had killed 13 civilians and 22 soldiers in Israel. In Lebanon. Israel’s attacks have killed more than 500 people, including 90 civilians.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels preparing to respond to ‘significant escalation’ by Israel
JERUSALEM — The leader of Yemen’s Houthi rebels said Thursday that efforts were underway to militarily respond to Israel following the killings of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders that have raised the prospect of war in the region.
The leader of the militant group, Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, said in a televised speech that “there must be a military response to the serious crimes and the significant escalation by the Israeli enemy.” “Efforts are underway to respond,” he added. The speech came after Israel killed top Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut and the assassination in Iran of Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, earlier this week. The region is bracing for a potential conflagration following the two killings.
Hezbollah leader says war with Israel has entered ‘new phase’ after killings of top militant figures
BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah’s leader warned Thursday that the conflict with Israel has entered a “new phase,” as he addressed mourners at the funeral of a commander from the group who was killed by an Israeli airstrike this week in Beirut. Meanwhile in Tehran, Iran’s supreme leader prayed over the body of Hamas’ political leader, who was killed in a presumed Israeli assassination. The back-to-back killings have increased fears of an escalation into a wider war, leaving the region waiting to see how Iran and ally Hezbollah will respond. Iran has vowed retaliation against Israel for the strike that killed Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday in the Iranian capital of Tehran. Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh’s assassination, but comments by Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stopped short of an outright denial. “There was no additional airstrike, not a missile and not an Israeli drone, in the entire Middle East that night,” he said Thursday, fueling speculation that Israel could have used other means to kill Haniyeh.
Israel did confirm it carried out the strike Tuesday in Beirut that killed Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur, along with an Iranian military adviser and at least five civilians. Israel said Shukur was behind a rocket attack days earlier that hit a soccer field in the Israeli-held Golan Heights, killing 12 children. Hezbollah denied being behind that strike, a denial that Nasrallah reiterated. In a speech via video link to mourners gathered with Shukur’s coffin at an auditorium in a Beirut suburb, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said, “We … have entered a new phase that is different from the previous period.” “Do they expect that Hajj Ismail Haniyeh will be killed in Iran and Iran will remain silent?” he said of the Israelis. Addressing Israelis who celebrated the two killings, he said, “Laugh a bit and you will cry a lot.”
But as he often does, Nasrallah kept his comments vague, vowing a “very well-studied retaliation” without saying what form it would take. He said only that Israel “will have to wait for the anger of the region’s honorable people.” “The enemy and the one who is behind the enemy” — an apparent reference to Israel’s chief ally, the United States — “will have to wait for our coming response,” he said.
International officials have been scrambling to avert a cycle of retaliation before it spirals into a greater war. Since the Gaza war began in October, Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire almost daily across the border in exchanges that have caused deaths and the evacuation of tens of thousands from their homes. But they have also stayed within limits. Several times, strikes that appeared to cross red lines raised fears of an acceleration into full-fledged war, but outside diplomacy reined in the two sides. Hezbollah faces strong pressure not to draw Lebanon into a repeat of the militant group’s 2006 war with Israel, which wreaked heavy death and destruction in the country.
Israel and Iran risked plunging into war earlier this year when Israel hit Iran’s embassy in Damascus in April. Iran retaliated, and Israel countered in an unprecedented exchange of strikes on each other’s soil, but international efforts succeeded in containing that cycle before it spun out of control.
In Beirut’s southern suburbs, the biggest Shiite district in the capital, hundreds of black-clad mourners packed the auditorium, many of them holding Hezbollah flags or photos of Shukur. An escort of red-capped fighters carried Shukur’s coffin, also draped in a Hezbollah flag, down the aisle to the backing of a military band. In his speech, Nasrallah praised Shukur as a veteran commander and denied that Hezbollah carried out the deadly strike on the soccer field in the mainly Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan. “We have the courage to take responsibility for where we strike, even if it’s a mistake. If we made a mistake, we would admit and apologize,” he said, adding, “The enemy made itself the judge, jury, and executioner without any evidence.”
An unusual relative calm prevailed Thursday on the Lebanon-Israel border. Hezbollah claimed no rocket launches into Israel during the day. The Lebanese state news agency said a strike hit the house of a Syrian family in a southern Lebanese town, killing at least four people and wounding several others. Afterward, Hezbollah announced it had launched a barrage of rockets into Israel in retaliation. Nasrallah said Hezbollah’s fighters would return to regular military operations Friday, ending the period of mourning for Shukur, but that the renewed strikes would be unrelated to the retaliation for his killing.
Earlier Thursday in Tehran, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prayed over Haniyeh’s coffin in a ceremony at Tehran University, with the new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, next to him. State television later showed the coffin placed in a truck and moved on the street toward Azadi Square in Tehran and people throwing flowers at it. Haniyeh’s remains are to be transferred to Qatar for burial Friday. Haniyeh came to Tehran to attend the inauguration of Pezeshkian. Associated Press photos showed the Hamas leader seated alongside leaders from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group and Hezbollah, and Iranian media showed him and Pezeshkian hugging. Haniyeh had met earlier with Khamenei. Hours later, he was killed in a strike that hit a residence Haniyeh uses in Tehran. Iranian authorities said the attack is under investigation but haven’t provided details.
Israel had pledged to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. On Thursday, Israel said it had confirmed that the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in a July 13 airstrike in Gaza. Hamas, which earlier said Deif survived the blast, did not immediately comment.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “all parties” in the Middle East must avoid escalatory actions that could plunge the region into further conflict. Speaking Thursday in the Mongolian capital of Ulaaanbataar, Blinken appealed for countries to “make the right choices in the days ahead” and said a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza was the only way to begin to break the current cycle of violence and suffering. Blinken did not mention Israel, Iran or Hamas by name in his comments.
