The phone call between Biden and Netanyahu on Iran. More rockets on Israel

United States President Biden spoke this morning with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Vice President Harris joined the call. Biden – the White House announced in a statement – has affirmed his commitment to Israel’s security. He unequivocally condemned Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel on October 1. On Lebanon, the occupant of the White House underlined the need for a diplomatic agreement to safely return both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line. The American president affirmed Israel’s right to protect its citizens from Hezbollah which has fired thousands of missiles and rockets at Israel in the last year alone, underscoring the need to minimize harm to civilians, particularly in densely populated areas of Beirut. On Gaza, leaders discussed the urgent need for renewed diplomacy to free hostages held by Hamas.

President Biden also discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the imperative to restore access to the north, including immediately reinvigorating the corridor from Jordan.
Biden and Netanyahu have agreed to remain in close contact in the coming days both directly and through their national security teams. The two leaders have not spoken directly to each other since August 21: since then, Israel’s actions against Hezbollah have intensified, including killing of leader Hassan Nasrallah, until the ground operation began in southern Lebanon at the end of September. Initiatives of which the US administration would have been kept in the dark or informed at the last minute, increasing irritation and growing distrust between the two allies, as press rumors have reported in recent days. A tension that also reverberated in the Israeli government: Gallant’s mission to Washington, which was supposed to leave on Tuesday evening, was postponed by Netanyahu until after the phone call with Biden. The decision irritated the defense chief, according to whom the prime minister had already given the green light.

On Wednesday, a hail of rockets from Lebanon hit northern Israel, killing two people in Kiryat Shmona while another was seriously injured in Haifa. Safed was also targeted, where a building was hit and a man was slightly injured, and fires broke out in the Upper Galilee area and in the Golan Heights. The sirens sounded repeatedly throughout the day: according to the IDF, around 90 rockets were fired within ten minutes in the afternoon alone. In Hadera an Arab-Israeli stabbed passers-by in four places in the city, injuring six, one of them seriously. Fighting continues in southern Lebanon: Hezbollah has reported clashes with IDF troops that have expanded their range of action from the border areas to the hinterland in the southern region of the Country of the Cedars. According to Ocha, the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, currently “a quarter of Lebanese territory is under displacement orders” decided by the Israeli army. Since the start of Hezbollah’s missile launch in solidarity with Hamas on 8 October 2023, the agency added, there have been 2,083 deaths, including militiamen and civilians, and almost 10 thousand injured, while over 600 thousand were forced to leave their homes. Dahiyeh, Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut, was also hit again. The Israeli armed forces said they had “eliminated terrorists during close combat and air strikes” in the last 24 hours. adding that “100 Hezbollah targets have been destroyed.” Since the start of ground operations in late September, more than 1,100 airstrikes have been launched in southern Lebanon and thirteen soldiers have lost their lives in the fighting, the IDF reported. .

Is Sinwar alive?

The United States believes Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is alive and possibly hiding in an underground tunnel in Gaza, with hostages nearby. This was stated by the White House delegate for the Middle East, Brett McGurk. “Yahya Sinwar remains the decision maker. He remains, we believe, alive and in a tunnel under Gaza, holding hostages, and probably with hostages in his vicinity,” McGurk says during a High Holiday call with American rabbis. This is the most detailed update on Sinwar’s status from a senior U.S. official in weeks, if not months. In recent days, Sinwar is said to have re-established contacts with Hamas officials outside Gaza after more than a month in which there had been no news from him. McGurk reiterates the US administration’s belief that the war in Gaza could end immediately if Sinwar agreed to release the remaining 101 hostages held in Gaza.

The conference on Lebanon in France

The international conference on Lebanon announced last week by President Emmanuel Macron will be held on 24 October in Paris, which has the aim of “mobilising the international community to respond to the needs of the Lebanese population and identify ways of supporting the country’s institutions, in particularly to the armed forces, guarantors of internal stability”. “Lebanon’s partner states, the UN, the European Union and international, regional and civil society organisations” will participate, the Quai d’Orsay reported. Diplomatic activity continues in the region, with British diplomatic chief David Lammy’s mission to Bahrain and Jordan warning of the “incredibly dangerous” situation in the Middle East. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchihe instead flew to Saudi Arabia where he met with Crown Prince Mohammen bin Salman to talk about developments in the region. Meanwhile, the offensive by Israeli troops in Gaza continues: in the north they have returned to operating forcefully amid fears that Hamas is reorganizing itself.

At least 400 thousand civilians are stranded due to the ongoing operation against the Jabaliya refugee camp, he reported UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini, and the Ministry of Health in the Strip reported that three hospitals – Kamal Adwan, Indonesia and al-Awda – were ordered closed by the IDF. The northern cities of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanun were also targeted by the military, the civil defense agency run by Hamas said. According to the Wafa news agency, 60 Palestinians have been killed since dawn, including 15 killed in a bombing on the tent camp for displaced people in Jabalya. For the first time, a group of 130 Israeli soldiers have urged the government to change course, warning that they will refuse to continue fighting in the Strip so as not to “sign the death sentence” of the abductees still in the hands of Hamas. “It is clear that the continuation of the war in Gaza not only delays the return of the hostages but also endangers their lives”, reads a letter sent to the authorities. The Israeli army also carried out an undercover operation in Nablus, in the north of the West Bank, killing five wanted for terrorist activities, including the commander of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in the Balata refugee camp, Issam al-Salaj .