War in the Middle East: night of intense bombings in Beirut, conference on Lebanon in Paris

French President Emmanuel Macron opens a conference on Lebanon on Thursday with the hope of mobilizing the international community to raise at least $400 million demanded by the United Nations to help people displaced by the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The conference will be divided into three parts: diplomatic, humanitarian and political.

In the presence of Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, the Lebanese, German, Canadian and European Union foreign ministers, this conference will bring together more than 70 participants including around fifteen international organizations.

At the same time, the Israeli offensive continues in the Land of Cedar, where the night was marked by intense bombings in the south of Beirut. Heavy strikes also took place on Tyre, a large coastal city in the south of the country. On Wednesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed that Hezbollah was preparing an attack against Israel in Lebanon “even bigger than that of October 7” 2023 perpetrated by Hamas from Gaza. On the Washington side, the head of the Pentagon was concerned about Israeli fire against the Lebanese army.

The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken, on a diplomatic tour in the region, said on Wednesday that “the time” had come to end the war in Gaza, where Israeli operations have continued for more than a year. The World Health Organization has postponed a polio vaccination campaign which was to begin in the north of the territory, where the Israeli army has been leading a new offensive against Hamas since October 6, because of “intensive bombings and orders massive displacement” of the population.