French Newspaper: Hezbollah and Iran avoid expanding the war to avoid losses
An American expert points to the escalation of popular opposition in the United States to Israeli policies, including youth and Jewish circles
The French newspaper ‘Le Monde’ highlighted the confrontation on the Lebanese-Israeli border between Hezbollah and Israel, noting that the Lebanese group and its ally Iran are avoiding expanding the conflict and directly engaging in the ongoing war in Gaza to avoid significant losses.
The newspaper quoted Lebanese expert Qassem Qaisi as saying that “Lebanon is at a crucial and dangerous stage,” warning that his country could slide into war if a settlement is not reached to limit Israeli escalation.
In turn, British expert Nicholas Blanford revealed that the Iran-backed party “has rooted itself in Lebanon for thirty years, obstructing the authority to protect resistance and its interests, and continues to do so to ensure the presence of a president who does not threaten the Shia militia and its weapons.”
Hezbollah has maintained confrontation with Israel in recent times, while its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has threatened escalation if Israel wages war on Lebanon. Observers believe that the Lebanese group’s response to the assassination of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri and the killing of two of its top military leaders days later did not rise to the level of the threat posed by Nasrallah.
The border clashes between the two sides until Wednesday resulted in the killing of 30 Lebanese civilians and 162 Hezbollah members, a toll considered high for the group that has showcased its arsenal of weapons and missiles, boasting its ability to strike deep into Israeli territory.
On the ground, the official Lebanese news agency reported today, Friday, that Israeli planes launched a large number of ground-to-air missiles causing extensive environmental damage in the targeted area of the forests, where large areas of trees were destroyed.
In another matter, Adrian Gomel in the French newspaper ‘Le Figaro’ considered that “the huge military and diplomatic support provided by US President Joe Biden to Israel in its war against Hamas increasingly puts him in a sensitive position, both internationally and locally.”
He explained that “the isolation of the United States is deepening noticeably,” considering that “the US administration has failed to convince Tel Aviv to change its ground forces strategy to reduce the number of civilian casualties, and has failed to enact measures for the benefit of Palestinian refugees.”
For his part, Joel Beinin, an American expert in Middle East history, affirmed that this “is not the first time that disputes have erupted between Israel and the United States,” adding that “what is striking this time is the American popular opposition to Israeli policies expanding to include youth and Jewish circles.”
As for the French newspaper “Le Point,” it highlighted the dilemma facing the Israeli army in the absence of an agreement on the administration of the Gaza Strip after the war.
David Khalfa, from the North Africa and Middle East Observatory affiliated with the ‘John Gores’ Foundation, stated in a report for ‘Le Figaro’ that “elements of Hamas are repositioning themselves north of the Gaza Strip after Israel launched the third stage of the war, and in the absence of a strategy to exit this crisis,” adding that “the Islamic Palestinian resistance movement will use tactics of asymmetric gang warfare, including informational warfare, aimed at imposing a ceasefire and thus defeating Israel’s current strategy.”
He continued, “Internal divisions in the Israeli war government and political interference from right-wing populists in the Likud and religious nationalists threaten to divert the military campaign from its course and prevent it from achieving its goals.”
