Politics Israel and Hezbollah emphasize readiness to fight - Night at a glance

In the conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, both sides are stepping up their threatening gestures. On Wednesday evening, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah emphasized his Shia militia's readiness to fight. "If they (the Israelis) impose a war on Lebanon, the resistance will fight back without restrictions, rules or borders," said the secretary general of the Shiite organization in a public speech. "Israel must reckon with us on land, in the water and in the air," he said. At the same time, Nasrallah emphasized that Lebanon was not seeking a large-scale war with Israel.

Following the publication of alleged aerial photographs of northern Israel by Hezbollah, Israel's Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi played down concerns about the capabilities of its own military. "Of course we have infinitely greater capabilities, of which I believe the enemy knows only a few," he said according to a statement on Wednesday evening. The army is adapting to Hezbollah's capabilities.

Renewed mutual attacks in the border area

According to Israel's military, it had previously approved "operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon", fueling fears of an escalation. Since the beginning of the war between Israel and the Islamist organization Hamas, which is allied with the pro-Iranian Hezbollah in the Gaza Strip, there have been daily military confrontations between Israel's army and Hezbollah in the border area between Israel and Lebanon. The situation has recently come to a head. According to Lebanese reports, at least three members of Hezbollah were killed in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.

Israel's military confirmed the attack. Hezbollah in turn claimed responsibility for an attack on Israeli soldiers in Metulla in northern Israel. The Israeli military confirmed that a drone from Lebanon had crashed in the area around Metulla. There were no casualties. Although Israel and the pro-Iranian Shiite militia have so far been reluctant to escalate their hostilities into a larger conflict, both sides have increasingly signaled their intention to expand their fight, wrote the Wall Street Journal.

The approval of plans for an offensive by Israel's army was "part of an effort to send a message to Hezbollah to curb its activities and show its willingness to move toward some kind of solution," the newspaper quoted Jossi Kuperwasser, former head of the research department of Israeli military intelligence. Israel wants to use military and diplomatic pressure to ensure that Hezbollah withdraws behind the Litani River, 30 kilometers from the border - as stipulated by a UN resolution from 2006. The pro-Iranian Shiite militia is considered to be much more powerful than Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Army spokesman: cannot eliminate Hamas

According to experts, Israel is still a long way from defeating Hamas there. In an interview, an Israeli army spokesman emphatically called for a political vision for the future of the Gaza Strip. "Hamas is an idea, it is a party. It is rooted in the hearts of the people. Anyone who thinks we can eliminate Hamas is mistaken," army spokesman Daniel Hagari told the Israeli broadcaster Channel 13 on Wednesday evening. An alternative for Hamas must be found on a political level to replace it in the Gaza Strip, Hagari continued in the interview. Otherwise the Islamist terrorist organization would continue to exist, he warned. Talking about the destruction of Hamas was misleading the public, he said.

His statements cast doubt on the declared war aim of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government: to end Hamas' rule in the Gaza Strip and destroy its military capabilities. The army is "naturally committed to this", according to a statement from the Prime Minister's Office following Hagari's comments. Netanyahu had repeatedly spoken of "total victory" over Hamas. The army spokesman's words reflected the military leadership's growing frustration with the Netanyahu government's failure to develop a post-war alternative to Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, wrote the New York Times. A month ago, Israeli Defence Minister Joav Galant had already sharply criticized his country's indecision on the question of who should rule Gaza after the war.

No plan for a post-war order in the Gaza Strip

A political alternative to Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip must be created, Galant had demanded. Without such an alternative, only two negative options remained, namely a continuation of Hamas rule or Israeli military rule. Former General Benny Gantz recently left the war cabinet because the government is not developing a plan for a post-war order in the Gaza Strip. To date, Netanyahu has not presented such a plan - probably also so as not to offend his ultra-right coalition partners, on whom his political survival depends. They are calling for the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu rejects this. As Israel's most important ally, the USA wants the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, to take back control of the Gaza Strip - and thus also promote a two-state solution as a comprehensive approach to pacifying the Middle East. However, Netanyahu has so far rejected this as well. Critics accuse him of allowing the sealed-off coastal area to sink into chaos in the absence of a clear plan for the stabilization and administration of the Gaza Strip. Israel's army is in danger of being drawn into an endless guerrilla war by Hamas.

Due to the lack of a political strategy, the army has to fight again and again in places that it had previously taken, complained Israel's Chief of Staff Halevi recently and warned of a "Sisyphean task", according to media reports. In the Channel 13 interview, his military spokesman Hagari also warned that it would not be possible to free all the hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip through army operations. According to recent statements by its spokesman Osama Hamdan, Hamas does not know how many of the 120 or so hostages believed to be in Gaza are still alive. It is feared that the majority of them are dead.

The Wall Street Journal reported early on Thursday, citing mediators in the indirect hostage negotiations and a US official familiar with US intelligence information, that the number of hostages still alive could be as low as 50. This estimate was based in part on Israeli intelligence information. Efforts have been underway for months to persuade Israel to agree to a ceasefire and Hamas to release the Israeli hostages through indirect negotiations - so far without success.