Sputnik
Israel seems holding back on an invasion of the Gaza Strip for fear that Lebanon's Hezbollah movement will open a second front in the north.
Some 199 Israeli soldiers are being held prisoner, along with dozens of civilian hostages, in the Palestinian territory since Hamas and other militant groups launched a surprise attack from the enclave on October 7. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under political pressure following the humiliation, has vowed to invade Gaza and destroy Hamas.
Meanwhile, the likelihood of Hezbollah launching a major operation on Israel's northern border sharply increased on Wednesday and Thursday following a series of developments in the region.
The Palestinian Authority blamed the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for a deadly bombing of the al-Ahli Baptist hospital in Gaza that killed at least 500 people — an atrocity which sparked immediate protests across the Middle East, North Africa and beyond.
Earlier that day, Israel bombed the family home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, currently hundreds of miles away in Qatar, killing 14 people. And on Thursday morning the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported that a mob of Zionist settlers "under heavy protection from the Israeli police" had stormed the al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem — Islam's third-holiest site and under the custodianship of neighbouring Jordan.
War correspondent Elijah Magnier told Sputnik that the recently announced massive build-up of US forces in the region was intended to guard against the campaign Hezbollah has threatened if Israel launches a ground offensive in Gaza.
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