Israel steps up Gaza attacks

Israel is reportedly delaying its ground invasion of Gaza because of an increasingly complicated situation along its northern border with Lebanon, where clashes with Hezbollah continue to intensify.

Israel’s Channel 14, which is believed to be close to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, on Sunday cited unnamed officials as saying that the escalation of violence along the Lebanese frontier meant “we shouldn’t enter Gaza now”.

Netanyahu himself warned Hezbollah against “making the mistake of its life” by entering the war, during a visit to troops stationed near the border on Sunday, amid fears that the Iran-backed group may try to open up a second front.

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“We will cripple it with a force it cannot imagine and the consequences for it and the Lebanese state are devastating,” he said.

Clashes between the Israeli military and Hezbollah have steadily escalated in the past week, forcing Israel to order an unprecedented evacuation from dozens of communities in the border region, which is home to some 200,000 people.

On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said that it had hit four Hezbollah cells operating on the border with Lebanon overnight.

Hezbollah, which is a designated terrorist group armed with tens of thousands of rockets, said on Monday that one of its fighters had been killed, without providing further details.

The Telegraph