Fires in northern Israel fuel demands to tackle escalation with Hezbollah
Hezbollah rockets have ignited days of bushfires in northern Israel, devastating large areas of forest reserve and resulting in 11 hospitalizations due to smoke inhalation.
Half an hour from the Lebanon border, patches of scorched earth are visible, with grey smoke rising from the hills on either side.
Residents in Israel’s sparsely populated northern communities have been battling intermittent fires for several weeks. A civil defense team member reported that there have been 15-16 fires in the area recently, with the high temperatures of the past few days causing a sharp increase.
On Monday, firefighters worked for 20 hours to extinguish fires around the town of Kiryat Shmona.
Forest administrators report that the fires have so far consumed 3,500 acres of land, prompting renewed demands for the Israeli government to address the escalating conflict with Hezbollah on its northern front.
Israel’s war cabinet was scheduled to meet on Tuesday evening to discuss the deteriorating security situation along the northern border. Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging cross-border fire almost daily since last October, with the intensity of attacks increasing in recent weeks.
Residents of one kibbutz said the Hezbollah rocket attacks were “definitely” linked to Israel’s actions in Gaza, noting that since the Israeli military’s ground operation in Rafah began, three or four rockets have been flying over their houses daily.
Tens of thousands of residents, evacuated from the area after the Hamas attacks on Israel, are still waiting to return to their homes, but government deadlines to secure these areas keep being extended.
Many displaced residents believe a ceasefire in Gaza is crucial to calming the northern situation.
However, Israel’s far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visiting firefighters in Kiryat Shmona, said the government’s response to Hezbollah’s rockets should be war.
“There will be no peace in Lebanon while our land is being targeted,” he said.
Herzl Halevi, Israel’s army chief of staff, also visiting the region, indicated that the country was “approaching the point where a decision will have to be made.”
The Israel Defence Force, he said, was “prepared and ready to move to an offensive.”
Hezbollah’s deputy chief, Sheikh Naim Qassem, told Al-Jazeera that the group was not seeking to widen the conflict with Israel but that any Israeli expansion of the war would be met “with devastation”.
The government has been keen to contain this conflict on its northern border, aware that Hezbollah is a better-trained and better-equipped enemy than Hamas – and that fighting here would be a very different kind of war.
But the fires have put this grinding forgotten conflict squarely on the front pages of national newspapers, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under fresh pressure to act.
He and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza are already at the centre of delicate negotiations over a potential ceasefire and hostage exchange deal in Gaza, which US President Joe Biden is pushing both sides to accept.
