.- The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted to make it clear this Wednesday that no one is going to dictate to him how to respond to Iran’s attack, just after the meeting he held in his Jerusalem office with the British Foreign Minister, David Cameron, and her German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock.
“I thank our friends for their support in the defense of Israel and for all their advice. But I want to be clear: we will make our decisions ourselves,” the president said at the beginning of a meeting with members of his Government.
In this way, Netanyahu sought to send a strong message to his main partners, who already take it for granted that the country will act against Tehran, and now fear that the counterattack will accentuate the delicate situation that the region is already experiencing.
“Their bloody footprints are everywhere, but we will not allow them to advance,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, this Wednesday during a visit to the illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank where last Saturday the Army found the lifeless body of the Jewish boy Binyamin Achimair.
The search for the minor has triggered clashes between armed settlers, protected by Israeli soldiers, which yesterday left a 25-year-old Palestinian dead from a gunshot wound and at least 25 injured in the village of Al Mughayir, northeast of Ramallah and very close to the settlement. .
“Even here in the West Bank, Iran attempts to incite terrorism, transferring weapons and funds and directing attacks to harm the citizens of Israel,” Gallant added.
Concern grows among Israel’s partners
The objective of the visit this Wednesday by Cameron and Baerbock was to convey their support to Israel, but also to ask it to be prudent in the response it plans against Tehran.
Cameron said this before landing in Tel Aviv in statements to the BBC: “Israel is an independent sovereign country and can make these decisions (in reference to a military response). We hope that, in doing so, they do it in a way that is intelligent.” and also tough, but also do as little as possible to escalate this conflict,” he said.
The head of British diplomacy had also highlighted this Monday that Israel should consider the success of the defense against Iran’s more than 300 drones and missiles as a victory.
The same message was sent to him by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a telephone conversation on Tuesday night, in which he stressed that “a major escalation is not in anyone’s interest and would only deepen insecurity in the Middle East.”
Tension rises in northern Israel
And while Israel studies how to respond to Tehran, the exchange of fire with the Shiite militia Hezbollah in the north of the country has continued unabated for more than six months.
This Wednesday at least 18 people were injured, 14 of them Israeli soldiers, in an attack claimed by the Lebanese group against a community center, located in an Israeli village bordering Lebanon, the Israeli Army reported this Wednesday in a statement.
“In the last few hours, several launches of anti-tank missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles were identified and, as a result of the attack, six soldiers were seriously injured, two moderately injured and another six slightly injured,” the military note details.
The Lebanese group, for its part, assured that its bombings were against a military reconnaissance center.
According to the note, the action was a response to two Israeli bombings that on Tuesday killed three members of the group in southern Lebanon, among whom the Israeli Army counted a brigade commander and another official from a regional missile brigade.
The border between Israel and Lebanon is experiencing its highest peak of tension since 2006, with an intense exchange of fire for six months that has claimed the lives of at least 382 people, most on the Lebanese side and in the ranks of Hezbollah, which has confirmed 257 militia casualties, some in Syria.
In Israel, 18 people have died in the north (10 soldiers and 8 civilians); while on the other side of the border at least 364 people have died, including 46 members of other militias, a Lebanese soldier and 60 civilians, including ten minors and three journalists, in addition to Hezbollah fighters.
