In the Israel-Palestine escalation, the latest death tolls stand at 313 Palestinians and 300 Israelis with Hezbollah exchanging mortar strikes from Lebanon into occupied Shebaa Farms.
The escalation comes as fears of a ground invasion of Gaza are growing after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to turn the besieged Palestinian enclave into a “deserted island” following Hamas’s surprise attack on Saturday.
Hezbollah, a powerful armed group, allegedly backed by Iran, said it had launched guided rockets and artillery onto three posts in Shebaa Farms “in solidarity” with the Palestinian people.
Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Hezbollah, which effectively controls southern Lebanon, said on Saturday it was in “direct contact” with leaders of Palestinian “resistance” groups.
The group said it saw Palestinian attacks on Israel as a “decisive response to Israel’s continued occupation and a message to those seeking normalisation with Israel”.
Over the years numerous Arab League countries have signed peace and normalization treaties with Israel, beginning with the Egypt–Israel peace treaty (1979).
Despite the failure to implement the Israeli-Lebanese peace accords (1983), more treaties continued with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process (1991-present), the Jordan–Israel peace treaty (1994), the Abraham Accords normalizing relations between the Israel-United Arab Emirates and Israel-Bahrain (2020), the Israel–Sudan normalization agreement (2020) and the Israel–Morocco normalization agreement (2020).
Earlier in an interview, Saudi Crown Prince Bin Salman hinted that Saudi Arabia will normalise relations with the Jewish state very soon.
