Smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike on a warehouse in Ghazieh, five kilometers south of the major Lebanese coastal city of Saida, on Feb. 19, 2024. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
BEIRUT — Official Israeli government spokesperson Elon Levy said “We repeat the warning that Hezbollah must back off … or else we will be forced to push it away” during Tuesday's press briefing, adding that preferably the hostilities end “in the context of a diplomatic framework in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 1701, which renders illegal [Hezbollah’s] presence south of the Litani River.”
Levy said Israel “will not accept the ongoing displacement of tens of thousands of civilians” from the north of the country, “and the ongoing shelling of their homes.”
In Gaza, almost two million people have been displaced by Israeli military operations there, and one third of the Strip’s building have been flattened by Israeli bombardment. In Lebanon, more than 86,000 people have been displaced. The Israeli army regularly strikes residential buildings and at least 5,140,000 square meters of land have been scorched by white phosphorus and flare bombs.
The Israeli government spokesperson announced that the army had released a video showing members of the Bibas family, currently held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. He said that the cousin of the family, Elon Keshet, spoke of his “anguish at the thought of burying three generations of one family.”
By Oct. 15, only a week after Israel’s war on Gaza had begun, the Gazan Health Ministry announced that 47 Palestinian families had been entirely wiped out by the bombings, the family names no longer appearing on the civil registry.
Referring to the mounting international pressure for Israel to agree to a cease-fire deal with Hamas, Levy said: “The demands that Israel should cease its campaign to liberate the hostages and simply abandon those little children and their parents in the hands of [Hamas] are a stain on the conscience of humanity.”
“A sustainable pause is only possible once Hamas is dismantled,” the government spokesperson said, but Israel is not against the UN Security Council resolution drafted by the US, which calls for a temporary cease-fire and was written up in response to Algeria’s own draft resolution.
"We’re glad our allies continue to stand with us in whatever roundabout way they choose to express it," he said, in response to journalists' questions regarding America's shifting position, and what many see as an increasingly strained relationship between the two countries, long-time allies.
Levy said that the release of hostages and a temporary pause in order to facilitate that, is in line with Israeli policy. On Monday, the US vetoed the Algerian draft, advocating for its own instead. Both call for a cease-fire, but the Algerian proposal does not condemn Hamas — a must for any proposal that seeks US support.
Israel says there are 134 hostages still being held in Gaza, 32 of those have died, either during their abduction or in captivity. In November, 100 hostages were released in a Qatari-brokered truce agreement, in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. The Israeli army has only managed to release three hostages through its military campaign. Israeli troops shot and killed three hostages by accident as they emerged from a building in the Strip, arms raised.
In terms of casualties, Levy says the official Israeli army death toll since fighting began is 575.