Hello. ABC Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran here in Jerusalem. Here’s the latest on the war in the Middle East, now in its second month.
National cabinet to meet: Fuel prices, threat of shortages on the agenda
Here’s what you need to know today:
– Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced an expansion of his country’s invasion of southern Lebanon, pushing further into the area it’s been attacking for more than three weeks. – It follows another weekend of strikes across Lebanon, where the death toll from Israeli attacks against claimed Hezbollah targets now stands at almost 1,200 people. Three journalists – Ali Shoeib from the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar, and Fatima Ftouni and her brother Mohamed Ftouni from Al Mayadeen – were killed on Saturday, prompting outrage from Lebanese authorities and press in the country and around the world. – Pakistan has hosted talks with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as it positions itself as the key mediator in the war. Last week, Pakistan presented Iran with a US-drafted proposal to end the war, which Tehran rejected. While the talks were happening, Iran warned the US against launching any ground invasion, accusing the White House of sending mixed messages about wanting to negotiate because it was also deploying troops to the Middle East. – Israel continued to launch strikes against Iran, hitting what it said were missile and drone-manufacturing sites and weapons storage facilities. In response, Iran fired missiles at Israel. One hit a chemicals plant near the southern Israeli city of Be’er Sheva, starting a significant fire and prompting authorities to warn locals to stay away. – World leaders have weighed in to demand Israel allow Easter services be held in Jerusalem’s Old City, after the most senior Catholic in the Holy Land was barred from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday. Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron and US ambassador Mike Huckabee all criticised the move. Mr Netanyahu said it was a safety precaution but arrangements would be made regarding access leading up to Easter. The Al-Aqsa Temple Mount precinct was locked down during Ramadan over safety concerns during the war. Missile fragments have landed in the Old City in recent weeks.
Here’s what all that means
The announcement from the Israeli prime minister shows the situation in Lebanon is likely to get much, much worse. The expansion of Israel’s invasion of the south is in line with last week’s announcement from Israel’s defence minister that the military intends to occupy the entire area from the border to the Litani River, which is traditionally cited as the edge of Hezbollah’s southern heartland. While announcing a further ground invasion to create a larger “security buffer”, Mr Netanyahu said the move was designed to “thwart the threat of invasion” from Hezbollah into northern Israel, and to prevent the group from using anti-tank missiles close to the Israeli border. More than a million people are displaced. About 1,200 are dead, among them more than 100 children. We reported on one case over the weekend involving a 10-year-old girl killed by a missile. The IDF says it isn’t aware of any “uninvolved fatalities” at the site and it doesn’t need further investigation. Dozens of paramedics have been killed, tearing their families and communities apart and hampering emergency services’ ability to respond to the war. The IDF has justified some of those attacks by saying Hezbollah is using ambulances to ferry fighters and weapons around the south, while not providing a whole heap of evidence to back that up. Three journalists were killed in a strike over the weekend. But the IDF has only explained why it targeted one of them, Ali Shoeib, saying he was part of Hezbollah and was reporting on Israeli troop movements. No details were offered for why siblings Fatima and Mohamed Ftouni were killed – similar to situations the world has witnessed in Gaza, where the IDF has killed groups of journalists on the basis of thin or non-existent evidence. After questions from Fox News, the IDF has been forced to admit it edited a photo of Shoeib to show him in a military uniform. There is no denying Hezbollah’s role in this conflict. It dragged Lebanon into this broader regional war by firing on Israel. And it has continued to attack it in the weeks since, forcing hundreds of thousands of people in northern Israel to seek safety. But the evidence mounting every day shows that the scale of the suffering wrought on the Lebanese population goes far beyond simply targeting the Iranian-backed militant group, considered a terrorist organisation under Australian law. It fuels the criticism that Israel is using the mere existence of Hezbollah to advance broader ambitions, showing little to no restraint along the way.
Here’s the impact in Australia
– Flicking the switch: This morning’s episode of ABC News Daily looks at whether spiking fuel prices will spark a trucking industry move to electric vehicles. And in a country such as Australia, are those trucks up to the job? (± 15m44s).
And here’s how to stay up to date:
You can keep track of the latest updates from Iran and around the world throughout the day via our live blog. Thanks for joining me. I’ll be back here at the same time tomorrow.
