GAZA, Dec 28 (AP/BBC/AFP): Israel's military will act to remove Hezbollah from the border with Lebanon if its attacks continue, an Israeli minister has warned. Benny Gantz said the military would intervene if militants do not stop firing on northern Israel.
Time for a diplomatic solution was running out, he added. Meanwhile, the head of the Israel Defense Forces said troops were in "very high readiness" for more fighting in the north.
"Our first task is to restore security and the sense of security to the residents in the north, and this will take time," Chief of the General Staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said, after conducting a "situational assessment".
Cross-border exchanges of fire have been escalating since Hamas's 7 October attacks on Israel. On Wednesday, Hezbollah launched its highest number of cross-border attacks in a day since 8 October, security sources told Reuters.
Number of wounded Israeli
soldiers mounting
Igor Tudoran spent just 12 hours inside the Gaza Strip before a missile slammed into his tank, leaving him with a life-altering injury.
"Already within the tank, I understood from the condition of my leg that I would lose it. But the question was how much of it will I lose," he said, seated on a bed in the hospital where he has been treated since he was wounded last month.
Tudoran, 27, a reservist who volunteered for duty after the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas that triggered the war, lost his right leg beneath the hip. He has kept up a positive attitude - but concedes that his hopes of becoming an electrician may no longer be possible.
Tudoran is part of a swelling number of wounded Israeli fighters, yet another sizable and deeply traumatized segment of Israeli society whose struggles are emerging as a hidden cost of the war that will be felt acutely for years to come. Given the large numbers of wounded, advocates worry the country is not prepared to address their needs.
"I have never seen a scope like this and an intensity like this," said Edan Kleiman, who heads the nonprofit Disabled Veterans Organization, which advocates for more than 50,000 soldiers wounded in this and earlier conflicts. "We must rehabilitate these people," he said.
Two Australians killed in
Israeli airstrike in Lebanon
Two Australian citizens including an alleged Hezbollah fighter were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, Australia's acting foreign minister said on Thursday.
Ibrahim Bazzi and his brother Ali Bazzi were killed in the airstrike on Tuesday in the town of Bint Jbel in southern Lebanon, Acting Foreign Minister Mark Dreyfus said.
Ibrahim Bazzi had arrived in Lebanon recently from Sydney to accompany his Lebanese wife Shorouq Hammoud to Australia, news media reported. Hammoud, who had recently received an Australian visa, was also killed in the attack.
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