Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel announced the expansion of its war aims on Tuesday, widening its nearly year-long fight against Hamas in Gaza to focus on Hezbollah along its northern border with Lebanon.

The announcement came with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken due back in the region this week to try to revive stalled ceasefire talks for the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Until now, Israel’s objectives have been to crush Hamas and to bring home the hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks that sparked the war.

While the focus of the war has been on Gaza, the unabating exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon have forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.

“The political-security cabinet updated the goals of the war this evening, so that they include the following section: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement early Tuesday.

Not formally declared as a war, the exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah have killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens of civilians and soldiers on the Israeli side.

On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said “military action” was the “only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities”.

Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Israel’s regional arch-foe Iran, claimed a dozen attacks on Israeli positions on Monday and three more on Tuesday.

An Israeli strike on Tuesday killed three people in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry, with Israel saying they were Hezbollah members.

- ‘Fundamental change’ -

“The possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas,” Gallant was quoted as telling visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein in a statement from his office.

Netanyahu later told Hochstein he was seeking a “fundamental change” in the security situation on Israel’s northern border.

Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said at the weekend that his group had “no intention of going to war”, but that “there will be large losses on both sides” in the event of all-out conflict.

For now, it is unlikely Israel’s battle with Hezbollah will end.

“Without a ceasefire in Gaza, there will be no agreement on the question of the border with Lebanon,” said Michael Horowitz, of the Le Beck International security consultancy.

Israel’s aim in expanding the war would be to “create a ‘buffer zone’ in southern Lebanon”, Horowitz added.

Hamas, meanwhile, said it was readying for more war, with assistance from fighters and support from across the region.

In a letter to the group’s Yemeni allies, the Iran-backed Huthis, Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar said: “We have prepared ourselves to fight a long war of attrition.”

“Our combined efforts with you… will break this enemy and inflict defeat on it”, Sinwar said.

- Blinken in Egypt -

While months of mediated negotiations have failed to pin down a ceasefire, the United States said it was still pushing all sides to finalise an agreement.

To bridge the remaining gaps, Washington was working “expeditiously” on a new proposal, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

Miller said Blinken would discuss during a visit to Egypt this week “ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza that secures the release of all hostages, alleviates the suffering of the Palestinian people, and helps establish broader regional security”.

US officials have increasingly expressed their frustrations with Israel as Netanyahu has publicly rejected US assessments that the deal is nearly complete and has insisted on an Israeli military presence on the Egypt-Gaza border.

Mounting pressure has failed to sway him to agree to a hostage release deal that has wide support from the Israeli public.

- ‘Everything that was beautiful’ -

The October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,252 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.

On Tuesday, UN member states will debate a draft resolution demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian territories within 12 months.

General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but Israel has already denounced the new text as “disgraceful”.

In Gaza, rescuers said several Israeli air strikes killed at least seven people overnight.

“This war has left nothing untouched and has killed everything in us, our mental and physical health, our social fabric, our future and our dreams,” Ola Halilo, a 32-year-old Gazan woman living in a makeshift displacement camp.

“It has separated us from our loved ones, destroyed everything that was beautiful in our lives.”

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