TUESDAY, JULY 28 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
any scenario.”
A spokesman for the U.N. Inter-
im Force in Lebanon, which patrols
Lebanon’s southern border with Is-
rael, said the head of mission, Maj.
Gen. Stefano Del Col, “has been in
contact with both parties to assess
the situation and decrease tensions,
urging to use maximum restraint.”
Spokesman Andrea Tenenti
said an investigation would be
launched to clarify what prompt-
ed the incident.
The clash Monday came less
than a week after a Hezbollah fight-
er was killed in an airstrike on pro-
Iranian militants in Syria, an attack
attributed to Israel. Israeli officials
do not comment publicly on opera-
tions in Syria.
In its statement Monday, Hezbol-
lah said its response to the killing of
the fighter “is definitely coming.”
At the funeral last week, Hez-
bollah lawmaker Hassan Ezzid-
dine called the fighter a “martyr”
and emphasized that the fight
would continue, “even if martyr
after martyr fell.”
Israeli violations of Lebanese air-
space have increased in recent
weeks, with frequent flights over
the country to conduct operations
in Syria and return. Hezbollah
helps prop up Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad.
On Friday, the Israeli army said
that it responded to munitions fired
toward the Israeli Golan Heights
from Syria by striking military tar-
gets in that country. A Syrian war
monitor reported that five foreign
fighters were killed and several
were wounded.
Twenty Israeli drones violated
Lebanese airspace Friday, the Leb-
anese Armed Forces said, and there
were at least nine more violations
Saturday. The army said it was co-
ordinating with the U.N. force.
On Sunday, an Israeli drone fell
in southern Lebanon, the IDF said.
Later Sunday, Hezbollah’s deputy
leader said a war with Israel was
unlikely.
“The atmosphere does not tell of
a war happening, in light of inter-
nal Israeli confusion and Trump’s
fall [in polling] inside America,
and the Israelis cannot guarantee
winning any war,” deputy leader
Naim Qassem said. He said he
doubted there would be war with
Israel in the coming months.
Lebanese Prime Minister Has-
san Diab said he canceled meetings
Monday to address the clash in the
south.
[email protected]
[email protected]BY RUTH EGLASH
AND SARAH DADOUCHjerusalem — T ensions between
Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon
escalated Monday as Israeli forces
repelled what security officials de-
scribed as a border infiltration with
heavy shelling in a clash that had
both sides on high alert.
Hezbollah, which is known for
claiming responsibility for its ac-
tions, denied launching an opera-
tion against Israel. Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ac-
cused its patron, Iran, of stoking the
unrest by “entrenching its military
in our region.”
In a televised address, Netanya-
hu said Hezbollah leader Hasan
Nasrallah was “embroiling Leba-
non” at the behest of Iran.
“Hezbollah needs to under-
stand that it is playing with fire,”
Netanyahu said. “Any attack
against us will be met with great
strength.”
The skirmish followed a week of
rising tensions and provocations,
including an airstrike attributed
to Israel that killed a Hezbollah
fighter in Syria and to which the
group has vowed to respond. The
U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon
said it was in contact with both
sides and would launch an investi-
gation to determine the cause of
Monday’s incident.
Hezbollah is both an armed
group and a political party in Leba-
non. Israel views it as a dangerous
regional proxy operated by its arch-
enemy Iran; both Israel and the
United States have designated it a
terrorist organization.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an
Israeli army spokesman, said the
flare-up was sparked by an “infiltra-
tion attempt by a terrorist squad
that crossed the Blue Line by a few
meters.” The Blue Line was drawn
by the United Nations i n 2000 to
confirm an Israeli troop withdraw-
al from southern Lebanon.
Conricus said that the group was
monitored by Israeli army field ob-
servers and that the “infiltration was
successfully thwarted.” No Israeli or
Lebanese casualties were reported.
“The terrorists retreated back
to Lebanon,” Conricus said. “We
have no information if any of the
perpetrators were wounded or
killed.”
Israeli television showed large
plumes of smoke rising over the
border area that the Israelis call
Mount Dov and the Lebanese call
the Shebaa Farms. Hezbollah’s Al-
Manar television channel said Is-
raeli shelling continued for an
hour until around 5 p.m.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
identified the fighters as a Hezbol-
lah cell, but there were doubts in
Lebanon: Hezbollah does not shy
from claiming its operations or
losses. As hours passed and the
group did not release a state-
ment, local media channels, in-
cluding Al-Manar, called on it to
clarify what had happened.
Hezbollah eventually issued a
statement denying carrying out an
operation in Israel. The group said
it did not fire anything into Israel
but had received fire.
Hezbollah said Israel’s claim of
“foiling an infiltration operation”
was “an attempt to invent falseIsrael says it repelled
incursion from Lebanon
and fantastical victories.” Its me-
dia office did not respond to a
request for comment.
Israeli media initially reported
the clash had been sparked by a
Hezbollah-fired rocket aimed at an
Israeli army tank. Conricus said
there was no information of an anti-
tank missile being fired at an Israeli
army vehicle.
The Israeli military instructed
residents living along the Israeli
side of the Blue Line to stay in their
homes. Agricultural work and
tourist activity was suspended,
and main roads were closed tononessential traffic. Civilian life
has since resumed.
Tensions between Israel and Hez-
bollah are not new — the two fought
a bitter war in the summer of 2006.
Netanyahu said Israel is “con-
stantly monitoring what is happen-
ing on our northern border.”
“Our policy is clear,” he said.
“First, we will not allow Iran to
entrench militarily on our border
with Syria. Second, Lebanon and
Hezbollah will bear the responsi-
bility for any attack against us
emanating from Lebanese territo-
ry. Third, the IDF is prepared forAZIZ TAHER/REUTERS
Smoke rises from the border area between Israel and Lebanon on
Monday. Hezbollah denied launching an operation against Israel.BY KARLA ADAM
AND WILLIAM BOOTHlondon — Prime Minister Boris
Johnson suggested a link between
his weight and his susceptibility to
covid-19 as he launched a new
government anti-obesity program
on Monday that will see junk food
advertising limited and restau-
rants and pubs required to post
calories for food and drink.
The campaign began with
newspaper editorials and a social
media blitz that included a video
showing Johnson fast-walking in
slow-motion — in a white button-
down shirt and blue slacks — ac-
companied by inspirational string
music and his dog, Dilyn.
“I was too fat,” Johnson says in
the video, about his physique back
in April when he was sick with
covid-19, the disease caused by the
novel coronavirus, and rushed to a
hospital to be saved by supple-
mental oxygen.
He says he’d struggled with his
weight for ages. But since recover-
ing from the coronavirus, he has
begun to focus more on exercise,
starting his days with “quite a
gentle run.” He notes that he has
lost more than 14 pounds. And he
encourages Brits to join him in his
effort.
Embracing the role of weight
watcher in chief is a bold move for
a 56-year-old leader who has
boasted his favorite meal is a plate
of English sausages, plural, and a
good Tignanello red.
It is also a somewhat unusual
stance for Johnson, a critic of the
“nanny state.”
He tried to assure Brits on Mon-
day that he wasn’t trying to force
anything on them.
The point of the new anti-obesi-
ty campaign is “just trying to help
people a little bit to bring their
weight down — not in an exces-
sively bossy or nannying way, I
hope,” the prime minister said.
The British newspapers,
though, didn’t seem to buy any
nuance in Johnson’s approach.
“Boris Johnson orders GPs to be
brutally honest with patients
about their weight,” the Sun head-
line read, about general practitio-
ners. The Daily Mail went with:
“Boris Johnson orders obese peo-
ple to get on their bikes and lose
weight.”
During Monday’s press brief-
ing, political reporters tried to
drill down on precisely how much
the prime minister weighed.
Government officials were eva-
sive.
“I don’t have anything for you
on that I’m afraid,” a Downing
Street spokesman told The Wash-
ington Post.
Johnson is sending the country
to the scale at a stressful time,
when Britons have been hunker-
ing in place for months, jawing on
comfort food. Britain has re-
opened its pubs — but not the
gyms.
England is the second “fattest
country” (their words, not ours) in
the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development.
The first is the United States —
and, according to projections, the
proportion of people overweight
is growing.
The British government’s new
strategy includes a ban on junk
food advertisements on television
before 9 p.m. — so children are not
bombarded by ads for fatty snacks.
Other promotions, such as “buy
one get one free,” are banned, as is
displaying candy bars in promi-
nent positions in stores.
The government hopes this
saves lives. Almost 8 percent of
critically ill patients with covid-
in intensive care units are morbid-
ly obese. About 3 percent of the
British population is morbidly
obese and a third is clinically
obese, which may increase their
risk of developing more serious
complications from the virus.
“This deadly virus has given us
a wake-up call about the need to
tackle the stark inequalities in our
nation’s health, and obesity is an
urgent example of this,” said
Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Some businesses said the new
regulations would have little effect
beyond hurting companies trying
to recover from the economic ef-
fects of the lockdown.
Sue Eustace, director of public
affairs at the Advertising Associa-
tion, told the BBC that the United
Kingdom already had some of the
“strictest” advertising rules in the
world.
“Children’s exposure to high fat,
salt and sugar adverts on TV has
fallen by 70 percent over the last 15
years or so, but there’s been no
change to obesity, so we don’t
think these measures are going to
work.”
Graham MacGregor, professor
of cardiovascular medicine at
Queen Mary University of Lon-
don, noted that the measures an-
nounced Monday were largely fo-
cused on marketing.
“I wouldn’t see it as a major
revolution to beat obesity, but it’s
certainly a positive step,” he said.
He added that this campaign
was likely to have less impact than
efforts by previous British govern-
ments, including salt reduction
targets and a “sugar tax” that re-
sulted in manufacturers reducing
the sugar in soft drinks.
“These are very clever maneu-
vers,” MacGregor said, “because
people go on buying the same rub-
bish, but it’s got less of the sugar or
less salt or less fat. And, if it’s done
slowly, they don’t actually realize.”
Johnson has opposed those
types of interventions in the past.
In his leadership race last year,
he vowed to review “sin taxes” on
unhealthy food and alcohol. He
recently told the Times Radio that
“in the great anthology of embar-
rassing former articles that people
always drag up... you will find I
have taken a sort of very libertari-
an stance on obesity.”
That stance seemed to shift
somewhat on Monday. Though
Johnson might need to work a bit
more on his sales pitch.
“The great t hing a bout going for
a run at the beginning of the day,”
he said, “is that nothing could be
worse for the rest of the day.”
[email protected]
[email protected]Britain’s Johnson launches
an anti-obesity campaign
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