The specter of all-out war looms over the region as escalation continues on the Lebanese front
Israeli Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi told his troops that the intensive air strikes launched by Israel on Lebanon It paves the way for a possible ground operation by Israeli forces against Hezbollah fighters while a flurry of diplomacy seeks to prevent a full-scale war.
In an attempt to reach a calm, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings in New York that the United States and France are trying to reach a temporary agreement to stop hostilities with the aim of opening broader talks that include efforts to achieve the long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza.
For his part, US President Joe Biden told ABC television that All-out war is possible.But he added: “We are still working on a settlement that could radically change the entire region.”
Israel expanded its air strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday, with the Lebanese health minister reporting that at least 51 people were killed and at least 223 others wounded.
Israel shot down a missile that the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement said was targeting the headquarters of the Mossad intelligence agency near Israel’s largest city, Tel Aviv.
Israeli officials said a heavy missile was headed toward civilian areas in Tel Aviv, not the Mossad headquarters, before it was shot down.
“You hear the jets overhead,” Brigadier General Herzi Halevi told Israeli forces on the border with Lebanon, according to a military statement. “We have been striking all day, in order to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue weakening Hezbollah.”
International concern
World leaders have expressed concern that the conflict – which runs parallel to Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas – is rapidly escalating as the death toll in Lebanon rises and thousands flee their homes.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington and its allies were working tirelessly to avoid a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah, which said it would not back down until the Gaza war ended.
For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he will send his foreign minister to Lebanon this week as part of efforts to prevent the outbreak of war.
“There cannot and should not be a war in Lebanon,” he said in a speech on Wednesday at the annual meeting of the 193-nation United Nations General Assembly.
Ceasefire proposals
Three Israeli sources said that there has been no significant progress in the French-American efforts so far.
In turn, Blinken said in a meeting with officials and ministers from the Gulf Arab states in New York, “The risk of escalation in the region is acute… The best response is diplomacy, and our coordinated efforts are vital to prevent further escalation.”
Israeli airstrikes this week targeted Hezbollah leaders and hit hundreds of sites deep inside Lebanon, sending hundreds of thousands fleeing the border area as the group unleashed a barrage of rockets into Israel.
Israel said on Wednesday its warplanes had bombed southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold to the north, and that it had called up two more reserve brigades for operations on Israel’s northern border.
In a video message that did not comment on diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah was being hit harder than he had imagined.
Israel has made securing its northern border and allowing the return of some 70,000 residents displaced by near-daily exchanges of fire since the October war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza erupted on Israel’s southern border a priority.
Lebanese hospitals have been filled with wounded since Monday when Israeli shelling killed more than 550 people in the deadliest day in Lebanon since the civil war ended in 1990.
Hezbollah said it directed the missile at Mossad headquarters “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip… and in defense of Lebanon and its people.” It accused Mossad of assassinating its leaders.
Israel also accuses its intelligence services of booby-trapping Hezbollah members’ walkie-talkies that exploded last week, killing 39 people and wounding nearly 3,000. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in those attacks.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a pro-Iranian armed group, said it targeted the southernmost Israeli city of Eilat with drones on Wednesday.
Israel expands its strikes in Lebanon
Israel has expanded its bombing areas in Lebanon since Tuesday night, launching attacks for the first time on the coastal resort of Jiyeh, just south of Beirut.
It also attacked Bint Jbeil, Tebnine, and Ain Qana in the south, the village of Joun in the southern Chouf district near Sidon, and Maaysra in the northern Keserwan district.
The Lebanese foreign minister said the number of displaced people in Lebanon could reach half a million people. In Beirut, thousands of displaced people from southern Lebanon have taken refuge in schools and other buildings.
More than 60 people were also evacuated from the town of Alma al-Shaab, along the border, following overnight airstrikes.
