The US says halting cross-border hostilities is 'urgent' as the Gaza war threatens to escalate into a major regional conflict.
The United States is working to prevent a “major war” between Israel and Hezbollah, a White House envoy has said, amid growing fears of a major conflict between the two sides.
Speaking on Tuesday during a visit to Lebanon, where Iran-linked armed groups have been engaged in near-daily clashes with Israel, Amos Hochstein said the United States was urgently seeking to calm the conflict that erupted on Oct. I'm at increased risk since I started. With the war in Gaza.
Hezbollah and Israel have regularly exchanged fire on the border between Israel and Lebanon over the past eight months. Last week, the Lebanese group fired hundreds of rockets and drones at Israeli military positions after one of its commanders was killed.
Speaking after a meeting with Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabiah Berri, a close Hezbollah ally, Hochstein called for an “immediate” de-escalation.
“We've seen an escalation in the last few weeks. And what President Biden wants to do is avoid further escalation into a major war,” Hochstein told reporters.
The US envoy went to Beirut on Monday after meetings in Israel. Israel's Haaretz reported that he has warned Israeli officials that continued Israel-Hezbollah confrontations could lead to “large-scale Iranian strikes.”
In Beirut, Hochstein said it was “in everyone's interest” to resolve the conflict quickly and diplomatically. “It's both achievable and it's immediate.”
'Diplomatic Framework'
Hochstein's visit Hezbollah unilaterally suspended its attacks for two days during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which began on Sunday. But the hiatus ended on Tuesday when Hezbollah said it had hit an Israeli tank with a suicide drone.
The Lebanese group also released a nine-minute video it said was footage brought back from Israel by its surveillance drones. The video shows and highlights military installations in the north of the country, as well as key infrastructure in Haifa – Israel's third largest city – including a power plant.
Hezbollah has said it will not stop its attacks in northern Israel until there is a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month that “one way or another, we will restore security to the north” and his hardline nationalist allies have called for an aggressive military response.
The Israeli military said on Monday it had killed a “key operative” in Hezbollah's rocket division in a drone strike.
The US State Department said late Monday that it was moving forward with a proposal to avert a wider conflict.
“There is a diplomatic structure that we believe is accessible that will resolve this dispute without all-out war,” a spokesman said.
In Beirut, Hochstein called for the adoption of a Gaza cease-fire proposal being floated by the Biden administration in the hope that it would speed across the “blue line,” a reference to the disputed Israel-Lebanon border. will bring peace.
“A cease-fire in Gaza and, or, an alternative diplomatic solution could also end the conflict across the Blue Line” and allow displaced civilians to return to southern Lebanon and northern Israel, he said.
Hezbollah recently said it had carried out more than 2,100 military operations against Israel since October 8. The Lebanese group launched its attacks as war broke out in Gaza, which it says is an effort to support the Palestinians.
At least 473 people have been killed on the Lebanese side in Israel-Lebanon border violence, most of them fighters but also 92 civilians, according to AFP figures.
Israeli officials say at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed in the north of the country.