Israel on Wednesday said that it does not want war in Lebanon, but could send its neighbor “back to the Stone Age.”
The border between the two countries has seen daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants since the attack on Israel by Hezbollah’s ally Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which triggered the war in Gaza.
Fears those exchanges could escalate have grown in the past few weeks as cross-border attacks intensified and after Israel revealed it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive, prompting new threats from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said during a visit to Washington that his country could “take Lebanon back to the Stone Age, but we don’t want to do it.”
“We do not want war, but we are preparing for every scenario,” Gallant told reporters. “Hezbollah understands very well that we can inflict massive damage in Lebanon if a war is launched.”
Israel’s allies, including the US, have been keen to avoid such an eventuality.
A US official said that Washington was engaged in “fairly intensive conversations” with Israel, Lebanon and other actors, and believed that no side sought a “major escalation.”
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Tuesday told Gallant that another war with Hezbollah could have “terrible consequences for the Middle East” and urged a diplomatic solution.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths on Wednesday told reporters in Geneva that Lebanon was “the flashpoint beyond all flashpoints.”
“It’s beyond planning. It’s potentially apocalyptic,” Griffiths said.
A war involving Lebanon “will draw in Syria ... it will draw in others,” he added. “It’s very alarming.”
Lebanon’s national news agency reported about 10 Israeli strikes on Wednesday on areas near the border, including one at about 10pm that destroyed a building in Nabatiyeh, wounding five people.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike.
Hezbollah on Wednesday claimed six attacks against Israeli military positions in the border region.
As Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip nears its 10th month, bombardments in the Palestinian territory appeared to ease after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “intense phase” of Gaza operations was winding down.
Some of those forces would likely then be redeployed to the Lebanese border, but “primarily for defensive purposes,” Netanyahu said.
US officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken have voiced hope that a ceasefire in Gaza could lead to a reduction in hostilities on the Lebanese border as well.
During the night from Wednesday to yesterday, witnesses reported bombings in areas around the Gaza Strip, while fighting had raged earlier on Wednesday between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.
The civil defense agency and medics said that at least four people were killed in a strike on a house in Beit Lahia, in the north.
However, agency spokesman Mahmud Basal told reporters that “there have been almost no attacks” and “the rest of the areas in the Gaza Strip are calm compared to yesterday.”
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