After months of escalating violence on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, the United Nations chief warned on Friday that “the risk of an expansion of conflict in the Middle East is real and must be avoided.”
Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters in New York that “a reckless move” by Israel or Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group that targets Israel and has Hamas fighters loyal to Gaza, could trigger a conflict. A “disaster”.
For months, world leaders have been trying to calm tensions between Israel and Hezbollah in an attempt to prevent an all-out war. But instead of subsiding, strikes and counterattacks along the border have become more intense, and rhetoric from leaders on both sides has become more bellicose in recent days, prompting Guterres to express what he called “deep concern” that war would break out.
“Many lives have been lost, tens of thousands have been displaced, and their homes and livelihoods have been destroyed,” Guterres said. “The people of the region and the people of the world cannot allow Lebanon to become another Gaza,” he added.
More than 100 civilians have been killed and more than 150,000 displaced in Israel and Lebanon since Hezbollah began fighting Israeli forces on Oct. 7 following a Hamas-led attack on Israel. The exchanges also sparked wildfires on both sides of the border.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Friday that it “successfully intercepted a suspected aerial target crossing Lebanese territory” and “several launches were detected crossing from Lebanon to several areas in northern Israel.” The military said, Israeli fighter jets “attacked Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure throughout the night” following shelling and aircraft strikes on “terror targets” in four areas, including Hezbollah military installations, in southern Lebanon on Friday.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said In a post on social media “Israel cannot allow the Hezbollah terrorist group to continue attacking its territory and citizens, and we will make the necessary decisions soon,” he said on Friday, adding that “the free world must stand unconditionally with Israel” against Iran and activist groups it supports.
“Our war is also your war,” he said.
Katz’s comments were an apparent response to Lebanese militia leader Hassan Nasrallah, who said on Wednesday that Israel “would not have a safe place to hide from our missiles and drones” in the event of a full-scale war.
Nasrallah also threatened to plunge Cyprus into conflict if it allowed Israel to use its airports and bases in a wider regional war. Cyprus and Israel have a bilateral defense agreement and the two countries have held joint exercises in the past. But Cypriot President Nicos Christodoulides said his country was “absolutely not involved in any way”. Comments posted on social media.
Nasrallah’s threats confirmed the concerns of world leaders trying to contain the conflict, highlighting how quickly the fighting could escalate and spread further. President Joe Biden hopes to defuse the growing conflict, sending one of his top aides, Amos Hochstein, to Israel on Monday and to Lebanon on Tuesday to press for a diplomatic solution.
Farnaz Fasihi Contributed reporting.
