The United States said on Wednesday that Israel should avoid any Gaza-like military action in Lebanon, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the Palestinian territory was at risk of “annihilation”.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters, “There should be no military action in Lebanon that looks like Gaza or has the same results as Gaza.”
But Israeli armed forces chief Herzi Halevi vowed to continue intensive bombing of Hezbollah targets, which have killed more than 1,200 people since September 23, “without allowing them any respite or improvement”.
In a phone call on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden asked Netanyahu to “minimize harm” to civilians in Lebanon, especially in “densely populated areas of Beirut”, the White House said.
It said the two leaders had agreed to remain in “close contact” in the coming days.
“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a protracted war that will lead to destruction and suffering as we see in Gaza,” Netanyahu said in a video address to the Lebanese people on Tuesday. “
“Liberate your country from Hezbollah so this war can end,” he said.
– Iran conflict concerns –
A Lebanese government source told AFP that Hezbollah accepted a ceasefire with Israel on September 27, the day an Israeli strike killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed militant group.
But he said Israel’s response had thwarted a ceasefire plan backed by Washington and its allies, and that the Lebanese government had “had no contact with Hezbollah” since his death.
Biden and Netanyahu’s call was expected to focus on Israel’s response to last week’s missile attack by Iran.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said, “Our attack on Iran will be deadly, precise and surprising.”
Iran fired about 200 missiles at Israel, retaliating for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Most were intercepted by Allied air forces or Israel’s own air defenses.
Biden has cautioned Israel against trying to target Iran’s nuclear program, which would risk major retaliation, and he is also against attacking the country’s oil installations, which could send crude prices rising around the world. Will go.
– Hezbollah rockets, Israeli attacks –
Hezbollah said its fighters were in clashes with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, using rocket-propelled weapons to thwart Israeli attempts to breach the border.
Two people were killed in a suspected Hezbollah rocket attack in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, officials said, while Israeli air defenses also intercepted two projectiles fired toward the coastal city of Caesarea.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least four people were killed in an Israeli attack on a village in the Shouf district, southeast of Beirut, an area so far largely spared from Israel’s intense bombing campaign.
Lebanon’s state civil defense body later said the Israeli strike killed five of its personnel in the southern village of Derdghaiya.
Israel has stepped up air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon since September 23, forcing more than a million people to flee, according to official AFP figures.
Its ground forces crossed into Lebanon on September 30 in response to Hezbollah rocket and artillery attacks last year that forced thousands of Israelis from their homes in border areas.
Israel’s military said on Wednesday that its troops “eliminated terrorists during close encounters and airstrikes” in the past 24 hours, adding that “100 Hezbollah terror hideouts were destroyed”.
The Israeli campaign has extended from internal border areas to the southern part of Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast.
According to a new Israeli army figure on Wednesday, 13 of its soldiers have been killed since the start of the ground operation inside Lebanon.
Israel’s air force also said on Wednesday it had killed a Hezbollah member named Adam Jahout in Syria.
– Civilians trapped in northern Gaza –
Israel is also stepping up its ongoing military operation around Jabaliya, north of Gaza, where about 400,000 people are trapped, according to Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Posting on Twitter, Lazzarini said there is “no end to hell” in the area and that “recent evacuation orders from Israeli authorities are forcing people to flee again and again”.
The Palestinian Territories’ Civil Protection Agency said forces had surrounded the town of Jabaliya and its refugee camp over the weekend and were shelling it on Wednesday, preventing aid deliveries.
Washington said it was “incredibly concerned” about the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza as Israel tightened its siege, adding that it was “a topic for some very urgent discussion between our two governments”. Used to be.
“We are making clear to the Government of Israel that they have an obligation under international humanitarian law to deliver food, water and other essential humanitarian assistance to all parts of Gaza,” State Department spokesman Miller told reporters.
Israeli counterattacks have killed at least 42,010 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which the United Nations has described as reliable.
– displaced in Beirut –
At least six people were wounded, some seriously, in stabbings at four sites in the central Israeli city of Hadera on Wednesday, Israeli police said.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli border police killed at least four Palestinians in the northern city of Nablus, Palestinian health officials and Israeli security forces said.
In Beirut, many people are sleeping on the streets after Israeli air strikes and dozens of displaced families were seen on a Beirut beach on Wednesday.
Ahmed, a 77-year-old Beirut resident who did not want to give his second name for fear of retribution, said he had a message for Hezbollah.
He said, “If you can’t keep fighting, announce that you are retreating and that you have lost. There is no shame in losing.”
But Raed Ayyash, a displaced person from the south of the country, said he hoped Hezbollah would continue fighting.
“We hope to win and we will never give up,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
