Diplomatic pressure grew on Monday to avoid escalating tensions between Iran and Israel following the high-profile killings that have heightened regional tensions, while several governments have urged their citizens to leave Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Sunday that his country was “determined to stand up to Iran and its allied armed groups on all fronts.”
The war against Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza is approaching its 11th month, and Israel is preparing retaliation against the Tehran-allied “axis of resistance” for the assassination of two senior figures.
Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian armed group Hamas, was killed on Wednesday in an attack in Tehran that has been blamed on Israel, although Israel has not commented directly.
The killing came hours after an Israeli attack on Beirut that killed Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr.
Tehran said on Monday that “no one has the right to doubt Iran’s legal right to punish the Zionist regime for the killing of Haniyeh.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his counterparts from the G7 countries in a conference call on Sunday that any attack, which he expects would be a joint venture between Hezbollah and Iran, could happen within 24 to 48 hours, as early as Monday, US news site Axios reported.
Blinken called on his counterparts to exert diplomatic pressure on Tehran, Hezbollah and Israel to “maintain maximum restraint.”
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Sunday night that there was “no change at this time” to its policy to protect civilians.
Yehuda Levy, a 45-year-old shop owner in the northern port city of Haifa, told AFP that Israelis are used to conflict but facing a multi-pronged assault is “a bit difficult”.
“It is difficult, but we believe we are a strong country. We will win this war.”
‘The Path of Dialogue’
Experts and diplomats fear the expected attack on Israel could quickly escalate into a regional war.
Turkey on Monday joined several Western and other countries in calling on its citizens to leave Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based.
Several airlines have suspended flights to the country or limited them to daytime hours.
Germany’s Lufthansa, which has already suspended flights to the region including Tel Aviv, said its planes would avoid Iraqi and Iranian airspace until at least August 7.
U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk urged “all parties and influential States to take urgent action to de-escalate this extremely dangerous situation.”
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, whose country currently holds the G-7 presidency, said in a statement: “We call on the parties involved to refrain from any initiative that could create obstacles to the path of dialogue and restraint.”
On Sunday, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi made a rare visit to the Iranian capital, during which he delivered a message from King Abdullah II to President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Political analyst Oraib Rantawi said Jordan’s “airspace would likely become a staging ground for missiles and anti-missile strikes in any direct Iranian-Israeli conflict”, but Amman would strongly object to any violation of its sovereignty.
“The Iranians will have to find other ways to save Jordan from this embarrassment,” Rantawi, director of the Amman-based Al Quds Center for Political Studies, told AFP.
The Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which began with an attack by the Palestinian group on October 7, has already involved Iran-backed rebels in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
The Hamas attack on southern Israel killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.
Hamas has also taken 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom the military says are dead.
At least 39,623 people have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s counter-offensive, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, though the ministry did not give a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
Cross-border clashes
While tensions in the region are expected to escalate further, firing between Hezbollah and Israel continues almost daily.
Lebanon’s health ministry said four people were killed in two separate attacks on the border towns of Mais al-Jabal and Hula, while Hezbollah said it had targeted military sites in northern Israel with “explosive-laden drones”.
Tehran has said it expects Hezbollah to strike deep inside Israel and no longer limit itself to military targets.
The United States, Israel’s ally, said it was sending additional warships and fighter jets to the region.
US President Joe Biden was due to meet with his national security team on Monday “to discuss developments in the Middle East”, the White House said.
Cross-border violence has killed at least 549 people in Lebanon since October, mostly fighters but also at least 116 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including the Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 25 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.
Far from the Lebanese border, the Israeli military said about 15 rockets from the southern Gaza Strip landed in Israel on Monday. Medics said they were treating one injured man.
Months of talks brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages have repeatedly stalled.
Hamas officials as well as some analysts and protesters in Israel have accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war to protect his hard-right ruling coalition.
Middle East expert Andreas Krieg said the killing of Haniyeh, Hamas’ chief negotiator in the ceasefire talks “does not show that Israel is genuinely interested in a ceasefire.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
