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.”
OUT OF NIGER: The US joint chiefs of staff chairman is in Botswana for a gathering of African chiefs of defense as Washington seeks to rebuild its presence in the continent The top US general is making a rare trip to Africa to discuss ways to preserve some of the US presence in West Africa after Niger decided to kick out the US military in favor of partnering with Russia in a major setback for Washington. US Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters before landing in Botswana yesterday for a gathering of African chiefs of defense that he was going to speak with several partners in the region. “I do see some opportunities. And there’s countries that we’re already working with in West Africa,” Brown
LITHIUM BATTERY: Twenty foreign workers, including 18 Chinese, were among the fatalities in the massive blaze that engulfed the Aricell factory in Hwaesong Twenty-two people were killed — including 18 Chinese nationals — in a massive fire at a South Korean lithium battery factory, the fire department said yesterday, one of the nation’s worst factory disasters in years. More than 100 people were working in the factory when workers heard a series of explosions from the second floor, where lithium-ion batteries were being inspected and packaged, firefighter Kim Jin-young told media. In the massive blaze that ensued, 22 people were killed, including 20 foreign nationals — 18 Chinese, one from Laos and one of unknown nationality, he said. “Most of the bodies are badly burned so
In a market in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, customers flock to Ache Moussa’s stall to have their long plaits smeared with a special paste in an age-old ritual. Each strand of hair, from the root to the end, is slathered in a traditional mixture of cherry seeds, cloves and chebe seeds, the most important ingredient of all. Users say the recipe makes their hair grow longer and more lustrous. Local and natural hair products are gaining popularity across Africa as people turn away from commercial cosmetics. Moussa applies the mixture and shapes the client’s locks into a gourone — a traditional hairstyle consisting of
An ethnic armed group in Myanmar has seized the nation’s most popular beach resort town, with junta troops holed up in a nearby airport, military and local sources said yesterday. Clashes have rocked western Rakhine state since the Arakan Army (AA) attacked the military there in November, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since the 2021 military coup. For days, fighting has raged around Ngapali beach in the south of the state, where upmarket resorts dot the pristine, palm-fringed sands of the Indian Ocean. The town of Thandwe, a few kilometers from the beach and home to the local airport, was largely