The US defense secretary said on Tuesday (30) he does not believe war is inevitable between Hezbollah and Israel, although he remains concerned about the potential for escalation following a deadly rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Tensions have been high since Saturday, when a rocket killed 12 children and teenagers on a soccer field in a Druze village. Israel has blamed Iran-backed Hezbollah and promised a tough response. Hezbollah has denied involvement.
The United States has been leading a diplomatic effort to dissuade Israel from targeting Lebanon’s capital Beirut or major civilian infrastructure in response to the attack, five people with knowledge of the effort told Reuters on Monday.
Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border since October in their worst clash since the 2006 war. The hostilities, sparked by the war in Gaza, have so far been largely contained to areas close to the border.
While both sides have previously indicated they are not seeking a wider confrontation, the hostilities have raised concerns about the risk of a slide into a wider, more destructive conflict between the heavily armed adversaries.
“While we have seen a lot of activity on Israel’s northern border, we remain concerned about the potential for this to escalate into an all-out fight. And I do not believe a fight is inevitable,” said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“We would like to see things resolved diplomatically,” he added during a joint press conference in Manila following security talks between himself, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their Philippine counterparts.
The Israeli military said it struck about 10 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon overnight and killed one of the group’s fighters – attacks that appeared to be in keeping with a pattern of violence over the past nine months.
Hezbollah confirmed that one of its fighters was killed.
Two Israeli officials said Monday (29) that Israel wanted to harm Hezbollah but not drag the Middle East into all-out war.
Some flights at Beirut International Airport have been cancelled or postponed this week due to rising tensions.
Hezbollah has denied firing the rocket that killed the young men in the village of Majdal Shams. It said on Saturday it fired a missile at a military target in the Golan Heights, a border region Israel captured from Syria in 1967.
Hezbollah began firing across the border into Israel in October in what it says is solidarity with the Palestinians and Palestinian Islamist militants, allied with Hamas. Since then, tens of thousands of people have fled or been evacuated from towns and villages on both sides of the border.
Since October, Israeli strikes have killed about 350 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and more than 100 civilians, according to medical and security sources and a Reuters tally of Hezbollah death reports.
Israel says 23 civilians and at least 17 soldiers have been killed in Hezbollah attacks since October.
Source: CNN Brasil
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