After months of escalating violence along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, the head of the United Nations warned on Friday that “the risk of widening the conflict in the Middle East is real and must be avoided.”
Speaking to reporters in New York, the leader, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said “a hasty move” by Israel or Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group targeting Israel in allegiance to Hamas militants in Gaza, it could cause a “catastrophe to go”. far beyond borders and, frankly, beyond imagination.”
World leaders have been trying for months to defuse tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, trying to avert an all-out war. But instead of quelling the conflict, strikes and counterattacks across the border have intensified — and rhetoric from leaders on both sides has grown more bellicose in recent days, prompting Mr. Guterres to express what he called “deep concern” that all – out war would break out.
“Many lives have already been lost, tens of thousands of people have been displaced and homes and livelihoods have been destroyed,” Mr Guterres said. He added that “the people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.”
Since Hezbollah began exchanging fire with Israeli forces in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, more than 100 civilians in Israel and Lebanon have been killed and more than 150,000 displaced from their homes. The exchanges have also sparked fires on both sides of the border.
The Israeli military said in statements on Friday that it “successfully intercepted a suspected aerial target that passed through Lebanese territory” and that “a number of projectiles were detected passing through Lebanon to various areas in northern Israel.” The army said it responded with artillery fire in southern Lebanon on Friday and aircraft strikes on “terrorist targets” in four areas, including Hezbollah military installations, and that “throughout the night” Israeli warplanes had “hit the terrorist infrastructure of Hezbollah”.
said Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz in a post on social media on Friday that “Israel cannot allow the terrorist organization Hezbollah to continue attacking its territory and its citizens and we will soon take the necessary decisions.” He added that “the free world must unconditionally stand by Israel” against Iran and the militant groups it supports.
“Our war is your war,” he said.
Mr Katz’s comments were an apparent response to Hassan Nasrallah, the Lebanese militia leader, who said on Wednesday that “there would be no place safe from our missiles and our drones” in Israel if a full-scale war broke out.
Mr Nasrallah also threatened to drag Cyprus into the conflict if it allowed Israel to use its airfields and bases in a wider regional war. Cyprus and Israel have a bilateral defense agreement and the countries have held joint exercises in the past. But President Nicos Christodoulidis of Cyprus said his country was “absolutely not involved in any way”. comments posted on social media.
Mr Nasrallah’s threat confirmed the fears of world leaders trying to contain the conflict, underscoring how quickly the fighting could escalate and spread further. President Biden, hoping to defuse the simmering conflict, sent one of his top aides, Amos Hochstein, to Israel on Monday and Lebanon on Tuesday to push for a diplomatic solution.
Farnaz Fashihi contributed to the report.
