Israel increases airstrikes on Hezbollah, may soon land in Lebanon

World leaders are now expressing concern that the conflict - which runs parallel to Israel's war in Gaza - is escalating rapidly as the death toll in Lebanon rises and thousands are forced to flee their homes.

At a UN Security Council meeting on Lebanon on Wednesday evening, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also said diplomatic efforts had been stepped up to achieve a temporary ceasefire and that a full-scale war must be avoided at all costs.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told reporters in New York that Israel would welcome a ceasefire and prefer a diplomatic solution in Lebanon. But he said that if diplomacy failed, Israel would use all means at its disposal.

A site hit by an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, Lebanon on September 25, 2024. Photo: Reuters

Also at the United Nations, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said his country supported Hezbollah and would not stand idly by in a full-scale war in Lebanon. He said the region was on the brink of a total disaster.

Israel expanded its airstrikes in Lebanon on Wednesday, killing at least 72 people, according to statements from the Lebanese Health Ministry . The ministry had earlier said at least 223 people were wounded. Israel also shot down a rocket that Hezbollah said was aimed at the headquarters of the Mossad intelligence agency near Tel Aviv.

General Herzi Halevi told Israeli troops on the border with Lebanon: "You hear jets overhead; we have been bombing all day."

“This is to prepare the ground for your ability to penetrate and continue to degrade Hezbollah,” he added. However, the Pentagon spokesman said an Israeli ground attack did not appear to be imminent.

There is now some diplomatic activity trying to prevent a full-scale war between the two rivals. Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York that the United States and France are trying to broker a temporary ceasefire.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he would send his foreign minister to Lebanon this week as part of efforts to prevent war from breaking out. “There cannot and must not be war in Lebanon,” he said Wednesday at the annual meeting of the 193-member United Nations.

However, "the risk of escalation in the region is very serious... ", US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a meeting with officials and ministers from Gulf Arab states in New York.

Israeli air strikes this week targeted Hezbollah leaders and hit hundreds of sites deep inside Lebanon, where hundreds of thousands of people have fled across the border.

Hospitals in Lebanon have been packed with the wounded since Monday, when Israeli bombing killed more than 550 people in Lebanon's bloodiest day since the civil war ended in 1990.

Lebanon's foreign minister said up to half a million people may have been displaced in Lebanon. In Beirut, thousands of people displaced from southern Lebanon are taking shelter in schools and other buildings.

Huy Hoang (according to Reuters, CNN)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/israel-tang-cuong-khong-kich-hezbollah-co-the-sap-do-bo-vao-lebanon-post313938.html