Israeli warplanes carried out late on Thursday their most intense strikes on south Lebanon in nearly a year of war, Lebanese security sources said, heightening the conflict between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah amid calls for restraint.
The White House said a diplomatic solution was achievable and urgent, and Britain called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The U.S. is "afraid and concerned about potential escalation," spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing.
The intense barrage followed attacks earlier in the week attributed by Lebanon and Hezbollah to Israel that blew up Hezbollah radios and pagers, killing 37 people and wounding about 3,000 in Lebanon.
In Thursday's late operation, Israel launched dozens of bombs across southern Lebanon, three Lebanese security sources said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Israeli radio stations reported that dozens of fighter jets struck Hezbollah targets including around 100 rocket launchers.
Israel's military did not confirm the shelling but said earlier it had struck dozens of Hezbollah targets, including rocket launchers and weapon depots in southern Lebanon.
In a TV address on Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the device explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday "crossed all red lines".
"The enemy went beyond all controls, laws and morals," he said, adding the attacks "could be considered war crimes or a declaration of war."
Israel has not directly commented on the pager and radio detonations, which security sources say were probably carried out by its Mossad spy agency, which has a long history of carrying out sophisticated attacks on foreign soil.
The Lebanese mission to the U.N. said in a letter to the Security Council on Thursday that Israel was responsible for detonating the devices via electronic messages and explosives implanted in them before they arrived in Lebanon, in line with theories that have circulated since the explosions.
The 15-member Security Council is due to meet on Friday over the blasts. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on the United Nations Security Council to take a firm stand to stop Israel's "aggression" and "technological war".
As Nasrallah's broadcast aired, deafening sonic booms from Israeli warplanes shook Beirut, a sound that has become common in recent months but has taken on a greater significance as the threat of all-out war has steadily ramped up.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said late on Thursday that Israel will keep up military action against Hezbollah.
"In the new phase of the war there are significant opportunities but also significant risks. Hezbollah feels that it is being persecuted and the sequence of military actions will continue," Gallant said in a statement.
"Our goal is to ensure the safe return of Israel's northern communities to their homes. As time goes by, Hezbollah will pay an increasing price," Gallant said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his close circle of ministers for consultations, Israel's Channel 13 News reported.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat on Thursday in Israel's north, the Israeli military said.
Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel the day after the Oct 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas which triggered the Gaza war.
Since then, constant exchanges of fire have occurred. Although neither side has allowed this to escalate into a full-scale war, it has led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from the border area on both sides.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah hoped Israeli troops would enter southern Lebanon because that would create a "historic opportunity" for the Iran-backed group.
No military escalation, killing, assassinations or all-out war would return Israeli residents to the border area, he added.
"Yes, we received a big and harsh blow, but this is also the nature of war," Nasrallah said. "We know that our enemy has superiority on the technological level and we have never said otherwise."
Israel will face "a crushing response from the axis of resistance", Iran's Revolutionary Guards Commander Hossein Salami told Nasrallah on Thursday, according to state media.
Speaking in Paris, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged restraint, adding he did not want to see any escalatory actions by any party that make a Gaza ceasefire deal even more difficult.
The attacks on Hezbollah communications equipment sowed fear across Lebanon, with people abandoning electronic devices for fear of carrying bombs in their pockets.
Nasrallah said thousands of pagers had been targeted simultaneously, with some of the explosions happening in hospitals, pharmacies, markets, shops and streets busy with civilians, women and children.
Israel says its conflict with Hezbollah, like its war in Gaza against Hamas, is part of a wider regional confrontation with Iran, which sponsors both groups as well as armed movements in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
Israel has been accused of assassinations including a blast in Tehran that killed the leader of Hamas and another in a Beirut suburb that killed a senior Hezbollah commander within hours of each other in July.
© Thomson Reuters 2024.
33 Comments
Tamarama
Israel are acting with impunity.
I am getting to the point where I want to see them humbled, frankly.
sakurasuki
Yesterday there were children died by occupier, that's still not enough?
https://jordantimes.com/news/region/two-children-among-12-dead-lebanon-pager-blasts-minister
deanzaZZR
Where is the uproar in the UN Security Council for these clear acts of war? The UN is clearly broken.
TaiwanIsNotChina
There might be something to talk about if there wasn't regular missiles out of Lebanon since October 8th, 2023.
Fighto!
LOL.
Hezbollah cannot even vet their own communications equipment- even after attacks on their pagers! The likelihood of them and Iran coordinating a "crushing response" is remote at best.
They will both wave their fists and yell. That's what they always do.
Alfie Noakes
Israel can't invade South Lebanon without its tik tok army of child killers and rapists getting decimated, so they're trying to provoke Hezbollah into launching an attack. Nasrullah isn't playing their game, to his great credit. Netanyahu's last card is to provoke a regional war and drag the US into it. Israel is destroying itself.
Aly Rustom
Oh I arrived at that point months ago.
RichardPearce
Funny how America's idea of a 'diplomatic solution' is the genocide regime getting to demand anything it wants, and America dressing it up in diplomatic language and insisting whoever Israel is attacking accept it.
It could, of course, introduce into the UNSC the resolution that passed so massively through the UNGA, and leave Netanyahu and his minions to figure out how they will retreat to Israel.
burgers and beers
Nobody believes the hypocrisy out of Washington mouthpieces anymore.
Aly Rustom
The U.S. is "afraid and concerned about potential escalation," spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing.
And in other news...
U.S. warplanes, ships and troops ready in Middle East if conflict expands
wallace
Netanyahu is going for all-out war.
spinningplates
I don’t know if you can exterminate a bunch of terrorists by having their communication devices blow up in their face, and then say ‘wait, let’s talk.’
I think you’re ‘all in’ at that point.
Sanjinosebleed
Just to seal the deal Netanyahu trying to stay out of jail means he is willing to throw anyone under a bus!
Act of war and yet the western media will blame Hezbollah fir
WoodyLee
That TV screen needs an adjustment, LOL
M3M3M3
The idea that Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation is laughable at this point given the context of tens of thousands of dead civilians in Gaza.
The total number of deaths attributable to all supposed Hezbollah terror attacks is only around 540 people, and the overwhelming majority of these were military personnel and government officials in the 1980s.
Considering the substantial finances and weaponry at their disposable, they would have to be one of the most restrained and least effective terror organisation in history.
RichardPearce
Interesting how so many of the West's independent media decided to ignore the Lebanese Prime Minister's speech and feature only Nasrallah, who simply repeated the official position of the Lebanese government.
It's either than these newsrooms have independently concluded that the internationally recognized, democratically elected Lebanese government is only worth mentioning when it is reading the script that America wrote for it, or the dozens of competing editors in dozens of countries all saw both speeches and decided to ignore the same one.
u_s__reamer
Oh I arrived at that point months ago.
Me too. Decades ago, actually.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Two things can both be true at the same time.
Just because Israel has a good missile defense doesn't make Hezbollah not terrorists.
They have whatever Iran gives them. The only reason they haven't used it is because that is all Iran has and doesn't want to use it up.
WoodyLee
The IDF is wounded and suffers from the Gaza Syndrome let alone face Hezbollah fighters !? Nah I doubt it very much.
Still stuck in the sands of Gaza getting depleted day by day with none of it's goals achieved, and now Bibi wants them to fight Hezbollah !? Not gonna happen.
Kaowaiinekochanknaw
This is all happening under the Biden-Harris Administration.
Do better next time America.
bass4funk
Yup!
itsonlyrocknroll
It is breath-taking, remarkable, the global community have eyes facing forward.
Yet are blinded, confused, mumbling incoherent, dithering.
The 7th October atrocity, Hamas extremist Islamic terrorist massacre of 1200 men women, children, infants.
To contend believe that the brutal taking, public raping torturing of hostages, will result in a "two state solution",
Hezbollah literally a day after such an atrocity launching missiles into Israel.
Harris/Biden dithering fence sitting , this "push me pull you" political masquerade, this charade of "ceasefire" is beyond offensive, taking the US people as imbeciles.
All out War in the middle east is closing in day by day.
US congress will insist that Israel will be fully supported militarily, logistically.
There is an entire battle group standing by, already to strike back.
The Israeli government have time and again stated they are at War!
Wake up!
Strangerland
I actually think Harris/Biden have done masterfully. If there were an easy solution, it would already be solved. It's an extremely complex situation, with both sides having very valid points. The US cannot directly control anything, all they can do is help negotiate and exert influence. And they've done that masterfully, while also juggling unreasonable people on both sides in their own country who are so stupid as to think "It's simple, they just need to [fill in the blank]", as if that didn't identify the speaker as being mindbogglingly stupid.
owzer
I think he meant "axis of evil"
owzer
Israel should write "diPlOmAtiC sOlUtiOn" on the side of their missiles.
ArtistAtLarge
Never mind the TV, WoodyLee, that wiring breaks every fire safety rule on earth. :)
itsonlyrocknroll
I think we both can agree Strangerland, with the best intensions a ceasefire or a two state solution was never even a pipe dream.
Historic religious grievance's of a such a toxic bloody nature, extremism so deeply rooted cannot be simply negotiated away.
Cephus
"Israel unleashes heavy strikes on Lebanon as U.S. urges urgent diplomatic solution."
Someone once said "never try putting your finger in a sleeping lions ass." Ignoring the warning, Hezbollah tried doing just that, now collectively they are going to reap the repercussion of your actions.
TokyoLiving
Genocidal monsters..
TokyoLiving
War criminal..
owzer
Yep. That's why Israel is taking them out.
nik
who gives weapons, aid and patronage to israel? right msha and western countries. And who gives weapons and aid to ukraine? also usa and western countries. so soon they will be responsible for this. there is not much time left
TaiwanIsNotChina
I'd be happy with some US peacekeepers in Ukraine. Would make sure the shelling actually stops.