Israel Warns Of ‘All-Out War’ With Hezbollah Despite US Envoy Visit
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel warned late Tuesday of “all-out war” against Lebanon-based Hezbollah despite a visiting adviser of U.S. President Joe Biden trying to prevent such an armed conflict.
In meetings Monday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, special U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein tried to rein in hostilities along the “Blue Line” between Israel and Lebanon, the White House said.
Yet after Hezbollah, deemed a terrorist group by Israel, published a 9-minute video showing Israeli military and civilian sites in Israeli cities, Israel’s government made clear that fighting wasn’t over.
“We are getting very close to the moment of deciding to change the rules of the game against Hezbollah and Lebanon,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement on social media.
“In an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed, and Lebanon severely beaten,” the minister stressed.
Some Hezbollah footage, filmed in the daytime, seemed to show Krayot, a cluster of “highly populated” residential areas north of the Israeli city of Haifa and 28 kilometers (17 miles) south of the Lebanese border, along with malls and high-rises.
Other parts claimed to show a military complex near Haifa belonging to Israeli weapons manufacturer Rafael – including Iron Dome batteries, missile storage sites, and radar sites – and military boats, ships, and oil storage depots in the port of Haifa.
INTENSE CLASHES
The footage came after intense cross-border clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, which is allied with Hamas, and attacked Israel on October 7.
Fighting has killed at least 473 people in Lebanon in recent months, most of them fighters but also including 92 civilians, according to official estimates.
Israeli authorities say at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed in the country’s north. Some 200,000 people are believed to have been displaced by the cross-border clashes in Israel and Lebanon.
Yet the prospect of an all-out war on Wednesday was due to increase the number of displaced persons and undermine Hochstein’s effort to prevent a further escalation.
He had said the US was working to avoid a “greater war” in the Middle East after talking with Israeli and Lebanese officials in Israel and Lebanon.
Hochstein met Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday after talks with Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, who has close ties with Hezbollah. He also met Lebanese military commander Gen Joseph Aoun, well-informed sources said.
The U.S. envoy was critical in mediating a maritime border deal between Israel and Lebanon in 2022. However, with Israel warning of “all-out war” following Hezbollah’s threatening video footage, it wasn’t clear how another regional conflict could be avoided.
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