Lebanon’s deputy parliament speaker says if Israel avoids major sites it could avert all-out war, as country braces for reprisal for deadly rocket attack that killed 12
By REUTERS and TOI STAFFToday, 8:59 am
Smoke billows from a site targeted by the Israeli military in the southern Lebanese border village of Kafr Kila on July 29, 2024. (Rabih DAHER / AFP)
The United States is leading a diplomatic dash to deter Israel from striking Lebanon’s capital Beirut or major civil infrastructure in response to a deadly rocket attack on the Golan Heights, five people with knowledge of the drive said.
Washington is racing to avert a full-blown war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah after the attack on the Golan Heights killed 12 kids and youths playing at a soccer field over the weekend, according to the five people, who include Lebanese and Iranian officials and Middle Eastern and European diplomats.
Israel and the US have blamed Hezbollah for the rocket strike, though the group, which admitted launching missiles at the area where the attack occurred, has denied responsibility.
The focus of the high-speed diplomacy has been to constrain Israel’s response by urging it against targeting densely populated Beirut, the southern suburbs of the capital that form Hezbollah’s heartland, or key infrastructure like airports and bridges, said the sources who requested anonymity to discuss confidential details that haven’t been previously reported.
Lebanon’s deputy parliament speaker Elias Bou Saab, who said he had been in contact with US mediator Amos Hochstein since Saturday’s Golan attack, told Reuters Israel could avert the threat of major escalation by sparing the capital and its environs.
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“If they avoid civilians and they avoid Beirut and its suburbs, then their attack could be well calculated,” he said.
People at the scene of the deadly missile attack at a soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights, July 29, 2024. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)
Israeli officials have said that their country wants to hurt Hezbollah but not drag the region into all-out war. The two Middle Eastern and European diplomats said Israel hadn’t made any commitment to avoiding strikes on Beirut, its suburbs, or civil infrastructure.
The US State Department said it wouldn’t comment on the specifics of diplomatic conversations, though it was seeking a “durable solution” to end all cross-border fire. “Our support for Israel’s security is ironclad and unwavering against all Iran-backed threats, including Hezbollah,” a spokesperson told Reuters.
White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that Israel had every right to respond to the Golan strike, but that nobody wanted a broader war. “As for conversations over the weekend, you bet we’ve had them and we had them at multiple levels,” he added. “But I’m not going to detail the guts of those conversations.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment, while Hezbollah declined to comment.
The five people with knowledge of the diplomatic push over the past two days have either been involved in the conversations or briefed on them. They said the efforts aimed to achieve a calibrated approach similar to that which constrained Israel in April as it mulled a response to a massive barrage of some 300 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones fired by Iran.
An Iranian official said the United States had also conveyed messages to Tehran at least three times since Saturday’s attack on the Golan Heights, “warning that escalating the situation would be detrimental to all parties.”
Hezbollah is the most powerful of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” network of regional proxy groups and is allied with the Palestinian terror group Hamas.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
File: Lebanese people look to the site of the destroyed headquarters of Hezbollah at the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
As of Saturday, the skirmishes have resulted in 24 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 18 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 383 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 68 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.
During a 2006 war, the last time Israel and Hezbollah fought a major conflict, Israeli forces bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahieh, hitting Hezbollah-affiliated buildings as well as residential towers. Beirut airport was bombed and put out of action, and across Lebanon bridges, roads, gas stations and other infrastructure were destroyed.
In the past, Israeli officials have warned that a military offensive against Hezbollah would leave Lebanon in tatters.
A French diplomat told Reuters that since the Golan attack, Paris had also been involved in passing messages between Israel and Hezbollah to de-escalate the situation.
France has historic ties with Lebanon, which was under French mandate from 1920 until it gained independence in 1943. Paris has maintained close ties since then and has about 20,000 citizens in the country, many dual nationals.
The French Foreign Ministry didn’t respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The Israeli Homefront Command, a military unit responsible for protecting civilians, has not changed any of its instructions to citizens so far, an indication that the military is not expecting imminent danger from Hezbollah or any other group.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes a security cabinet meeting on July 28, 2024, to discuss Israel’s reaction to the deadly Hezbollah strike in the Golan Heights a day earlier. (Haim Zach/GPO)
On Sunday, Netanyahu’s high-level security cabinet authorized the premier and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to “decide on the manner and timing of the response” against Hezbollah.
This decision, coupled with the abstention of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners — Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — suggested that Israel has opted for a response short of the all-out war that some politicians have advocated for.
Following the Golan attack, Smotrich had issued a strong statement demanding robust action. He posted on X: “For the death of children, [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah should pay with his head. All of Lebanon should pay.”
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