Israeli forces carried out airstrikes Tuesday in southern Lebanon that killed four people, according to Lebanese health officials.
The Israeli military said the strikes in the Nabatiye area targeted Hezbollah militants, while Hezbollah said Tuesday it launched a drone attack directed at Israel.
The attacks are the latest in cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that escalated with the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and comes at a time when the international community is working to avoid an escalation of conflict in the region.
Those concerns heightened last week with an Israeli strike that killed a Hezbollah commander in Beirut and an attack that killed Hamas’ political chief in Tehran which Iran and Hamas blame on Israel.
“Tensions keep escalating in the Middle East, bringing it on the brink of a war of unknown proportions,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Tuesday. “We all must prevent another catastrophe. The way forward is largely consensual: ceasefire in Gaza, now.”
South Korea on Tuesday became the latest country to issue a travel warning for the region, urging its citizens to leave Israel and Lebanon as soon as possible.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant discussed the situation Monday, with Austin reiterating “unwavering U.S. commitment to Israel’s security” in the face of threats from Iran and its proxies such as Hezbollah, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Austin and Gallant agreed that an attack Monday by an Iran-aligned militia on U.S. forces in western Iraq “marked a dangerous escalation and demonstrated Iran’s destabilizing role in the region.”
A U.S. defense official told VOA the attack injured several U.S. personnel.
Israel’s military also Tuesday said its forces were carrying out operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip, and that Israeli aircraft conducted an airstrike in the Jenin area in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian health officials said the strike killed four people, while an Israeli raid in the West Bank village of Aqaaba killed another four people.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its October 7 terror attack that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of 250 hostages. Israel’s counteroffensive has killed at least 39,650 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry, while Israel says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas fighters it has killed.__Courtesy VOA News
