Israel Sees ‘New Phase’ in Regional War After Lebanon Blasts
(Bloomberg) -- Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared what he called a “new phase” in the war with regional Islamist groups and said troops would be diverted to the Lebanese border, an indication that long-held fears of a wider conflict may soon be realized.
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More military resources will be deployed to the north of the country, where Israel has been exchanging rocket fire with Hezbollah militants for almost a year, Gallant told forces at the Ramat David airbase on Wednesday. His comments came after waves of exploding telecommunications devices in Lebanon killed 26 people over two days and wounded more than 3,000, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
The attacks were widely seen as an escalation of hostilities by Israel, which didn’t take responsibility for what was a complex sabotage of pagers and walkie-talkies, gadgets considered obsolete in much of the world.
“The center of gravity is moving north, meaning that we are allocating forces, resources and energy for the northern arena,” Gallant said. “We are at the start of a new phase in the war, and we must adapt.”
Israeli-Hezbollah tensions were ramped up on Tuesday, when a large number of telecommunication devices used by Hezbollah militants detonated in tandem, followed by a second, smaller wave on Wednesday. The assault made headlines across the world, in part due to the unusual nature of a technologically advanced operation.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese government both blamed Israel for the audacious assault, with the former vowing to retaliate. Israel hasn’t commented on the events, while making clear in recent weeks that gaining the upper hand over Hezbollah is a top priority, with the war against Hamas in Gaza drifting inconclusively.
Iran, which provides financial backing to both Hezbollah and Hamas, vowed to retaliate as its ambassador to Lebanon was seriously injured in one of the explosions. The Islamic Republic’s envoy to the United Nations said in a letter to the Security Council that Iran “reserves its rights under international law to take required measures deemed necessary to respond to such a heinous crime and violation.”
Both Hezbollah and Hamas are designated terrorist organizations by the US.
Lebanon’s Civil Defense said firefighters were called to several homes in various parts of the country on Wednesday, including Beirut neighborhoods. In the southern town of Nabatiyeh, they put out fires in 60 homes, 15 cars and dozens of motorcycles as a result of exploding telecom devices, as well as two items for detecting fingerprints.
Lebanese Information Minister Ziyad Makari told Al-Jazeera TV that his country didn’t fear Hezbollah’s response, but “we fear Israel and its crimes.”
“What happened is a new kind of warfare, and investigations are ongoing by the state and Hezbollah,” he said. “There will certainly be coordination between the state and the group to investigate, because the attack is on Lebanese sovereignty as a whole.”
Tens of thousands of civilians have had to flee their homes in northern Israel and southern Lebanon amid cross-border missile and drone strikes. Hundreds of Hezbollah fighters have been killed as well as about 50 Israelis.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Monday that the security cabinet had made returning evacuees home a formal objective of the war. The prime minister told one of US President Joe Biden’s senior Middle East envoys this week that an all-out conflict between Israeli forces and Hezbollah is becoming more likely.
Diplomacy has stumbled, and war may be the only way to stop Hezbollah’s attacks and enable Israeli civilians to return to the northern border area, Netanyahu told Amos Hochstein. Meanwhile, talks to pause the war with Hamas have been deadlocked for months, with certain sticking points proving impossible to resolve.
The US is trying to calm the situation. Hochstein, who handles the Israel-Lebanon file for the White House, told Netanyahu that a deeper conflict is not in Israel’s interest and would only risk a regionwide war, Bloomberg reported.
--With assistance from Augusta Saraiva and Sherif Tarek.
(Updates with Gaza war in sixth paragraph.)
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