US President Joe Biden was set to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday as Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces exchanged fire along the Lebanon-Israel border.
Hezbollah said its fighters were locked in clashes with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, using rocket-propelled weapons to repel Israeli attempts to breach the border.
Two people were killed by suspected Hezbollah rocket fire in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, while Israeli air defences also intercepted two projectiles fired towards the coastal town of Caesarea, officials said.
As fighting raged, with Netanyahu warning Lebanon could face “a long war… like we see in Gaza”, Biden was expected to seek to prevent the conflict escalating into a regional war directly involving Iran.
The US leader will speak to Netanyahu for the first time in seven weeks later Wednesday, a source familiar with the issue said, with Israel’s response to last week’s missile attack by Iran expected to be high on the agenda.
Biden has cautioned Israel against attempting to target Iran’s nuclear programme, which would risk major retaliation, and is also against striking the country’s oil installations, which would send world crude prices spiking.
A new book by veteran US journalist Bob Woodward details growing tensions between Biden and Netanyahu, with Biden telling the Israeli premier in July that “the perception of Israel around the world increasingly is that you’re a rogue state, a rogue actor”, the New York Times reported.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy warned of the “incredibly dangerous” situation in the Middle East as he began a trip to the region on Wednesday to visit Western allies Bahrain and Jordan to discuss a region-wide ceasefire.
– ‘Like Gaza’ –
Israel has intensified air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon since September 23, leaving more than 1,190 people dead and forcing more than a million to flee, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Its ground forces crossed into Lebanon on September 30 in response to Hezbollah rocket and artillery attacks over the past year that have forced tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes in border areas.
Israel’s military said on Wednesday that its troops had “eliminated terrorists during close-quarter encounters and in aerial strikes” over the previous 24 hours, adding that “100 Hezbollah terror targets were destroyed.”
Israeli operations have expanded from border areas in the interior to the southern section of Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast.
According to a new toll from the Israeli army on Wednesday, 13 soldiers have died since ground operations inside Lebanon began.
“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” Netanyahu said in a video message addressed to the Lebanese people on Tuesday.
Israel was also extending an ongoing military operation around Jabalia in the north of Gaza on Wednesday, where around 400,000 people are trapped, according to Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Posting on X, Lazzarini said that there was “no end to hell” in the area and that “recent evacuation orders from the Israeli authorities are forcing people to flee again & again.”
The army surrounded the town of Jabalia and its refugee camp at the weekend and was shelling it on Wednesday, preventing the delivery of aid, the Palestinian territory’s civil defence agency said.
Israel invaded Gaza after last year’s October 7 attack by Hamas militants that resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures, which include hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 42,010 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations has descibed as reliable.
Israeli police said at least six people were wounded Wednesday, some of them seriously, in a stabbing rampage at four locations in the central town of Hadera.
– Evacuation warning –
During their talks later, Biden is expected to press Netanyahu for details about how Israel intends to retaliate for Iran’s launch of around 200 missiles at Israel last week.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had been due to visit Washington for talks on Wednesday but the visit was postponed at the last-minute.
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu had demanded the cabinet decide on the action to be taken before Gallant’s departure.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah, which are backed by Iran, have vowed to keep up their attacks on Israel, with Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem on Tuesday saying the group would make it impossible for Israelis to return to the north of the country.
In Beirut, many people are sleeping out in the streets after Israeli air strikes and dozens of displaced families were seen on Beirut’s seafront on Wednesday.
Ahmad, a 77-year-old Beirut resident who did not want to give his second name for fear of reprisals, said he had a message for Hezbollah.
“If you can’t continue to fight, announce you are withdrawing and that you have lost. There is no shame in losing,” he said.
But Raed Ayyash, a displaced man from the south of the country, said he hoped Hezbollah would keep fighting.
“We hope for victory and we will never give up,” he said.
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