Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ushered in 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.
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 by Israel, which didn’t confirm or deny responsibility for sabotaging pagers and walkie-talkies.
“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.”
The Israeli minister spoke after a large number of telecommunication devices used by Hezbollah militants detonated in tandem on Tuesday, with a smaller, second wave going off on Wednesday. The assault made headlines across the world, in part due to the unusual nature of a technologically advanced operation that sabotaged pagers and walkie-talkies, devices considered outmoded in much of the world.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese government both blamed Israel for the audacious Tuesday assault. Israel hasn’t confirmed or denied responsibility.
Further underscoring the increasing tensions, Iran’s envoy to the United Nations cited the injury to the Islamic Republic’s ambassador to Lebanon, who was seriously wounded by one of the exploding devices, vowing in a letter to the Security Council that Iran will “duly follow up on the attack” and “reserves its rights under international law to take required measures deemed necessary to respond to such a heinous crime and violation.”
On Wednesday, Lebanon’s Civil Defense said firefighters were called to several homes in various parts of the country 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.
The Lebanese army asked people to make way for medics in places experiencing “security incidents,” as television footage showed those affected lying on the ground in several areas.
Hezbollah said Tuesday it would retaliate for the attacks, extending a conflict that’s been running in tandem with Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Iran trains and finances both Hezbollah and Hamas, considered terrorist organizations by the U.S.
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 told one of U.S. 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, he told Amos Hochstein.
The Israeli cabinet agreed on Monday to make the return of those displaced people an official war objective.
The U.S. 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.
Israel’s war with Hamas is ongoing, with cease-fire talks long stalled.
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