USA wants to prevent “bigger war” on Lebanese-Israeli border

HISTORY: A senior American diplomat said Tuesday that the United States was trying to avert a larger war along the border between Israel and Lebanon.

“What (US) President (Joe) Biden wants to do is prevent further escalation toward a larger war. That’s what this is about.”

US envoy Amos Hochstein was in Beirut after an escalation in cross-border shelling between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

Hochstein said he was sent to Lebanon immediately after a brief visit to Israel because the situation was “serious.”

Parallel to the Gaza war, which broke out on October 7, the Iran-backed Hezbollah is engaged in a clash with Israel.

Last week, the group fired its largest rocket and drone barrage in eight months after an Israeli strike killed a senior militant commander.

Hochstein has a strong track record in the region, having been involved in negotiations on the first Israeli-Lebanese agreement on a maritime border between the two countries in 2022.

But Hezbollah says it will not stop its attacks on Israel until there is a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Hochstein on Tuesday called on the Palestinian militia Hamas to accept a US-backed ceasefire proposal.

“A ceasefire in Gaza and/or an alternative diplomatic solution could also end the conflict beyond the Blue Line and create the conditions for displaced Lebanese civilians in the south and Israeli civilians in the north to return home.”

But a ceasefire in Gaza seems a long way off. The Israeli military released a video on Tuesday purporting to show its troops in Rafah, where it is allegedly trying to track down the remaining Hamas brigades and free hostages.

The conflict broke out after Hamas fighters invaded Israel, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250, according to Israeli sources.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, more than 37,000 people have died in Israel’s devastating retaliatory strikes in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier this month, Israeli special forces carried out a daring rescue operation in which four hostages were freed and returned to Israel by helicopter.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military released this video in which one of the pilots involved in the operation describes his conversation with the recently released Shlomi Ziv.

“During the flight to the hospital, I turned around and saw Shlomi looking out the window. I asked the crew chief next to him if Shlomi wanted to come into the cockpit and talk to us. We let him in, gave him headphones and spent ten minutes talking to a hostage who had just been released from captivity.”

“Yes, June 8th, the day of the operation, was my birthday and I am sure it is the best present I could receive.”

But for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, there were no such happy moments.

At a hospital in Khan Younis, residents mourned the victims of an Israeli air strike on a commercial street.

Umm Mohammed Daloul is the aunt of one of the dead.

“They are traders, they have nothing to do with anything. They have fired rockets at them. There is no security, there is no security… They are innocent people. They are honest people. They have nothing to do with anything. They are traders. They have killed the traders, they have killed people. They have killed children. They have killed women. They have mistreated us. God is enough for us and the best administrator of our affairs. I cannot say more than that.”

Funerals were held in the Nuseirat refugee camp on Tuesday after 17 people were killed in air strikes.