Israeli soldiers pictured at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, site of a Hamas attack as forces prepare for a ground invasion of Gaza. Photo: Abir Sultan/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Israeli planes began bombing Lebanon as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned that it would “destroy” the country if Hezbollah entered the war.
It has begun air raids. as the United States and Britain expressed fears that Israel's war with Hamas could «escalate» into a conflict involving the «greater Middle East».
The Israeli strikes came after anti-tank missiles fired by Hezbollah killed one person in northern Israel, in the worst clashes outside Gaza since the war began.
Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel's national security adviser , warned the Iran-sponsored terrorist group not to go to war on a second front, threatening the «destruction of Lebanon» if it did so.
Western countries have warned against any escalation of the conflict and have tried to prevent it from spreading beyond Syria, potentially drawing Iran into it as the US sends a second aircraft carrier strike group to the region over the weekend.
Yoav Gallant, Israeli Defense Minister, with troops near the Gaza border. Photo: Israeli Ministry of Defense/Anadolu via Getty Images
On Sunday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hosted Jordan's King Abdullah for talks on how to defuse the crisis.
The pair discussed «diplomatic efforts to prevent further escalation in the Middle East, working with regional leaders as well as the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority,» Downing Street said in a statement.
Jake Sullivan, US President, White House National Security Adviser said the US sees «a real risk of escalation on the northern border» and warned Iran through diplomatic channels, so that he does not interfere.
The United Nations reported «intense» rocket fire and exchanges of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah in the area.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an IDF spokesman, said the group should be «very careful» about crossing the threshold war.
“Over the past few days, we have had several skirmishes with Hezbollah along the border,” he said.
“I strongly encourage Hezbollah to monitor very closely what is happening with Hamas and their organization in Gaza as we speak,” he added.
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has vowed to “destroy » Hamas in retaliation for the killing of 1,400 Israeli civilians during a raid on the south of the country last week. In addition, the IDF said it had killed the elite Hamas commander who led the deadly attack.
The Israeli army said in a statement that «as part of large-scale IDF strikes against high-level militants and terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip,» they killed commander Bilal al-Qedra, as well as other Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants.
Al-Qedra , as the IDF said, was behind the massacres at Kibbutzim Nirim and Nir Oz.
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Netanyahu is expected to order a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip in the coming days. The IDF said it was awaiting a «political decision» on the timing of the operation.
Gaza health officials say preparatory Israeli airstrikes killed 2,450 people in a week.
Israel said it had shut down supplying water to southern Gaza, while continuing to urge citizens to flee the northern part of the territory, where his invasion will be concentrated.
Fears of a regional war rose on Sunday after Iran, which has turned Hezbollah into its main proxy force through decades of funding, warned that an incursion into Gaza could lead to a wider conflict zone.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian , Iran's Foreign Minister said that Tehran cannot «remain a spectator» and that if the war expands, the United States will suffer «heavy losses.»
«No one can guarantee control of the situation and the non-expansion of conflicts,» — he said, according to a statement from Iran's Foreign Ministry.
Ebrahim Raisi, Iran's president, separately told Emmanuel Macron: The French president said «the situation could become more complicated and expand» if the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip does not end.
His comments came after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a second aircraft carrier. The strike force will depart for the region on Saturday.
A U.S. Defense Department spokesman called the deployment «a deterrent signal to Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah and any other proxies in the region that may consider exploiting the current situation to escalate the conflict.»
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower left the country. Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday. It will join the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, which arrived off the coast of Israel last week.
The United States and Israel have already drawn up a joint list of strikes against Hezbollah targets that would be hit in the event of war, the right-wing Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon reported, citing Israeli pilots Air Force.
Deployment has taken place. Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, visited Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan in a swift diplomatic effort to avert war and ease Egypt's humanitarian crisis.
Mr Blinken is expected to return to Israel on Monday. inform Israeli leaders of the results of their consultations.
Egyptian state media reported that the country's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi told Mr Blinken that Israel's operation had exceeded the «right of self-defence» and had become «collective punishment» .
Mr Blinken said after the meeting, Egypt agreed to open the Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip, the only exit route for civilians stranded in the territory.
Hezbollah said it fired 20 rockets at Israel on Sunday . Israel said nine rockets crossed the border, five of which were intercepted.
UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, said it observed «intense firefights» along the border and that rockets fell on both sides of the Blue Line «, dividing Lebanon and Israel. One rocket hit UNIFIL headquarters, but there were no casualties.
Israel has declared a 4km-deep zone on its side of the border a closed military zone and has cut off GPS signals as clashes escalate.
Israeli media have reported plans to evacuate 70,000 people from the north if war breaks out with Hezbollah.< /p>
Israel earlier hit Damascus and Aleppo airports in overnight air raids designed to prevent Iran from stationing strategic weapons in the area.
A Hezbollah spokesman denied the group's decision to fully enter the war, saying the border clashes had so far were «just skirmishes» and constituted a «warning.»
The group said Sunday's rocket attack was a retaliation for Saturday's Israeli strike on Lebanon that killed two civilians and a Reuters cameraman.
Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator, warned that the United States would consider a Hezbollah attack an “existential threat” to Israel and respond accordingly.
“Here is my message. If Hezbollah, which is a proxy of Iran, launches a massive attack on Israel, I would consider it a threat to the State of Israel that is existential in nature,” he said on NBC's Meet the Press.
» I will introduce a resolution in the United States Senate that would allow United States military action with Israel to drive Iran out of the oil business. Iran, if you escalate this war, we will come for you.»
Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel minister during the second intifada in 2000 accused Netanyahu of “the greatest failure in Israeli history.”
In an interview with The Economist, he said that the military goal of completely destroying Hamas was unrealistic and the operation should focus on eliminating military capabilities group like ISIS.
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