Israel ups war rhetoric as Hezbollah’s attacks raise alarm

Israel is escalating warnings against Hezbollah in Lebanon by threatening it could be forced into a war with the Iran-backed group, following increasingly deadly attacks.

Hezbollah’s rockets and drones have caused significant damage in the past few days, prompting Israeli officials to reiterate warnings to the militants and Lebanon that war is an option. A drone strike on a facility on Wednesday wounded 10 Israelis and killed one soldier.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the northern town of Kiryat Shmona, where Hezbollah’s Katyusha rockets caused an unusually massive blaze in a forested area.

“Whoever thinks he can hurt us while we respond by sitting on our hands is making a big mistake,” said Netanyahu. “One way or another, we will restore security to the north.”

His comments indicate an increasing risk that the near-daily trading of fire between Israel and Hezbollah across the Lebanese border could escalate, adding a second war front for the Jewish State to the conflict against Hamas in Gaza. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran and designated as terrorists by the U.S.

Lebanon is holding talks with Arab and international partners to prevent an all-out war and is taking Netanyahu’s and other comments seriously, according to a person within the crisis-hit country’s caretaker government. Yet much of the Israeli rhetoric is directed at a domestic audience to lift morale, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive subjects.

Lebanon expects the U.S. to step in and help prevent war if needed, but there’s no guarantees Netanyahu would listen, according to the person.

The U.S. said Wednesday it’s pursuing a peaceful solution between Lebanon and Israel to prevent a full-scale conflict. Matt Miller, spokesman for the State Department, played down the Israeli rhetoric though said the country may be prepared for a hostile option.

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said this week the country is approaching the point where a decision would have to be made on how to manage its northern front with Lebanon and that “the IDF is prepared and ready to move to an offensive.”

Israel’s military said Sunday it had completed an exercise to increase readiness in areas bordering Lebanon and Syria, which included “scenarios simulating an expanded war in the northern arena, as well as multi-arena warfare.”

War cabinet member Benny Gantz, who’s been demanding that security be restored in the region by Sept. 1, said Wednesday that Israel “can’t lose another year in the north.” Gantz has given Netanyahu an ultimatum — which expires on Saturday — over the situation and called on the prime minister to present a plan for postwar Gaza.

‘No choice’

“The world needs to wake up and realize that Israel has no choice but to protect its citizens and it should come as no surprise when it does so — strongly and ever more resolutely,” President Isaac Herzog said late Wednesday.

“Do not be up in arms when the situation becomes out of control,” he said.

While the exchange of fire has been broadly limited to south Lebanon and Israel’s northern region, the attacks in recent days have caused alarm that the situation could escalate.

Over the past four months, there’s been a more than 12-fold jump in the number of drone attacks by Hezbollah, which are more accurate and lethal and much harder to detect, trace and intercept.

Strikes using unmanned aerial vehicles more than doubled to 85 in May from April, with a comparable increase seen in the number of anti-tank missiles fired on Israeli territory, according to data from the Alma Research and Education Center. In total, attacks in May went up to 325 from 238 in the previous month.

Israel’s airstrikes on south Lebanon have caused extensive damage, leaving some villages almost entirely under the rubble and turning many others into ghost towns.

Some 60,000 Israeli residents of settlements adjacent to the border were evacuated from their homes by the government since Oct. 7 and some 90,000 civilians have fled south Lebanon.

Little progress

Diplomatic efforts have so far failed to reach a compromise on ceasing the hostilities. While Israel is demanding Hezbollah withdraw about 6 miles away from the border, the group has publicly said that it wouldn’t negotiate any terms without a cease-fire in Gaza.

The Biden administration has tried to mediate a resolution by sending U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein on visits both to Beirut and Tel Aviv several times since the war in Gaza began. Hochstein led negotiations in 2022 and resolved a maritime dispute between the two, in what was a rare diplomatic success.

French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian was in Beirut last week for talks with officials including Hezbollah lawmakers. The French diplomat tried to bring the various Lebanese parties together to elect a new president and end nearly two years of deadlock.

Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general, told Al-Jazeera in an interview this week that if Israel “wants to go for an expanded war, we are ready for it.”

“We don’t want it but we are ready for it,” he said.