Israel and Hezbollah play a risky tit-for-tat, leaving region on edge
JERUSALEM — As the war has raged in the Gaza Strip, another battle has unfurled in parallel along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon — a risky game of tit-for-tat that has intensified in recent weeks, with a far stronger foe.
In a measure of the danger of a full-scale war erupting, President Joe Biden dispatched one of his senior aides, Amos Hochstein, to Israel on Monday and to Lebanon on Tuesday to press for a diplomatic solution.
ADVERTISING
Unlike Hamas, the Palestinian militia fighting Israel in Gaza, Hezbollah has troops who are battle-hardened combatants, and the group possesses long-range, precision-guided missiles that can strike targets deep inside Israel.
Despite apparent efforts by both sides to keep the cycle of strikes and counterstrikes from spiraling into a full-blown war beyond the one raging in Gaza, civilians in Israel and Lebanon have been killed, and more than 150,000 people have been forced from their homes along the border.
But as the fighting in recent days has intensified, so too have fears that a miscalculation could draw the sides into deeper conflict. Hezbollah has said it will not negotiate a truce until Israel ends its military campaign in Gaza, which is likely to continue for weeks or months.
Analysts say Hezbollah is much stronger now than it was in 2006, the last time the group fought a major war with Israel. A war between the two sides today, they said, could devastate both Israel and Lebanon.
Despite the risks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced rising pressure at home to intensify the country’s military campaign against Hezbollah. In the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, endorsed a preemptive war in Lebanon but was overruled. On Tuesday, the Israeli military announced that top commanders had approved operational plans for a potential offensive in Lebanon, without specifying when or if the plans would be used.
Hochstein met with senior Lebanese officials in Beirut to press for a diplomatic solution Tuesday, a day after meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
“The situation is serious,” Hochstein told reporters in Beirut. “We have seen an escalation over the last few weeks, and what President Biden wants to do is to avoid a further escalation to a greater war.”
© 2024 The New York Times Company
