Israel told the United States it wants Hezbollah pushed back 9.6 kilometers (6 miles) from its border, stressing that Tel Aviv couldn’t accept tens of thousands of its citizens being internally displaced because of border clashes, Axios has reported.
The US has no direct public channel with Hezbollah, which is the largest political and military force in Lebanon, but has been negotiating behind the scenes through intermediaries to try and deescalate tensions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Chief Yoav Gallant delivered the message to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin during his visit to Tel Aviv.
Israel had publicly demanded Hezbollah withdraw 30 kilometers (18 miles) to the Litani river in the north, as required by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between the two.
According to Axios, Austin asked Israel to allow the US time and space to make diplomatic efforts. Netanyahu and Gallant said they wanted to see progress in “the next few weeks”.
Lebanon’s border with Israel is “dangerous” with ongoing exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel, the head of the UN peacekeeping force there warns.
“The situation now, as everybody knows – it is tense. It is difficult, it is dangerous,” stated Aroldo Lazaro, the head of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.
“We are trying to continue with our liaison and coordination role … in order to avoid miscalculations, misinterpretations that could be another trigger for escalation,” Lazaro told journalists.
More than 130 people have been killed in hostilities on the Lebanese side. On the Israeli side, four civilians and seven soldiers have been killed.
Amid the conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israeli troops and Hamas, tension has flared along the border between the Israeli-occupied territories and Lebanon, with exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah and the Israeli regime have been exchanging sporadic fire since October 8, a day after the Zionist regime started bringing the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip under a relentless and indiscriminate war.
The Lebanese resistance movement has announced the group’s “guns and rockets” were with Palestinian fighters, and stressed that it will intensify its attacks against Israel if necessary.
Gallant has recently told senior Israeli officials that Hezbollah is “ten times stronger than Hamas”, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster has reported.
President Joe Biden and his aides have advised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to launch pre-emptive strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, The New York Times daily newspaper has reported.
Hezbollah has already fought off two Israeli wars against Lebanon in 2000 and 2006, forcing a humiliating retreat upon the Tel Aviv regime’s military in both cases.
The resistance movement has vowed to resolutely defend Lebanon in case of any Israeli-imposed war.
