The United States warned Israel not to escalate the IDF-Hezbollah war, as it sought diplomatic solutions to the violence on Israel’s southern and northern borders.
“The message to Israel is, don’t do anything in the North,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, as US President Joe Biden’s special envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel on Monday, with plans to head to Lebanon on Tuesday.
“We don’t want to see escalation at all in the North. We’ve made that clear to the government of Israel directly,” Miller said.
He noted that Hezbollah attacks from southern Lebanon against Israel were “untenable,” as was the situation of the Lebanese civilians living through the consequences of the cross-border violence.
“So, it is a situation that has to be resolved. But our preference is that it be resolved diplomatically and that has been Israel’s preference, they have stated that publicly and privately,” he said.
US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told reporters in Washington that the White House didn’t want to see a second front in northern Israel.
“We are concerned about it,” he said, adding that this is why Hochstein is in the region. “If we weren’t concerned about it, we would not have sent Amos over there,” he added.
Making the rounds
Hochstein met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and National Unity Party head Benny Gantz.
Gallant’s office said that the Defense Minister had “provided a situational assessment of developments on Israel’s northern border, emphasizing the daily attacks conducted by Hezbollah against Israel’s communities and detailing the IDF’s efforts to thwart Hezbollah terrorists and infrastructure.”
Herzog’s office said that the two “discussed the relentless attacks and rocket fire from Hezbollah, instigated by Iran, towards Israel’s northern towns and cities, and the urgent need to restore security to the northern border and allow residents to return safely to their homes.”
In Hungary, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that everyone wants a “diplomatic solution” to Lebanon, “but Hezbollah is breaking the rules.”
He stressed that it was important to secure the border with Lebanon in order to ensure that the scores of thousands of Israelis forced to flee their homes on October 7 would be able to return home.
If diplomacy is not possible, he said, then “we knew how to face threats and win wars – if we are destined to fight, we will fight and militarily defeat Hezbollah.”
Miller said that the “situation had escalated in the past week, with Hezbollah strikes against civilian targets.”
He referenced the US’s belief that a Gaza ceasefire is necessary for a diplomatic solution on the northern border to be successful.
“A ceasefire in Gaza makes a resolution in the North much easier, given the ceasefire [in Gaza] still remains elusive,” Miller said.
He and Kirby spoke as the US sought to close a three-phase hostage and ceasefire deal that President Joe Biden unveiled on May 31 to secure the release of the remaining 120 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Kirby explained that the Biden administration has continued to speak with the mediators for that deal – Qatar and Egypt.
“We still believe this is a very live process,” he said.