Will the Middle East erupt into flames nearly a year after the October 7 attack by Hamas? The international community is concerned after Israel’s deadly large-scale strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “very seriously concerned” about the number of civilian casualties in Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, his spokesman said Monday.
Key information to remember
⇒ At least 492 dead after Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Monday
⇒ A “large number” of Hezbollah members killed according to the Israeli army
⇒ The conflict threatens to plunge the Middle East into “total war”
Nearly 500 dead in Israeli strikes in Lebanon
Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah on Monday left nearly 500 people dead in Lebanon. They “caused the martyrdom of 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, and injured 1,645 others,” the Lebanese Health Ministry’s Emergency Operations Center said in an evening tally.
“Around 1,600 targets” of Hezbollah targeted
The Israeli army confirmed that it had struck until late in the evening “around 1,600 terrorist targets in southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa Valley”, strongholds of the pro-Iranian movement which regularly bombs its territory in support of its Gazan ally.
The Israeli army also said it killed “a large number of terrorists” from Hezbollah in airstrikes targeting the Islamist movement in Lebanon on Monday. “Among those killed are a large number of Hezbollah terrorists who were near the weapons we targeted,” army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at a press briefing in the evening, without providing any specific figures.
For its part, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for new Fadi 2 missile launches towards Israel during the night. The Israeli army confirmed having detected around twenty launches, without reporting any casualties.
“We are on the brink of total war,” warns Borrell
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Monday that the conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah threatened to plunge the Middle East into “total war.” “I can say that we are almost on the brink of total war,” said the diplomat, who attended a meeting of G7 countries in the evening on the eve of the start of the “high-level week” of the UN General Assembly in New York.
“No country has anything to gain” from an escalation in the Middle East, says the G7
“No country stands to gain from a new escalation in the Middle East,” the G7 states said on Monday on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York. The cycle of “actions and reactions risks increasing the spiral of violence and plunging the entire Middle East into a regional conflict with unimaginable consequences,” the group of wealthy Western countries said in a statement.
US to submit ‘concrete ideas’ to ease tension
The United States will present “concrete” ideas to the U.N. assembly to ease tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border and opposes an Israeli ground invasion to attack the pro-Iranian group Hezbollah, a U.S. official said Monday. “We have concrete ideas that we will discuss this week with our allies and partners,” the official said in New York.
President Joe Biden, who will attend his final UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday, said on Monday that he was “working on a de-escalation” in Lebanon. This would “allow people to return safely to their homes” in northern Israel, where tens of thousands of residents have been forced to flee due to gunfire from pro-Iranian Hezbollah, the US head of state said while receiving his Emirati counterpart Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan at the White House.
France calls for emergency meeting of UN Security Council
France has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in Lebanon, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Monday. “At this moment, I am thinking of the Lebanese people, as Israeli strikes have just caused hundreds of civilian casualties, including dozens of children. These strikes carried out on both sides of the Blue Line (Editor’s note: the UN demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon) and more broadly in the region must cease immediately,” he declared at the UN General Assembly.
“France calls on the parties and those who support them to de-escalate and avoid a regional conflagration that would be devastating for everyone, starting with the civilian population. This is why I have requested that an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Lebanon be held this week,” added the new head of French diplomacy, who took office on Monday. “In Lebanon as elsewhere, France will remain fully mobilized to resolve the major crises that are fracturing the international order. It will take initiatives,” he assured.
China denounces “indiscriminate attacks” on civilians
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, for his part, denounced to his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib the “blind attacks” against civilians, particularly after the wave of explosions of communications equipment in Lebanon.
“We pay close attention to the developments in the regional situation, especially the recent explosions of communications equipment in Lebanon, and firmly oppose indiscriminate attacks on civilians,” Wang Yi said Monday during a bilateral meeting in New York. He added that Beijing would “always stand by” Lebanon, according to a statement from his ministry released Tuesday.
Turkey accuses Israeli strikes of ‘leading the entire region to chaos’
Turkey on Monday accused Israel of “entering a new phase” through its military strikes in Lebanon that will “lead the entire region to chaos,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.