Israeli warplanes carried out their most intense strikes in southern Lebanon in nearly a year of war on Thursday night, escalating the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah amid calls for restraint.
The White House said a diplomatic solution was achievable and urgent, and Britain called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The United States is “scared and concerned about a potential escalation,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing.
The intense bombardment followed attacks earlier in the week blamed by Lebanon and Hezbollah on Israel, which blew up Hezbollah radios and pagers, killing 37 people and wounding about 3,000 in Lebanon.
In the latest operation on Thursday, the Israeli military said its aircraft spent two hours attacking hundreds of multiple rocket launcher guns in southern Lebanon that were to be immediately fired toward Israel.
The bombardment included more than 52 strikes across southern Lebanon after 9 p.m., Lebanese state news agency NNA said.
Three Lebanese security sources said these were the heaviest airstrikes since the conflict began in October.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Israel's military vowed to continue attacking Hezbollah, saying its strikes on Thursday hit around 100 rocket launchers and other targets in southern Lebanon.
In a televised address Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the Tuesday and Wednesday bombings “crossed all red lines.”
“The enemy has broken all controls, laws and morals,” he said, adding that the attacks “could be considered war crimes or a declaration of war.”
Israel has not commented directly on the pager and radio detonations, which security sources say were likely carried out by its Mossad spy agency, which has a long history of carrying out sophisticated attacks on foreign soil.
The Lebanese mission to the UN said in a statement: Letter to the Security Council Thursday that Israel was responsible for detonating the devices through electronic messaging and explosives implanted in them before they reached Lebanon, according to theories that have circulated since the blasts.
The 15-member Security Council is due to meet on Friday to discuss the explosions. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on the Security Council to take a firm stance to stop Israel's “aggression” and “technological warfare.”
Israel vows to pay Hezbollah an “ever-higher price”
As Nasrallah's broadcast aired, deafening sonic booms from Israeli warplanes rocked Beirut, a sound that has become commonplace in recent months but has taken on added significance as the threat of all-out war grows.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday night that Israel will continue its military actions against Hezbollah.
“In the new phase of the war there are significant opportunities, but also significant risks. Hezbollah feels persecuted and the sequence of military actions will continue,” Gallant said in a statement.
“Our goal is to ensure the safe return of the communities in northern Israel to their homes. As time goes on, Hezbollah will pay an ever-increasing price,” Gallant said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has summoned his inner circle of ministers for consultations, Israel's Channel 13 News reported.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in northern Israel on Thursday, the Israeli army said.
'BIG HARD BLOW'
Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel the day after the Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian terror group Hamas that sparked the Gaza war.
Since then, there have been constant exchanges of fire, which, although neither side has allowed the situation to escalate into a full-scale war, have forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from the border area on both sides.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah hoped Israeli troops would enter southern Lebanon because it would create a “historic opportunity” for the Iran-backed group.
No military escalation, massacres, assassinations or all-out war would force Israeli residents to return to the border area, he added.
Israel will face “a crushing response from the axis of resistance,” Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Hossein Salami told Nasrallah on Thursday, according to state media, referring to a coalition of Iran-aligned terrorist groups including Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, Hamas and armed groups in Iraq and Syria.
Speaking in Paris, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged restraint, adding that he did not want to see escalated actions by either side that would make a ceasefire agreement in Gaza more difficult.
Attacks on Hezbollah communications equipment spread fear across Lebanon, with people abandoning their electronic devices for fear of carrying bombs in their pockets.
Nasrallah said thousands of pagers were attacked simultaneously and some of the explosions occurred in hospitals, pharmacies, markets, shops and streets crowded with civilians, women and children.
Israel says its conflict with Hezbollah, like its war in Gaza against Hamas, is part of a broader regional confrontation with Iran, which sponsors both groups as well as armed movements in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
Israel has been accused of assassinations, including a blast in Tehran that killed the leader of Hamas and another in a Beirut suburb that killed a senior Hezbollah commander within hours of each other in July.
