US Envoy Flies to Beirut in Surprise Visit, Says Washington Doesn’t Want Gaza War to Expand

US special envoy Amos Hochstein (L) meets with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut on November 7, 2023 amid continuing tenions on the Lebanese-Israeli border, one month after the start of the war between Hamas and Israel. While the war rages in Gaza, there has also been cross-border fighting between Israel and Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah. (AFP)
US special envoy Amos Hochstein (L) meets with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut on November 7, 2023 amid continuing tenions on the Lebanese-Israeli border, one month after the start of the war between Hamas and Israel. While the war rages in Gaza, there has also been cross-border fighting between Israel and Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah. (AFP)
TT
20

US Envoy Flies to Beirut in Surprise Visit, Says Washington Doesn’t Want Gaza War to Expand

US special envoy Amos Hochstein (L) meets with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut on November 7, 2023 amid continuing tenions on the Lebanese-Israeli border, one month after the start of the war between Hamas and Israel. While the war rages in Gaza, there has also been cross-border fighting between Israel and Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah. (AFP)
US special envoy Amos Hochstein (L) meets with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut on November 7, 2023 amid continuing tenions on the Lebanese-Israeli border, one month after the start of the war between Hamas and Israel. While the war rages in Gaza, there has also been cross-border fighting between Israel and Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah. (AFP)

A top US envoy said in Beirut Tuesday that Washington doesn't want the ongoing war in Gaza to expand to Lebanon after a Lebanese woman and her three granddaughters were killed in an Israeli strike two days ago.

The comments from Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden come during a previously unannounced visit to Beirut to discuss the volatile situation with Lebanon's parliament speaker and caretaker prime minister.

Hochstein told reporters after meeting parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that restoring calm along Lebanon’s southern border is of “utmost importance.”

Hochstein said he heard Berri’s concerns over the tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border where fighters of the militant group Hezbollah and their allies have been exchanging fire with Israeli troops for about a month, after the Israel-Hamas war started on Oct.7.

“The United States does not want to see conflict in Gaza escalating and expanding into Lebanon,” Hochstein said in a brief statement. He did not take questions from journalists.

Hochstein’s comments came as the Israeli military and Hezbollah exchanged fire on Tuesday following what Israel said was the targeting of one of its posts along the Lebanese border. The clashes along the border have intensified since Israel launched a ground incursion into Gaza against Palestinian militant group Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah.

On Sunday, an Israeli drone strike hit a civilian car killing the woman and her three granddaughters. Hezbollah retaliated by firing rockets at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, killing one person.

In the southern village of Blida near the border, hundreds of men and women marched before the four coffins, draped in black and white banners, were carried Tuesday for burial in the local cemetery.

Large posters of Samira Abdul-Hussein Ayoub and her three granddaughters — Rimas Shor, 14; Talin Shor, 12; and Layan Shor, 10 — were displayed in the cemetery in the southeastern town of Blida. The three girls' mother, Hoda Hijazi, was wounded in the attack and is still undergoing treatment in a hospital.

Hezbollah officials have warned that if Israel kills Lebanese civilians, it will retaliate by attacking civilian targets.

“Protecting civilians is a main pillar of the rules of engagement with the enemy,” Hezbollah legislator Ali Fayad said during the funeral.

Israel considers the Iran-backed Shiite militant group its most serious immediate threat and estimates that Hezbollah has around 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel. The group also has different types of drones and surface-to-sea missiles.



Hezbollah Chief Says Israel Must Fully Withdraw from Lebanon by February 18

 A photo taken from the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Hamam shows smoke rising after an explosion during an Israeli army operation in the village of Kfar Shouba near the border on February 16, 2024. (AFP)
A photo taken from the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Hamam shows smoke rising after an explosion during an Israeli army operation in the village of Kfar Shouba near the border on February 16, 2024. (AFP)
TT
20

Hezbollah Chief Says Israel Must Fully Withdraw from Lebanon by February 18

 A photo taken from the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Hamam shows smoke rising after an explosion during an Israeli army operation in the village of Kfar Shouba near the border on February 16, 2024. (AFP)
A photo taken from the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Hamam shows smoke rising after an explosion during an Israeli army operation in the village of Kfar Shouba near the border on February 16, 2024. (AFP)

The head of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said on Sunday that Israeli troops must withdraw from Lebanese territory in full by a February 18 deadline, saying it had "no pretext" to maintain a military presence in any post in southern Lebanon.

Under a truce brokered by Washington in November, Israeli troops were granted 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon where they had waged a ground offensive against fighters from Iran-backed Hezbollah since early October.

That deadline was later extended to February 18, but Israel's military requested that it keep troops in five posts in southern Lebanon, sources told Reuters last week.

In a recorded televised speech, Hezbollah secretary general Naim Qassem said: "Israel must withdraw completely on Feb. 18, it has no pretext, no five points or other details... this is the agreement."

Qassem said any Israeli military presence on Lebanese soil after February 18 would be considered an occupying force.

"Everyone knows how an occupation is dealt with," Qassem said, without explicitly threatening that his group would resume attacks against Israel.

Israel's public broadcaster said on Wednesday the US had authorized a "long term" Israeli troop presence in southern Lebanon.

During the broadcast of Qassem's speech, at least three Israeli air strikes hit Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley. Israel's military said it conducted strikes after identifying Hezbollah activity at sites containing rocket launchers and other weapons.

Qassem also called on the Lebanese government to reconsider its ban on Iranian flights landing in Beirut.

Lebanese authorities banned the flights from landing until February 18 following Israeli accusations that Tehran was using civilian aircraft to smuggle cash to Beirut to arm Hezbollah.

The decision stranded dozens of Lebanese nationals in Iran, where they had been on a religious pilgrimage with plans to return via Iran's Mahan Air. Lebanon sent two of its own planes to retrieve them, but Iran barred them from landing in Tehran.

Hezbollah organized a protest outside Beirut airport on Saturday, where its supporters were tear gassed by Lebanese troops.

Qassem described Lebanon's ban on Iranian planes as "the implementation of an Israeli order".

"Let the plane land and we will see what Israel will do," he said.