Cairo Concerned Over Escalating Regional Crisis

A photo taken from a position in southern Lebanon, close to the border with Israel shows smoke billowing from the site of a rocket fired from the Lebanese side towards the Israeli village of Metullah on August 3, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by AFP)
A photo taken from a position in southern Lebanon, close to the border with Israel shows smoke billowing from the site of a rocket fired from the Lebanese side towards the Israeli village of Metullah on August 3, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by AFP)
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Cairo Concerned Over Escalating Regional Crisis

A photo taken from a position in southern Lebanon, close to the border with Israel shows smoke billowing from the site of a rocket fired from the Lebanese side towards the Israeli village of Metullah on August 3, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by AFP)
A photo taken from a position in southern Lebanon, close to the border with Israel shows smoke billowing from the site of a rocket fired from the Lebanese side towards the Israeli village of Metullah on August 3, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by AFP)

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty expressed on Saturday to his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib his country's "deep concern over the dangerously increasing pace of escalation" in the region.

Abdelatty affirmed, in a phone call with Bou Habib, Egypt's support to Lebanon in confronting the threats surrounding it, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Wednesday's assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran has aroused fears of direct conflict between Tehran and its arch-enemy Israel in a region shaken by Israel's war in Gaza and a worsening conflict in Lebanon.

Revenge for the killing of the Hamas leader will be "severe and at an appropriate time, place, and manner", the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said in a statement, blaming the "terrorist Zionist regime" of Israel for his death.

Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of carrying out the strike that killed Haniyeh hours after he attended the inauguration of Iran's new president.

The assassination of a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon has also the region holding its breath for retaliation against Israel on either front, or both. Calls for people to leave Lebanon sharpened as flight activity there cooled.



Lebanon on Edge ahead of Retaliation to Israel’s Killing of Hezbollah Commander

The Israeli army fires a flare over the border with Lebanon, in the upper Galilee, northern Israel, early 04 August 2024. (EPA)
The Israeli army fires a flare over the border with Lebanon, in the upper Galilee, northern Israel, early 04 August 2024. (EPA)
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Lebanon on Edge ahead of Retaliation to Israel’s Killing of Hezbollah Commander

The Israeli army fires a flare over the border with Lebanon, in the upper Galilee, northern Israel, early 04 August 2024. (EPA)
The Israeli army fires a flare over the border with Lebanon, in the upper Galilee, northern Israel, early 04 August 2024. (EPA)

Tensions eased on the Lebanese border with Israel in anticipation of the retaliation by Hezbollah to Israel’s assassination of its top commander Fouad Shukr earlier this week.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations expected Hezbollah to strike deep into Israeli territory.

In the meantime, the Lebanese people and authorities are on edge to see whether the party’s response will lead to an Israeli retaliation that would drag the whole region to war.

Retired brigadier general Bassam Yassine ruled out that Hezbollah and its allies in the Iran-backed Resistance Axis are still mulling a specific target, explaining that such targets are prepared in advance.

The party is simply waiting for the right political moment to make its strike, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He expected other members of the axis besides Hezbollah to take part in the retaliation to ensure that the largest number of rockets and drones reach their Israeli targets.

The region slipping into a broad war all hinges on Israel’s response to the attack, he stressed.

On the ground, Israel maintained its assault against the South, killing one person and wounding two in a drone strike on a car in the region between Wadi Jilo and al-Bazouriyeh.

Hezbollah later announced the death of one its members without specifying where he was killed.

Israel later carried out an air strike against the town of Tayr Harfa. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said one person was wounded in the attack.