Netanyahu tells Trump Israel will strike Beirut if Hezbollah keeps firing
"Our position on this issue has not changed. At the same time, the IDF will continue operating in southern Lebanon according to plan," he added.
The threat of a wider war sharpened on Monday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had warned US President Donald Trump that Israel would hit Beirut if Hezbollah kept up attacks on Israeli communities.
“I spoke with President Trump this evening and told him that if Hezbollah does not stop attacking our towns and our citizens, Israel will strike terrorist targets in Beirut,” Mr Netanyahu said in a statement from his office.
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“Our position on this issue has not changed. At the same time, the IDF will continue operating in southern Lebanon according to plan,” he added.
Mr Trump, however, said he had succeeded in nudging both sides away from a sharper confrontation, saying Mr Netanyahu agreed not to send forces into southern Beirut and that Hezbollah had pledged to halt its attacks.
“Likewise, through highly placed Representatives, I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop – That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel,” he added.
The exchange followed Mr Netanyahu’s earlier order to strike the Hezbollah-held southern suburbs of Beirut, a move that pointed to fresh escalation in a war already entangling diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the US-Iran conflict.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Israeli strikes in Lebanon were one reason diplomacy to end the US-Iran war had slowed, repeating Tehran’s position that a ceasefire in Lebanon must be part of any broader agreement.
Watch: People flee southern Beirut suburbs after Israeli attack order
Residents began streaming out of Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, after Israel issued its warning, adding to the latest wave of displacement in a conflict that has already driven more than one million people from their homes across Lebanon.
“There can be no situation in which Hezbollah attacks our cities and our citizens while its terrorist headquarters in Beirut, in Dahiyeh, remains immune,” Mr Netanyahu said in a video statement.
He also said Israel was pressing ahead with deeper ground operations in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have established what they describe as a security zone in the south intended to protect northern Israel from Hezbollah fire.
After heavily bombarding Beirut’s southern suburbs in the opening weeks of the war, Israel has launched only two strikes there since Mr Trump announced a Lebanon ceasefire on 16 April.
The conflict began on 2 March, when Hezbollah opened fire on Israel in solidarity with Iran as it came under US-Israeli attack.
Mr Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz instructed the Israeli military to hit “terrorist targets” in the southern suburbs after what Mr Netanyahu’s office described as Hezbollah’s “repeated violations” of the ceasefire and “attacks against our cities and citizens”.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have each spoken to US officials in an effort to contain the escalation
The order came after fighting intensified in southern Lebanon over the weekend, with Israeli troops seizing the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle.
Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group founded by the Revolutionary Guards in 1982, said its fighters launched a volley of missiles at Israeli military infrastructure in the city of Tiberias at 1am on Monday, alongside other attacks it said were retaliation for Israeli ceasefire breaches.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Beirut would see no “calm” unless calm was restored in northern Israel.
Lebanese authorities say more than 3,400 people in the country have been killed in Israeli attacks since 2 March, when Hezbollah began firing at Israel in support of Iran as it came under US-Israeli attack.
Israel says 24 soldiers and four civilians have been killed during the same period.
US proposal says Hezbollah must halt fire first
Fighting in Lebanon has continued to intensify despite a series of unusual meetings between Lebanese and Israeli officials under Washington’s supervision.
A US official said yesterday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with both Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Mr Netanyahu about negotiations between Israel and Lebanon and put forward a plan for “gradual de-escalation”.
Under the first phase, the official said, Hezbollah would end all attacks on Israel and Israel, in turn, would hold back from escalating in Beirut.
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The official said Mr Aoun had tried to push the proposal forward and win backing for an agreement.
But, the official added, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who said he could “guarantee” Hezbollah’s adherence to a ceasefire, insisted that Israel should be the side to stop “shooting first”.
Mr Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, said in remarks carried by Lebanese media yesterday that he would guarantee Hezbollah’s “full and immediate commitment to a ceasefire”. “But the question is, who will compel Israel to stop its aggression?” he said.
A senior Lebanese source told Reuters the US plan called for Hezbollah to stop attacks on northern Israel in exchange for Beirut and its suburbs being spared further strikes, as an initial step toward a full ceasefire.
The source said Mr Berri, however, was seeking a full and comprehensive ceasefire rather than a piecemeal arrangement.
A second Lebanese source familiar with contacts between Beirut and Washington said Mr Netanyahu’s announcement underscored the deterioration of the US-led diplomatic effort.
