Israel’s defense minister told a senior adviser to President Biden on Monday that “military action” was “the only way” to end months of cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militia.
The defense minister, Yoav Gallant, met with the adviser, Amos Hochstein, who came to Israel in an attempt to prevent Israel’s long-simmering conflict with the Iranian-backed militia from escalating into a broader war. Mr. Gallant said Israel needed to “change the security situation on the northern border,” but it was unclear what military action he may be proposing.
Still, the defense minister’s comments appeared to dampen hopes of a diplomatic solution, as the White House wants. Hezbollah and Israel’s military have been trading near-daily fire since last October, when the start of the war in the Gaza Strip prompted the militia to launch rocket attacks on northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas.
The cross-border clashes have intensified in recent months, driving tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border out of their homes, and as Israel scales down its assault against Hamas in Gaza it has freed up more of its forces for a possible offensive in the north against Hezbollah.
In a statement after Monday’s meeting, Mr. Gallant said he had told Mr. Hochstein that the window for reaching a diplomatic solution to the conflict was drawing to a close because Hezbollah has decided to “tie itself” to Hamas.
“The only way left to return the residents of the north to their homes is via military action,” Mr. Gallant said. Earlier on Monday, Mr. Gallant said he had delivered the same message to the American defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, in an overnight phone call.
The visit by Mr. Hochstein is part of efforts by the Biden administration to prevent “an escalation and a widening of this conflict,” John Kirby, a White House spokesman, told reporters last week.
“Amos’s travels are very much a continuation of the diplomacy that he’s been conducting now for many months to try to prevent a second front from opening up in the north there,” he said.
On Monday, Mr. Hochstein met with Mr., Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a statement after their meeting, Mr. Netanyahu’s office said he told Mr. Hochstein that “while Israel appreciates and respects the support of the US, it will ultimately do what is necessary to safeguard its security and return the residents of the north securely to their homes.”
A person familiar with Mr. Hochstein’s meetings on Monday, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said he had told Mr. Gallant and Mr. Netanyahu that the United States did not believe a broader conflict in Lebanon would allow displaced Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel, and that it risked setting off a much broader and protracted regional conflict. Mr. Hochstein said the United States favored a diplomatic resolution to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, the person said.
The strikes have driven more than 150,000 people in Israel and Lebanon from their homes in the border region.
Those who have fled their homes in Lebanon have received little assistance from the government, which is in the middle of a prolonged financial crisis. In Israel, the government has paid to feed and house evacuees in hundreds of hotels across the country and faced criticism from residents in northern Israel who have not qualified for assistance.
After his meeting with Mr. Hochstein on Monday, Mr. Gallant said on social media that he had told the American envoy that “the only way left for us to return the residents of the north to their homes, will be through military action.”
In remarks on Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu said “we will do whatever is necessary to return our residents securely to their homes.”
Mr. Hochstein has already made at least five trips to Israel and Lebanon since Mr. Biden tasked him with trying to prevent the clashes from expanding into a war that could be even more devastating than the conflict in Gaza.
His mediation efforts have involved repeated rounds of shuttle diplomacy between Beirut and Jerusalem. Because the United States designates Hezbollah a terrorist group, Mr. Hochstein has communicated with it through Lebanese government officials who act as interlocutors.
France — which maintains direct lines of communication with Hezbollah — has been pursuing its own diplomatic solution at the same time. In recent months, Mr. Hochstein has sought to better coordinate efforts with French officials, who have also been vocal about the risk of military escalation.
On Monday, France’s ambassador to Israel, Frédéric Journès, also warned of a wider conflict.
“If a full-scale war starts in Lebanon, it could turn this whole thing into a regional conflict, and then you have a regional conflict in Ukraine and a second regional conflict in the Middle East,” he said at the Haaretz National Security Conference in Israel.
“Nobody wants this war,” he added. “Iran doesn’t want it, Hezbollah doesn’t want it and Israel doesn’t want it, and yet it is very possible that it happens.”
Despite the warnings, the tit-for-tat violence continued on Monday. Israel’s military said that it had struck Hezbollah “infrastructure” in southern Lebanon on Monday after “a number of projectiles” crossed from the country into Israeli territory.
That followed Israeli artillery fire and airstrikes on southern Lebanon over the weekend in response to Hezbollah rockets that had triggered air-raid sirens and sparked brush fires in northern Israel.
Fears of a broader conflagration have risen since an Israeli airstrike in late July killed a senior Hezbollah commander in the Beirut suburbs. Iran threatened to strike Israel over the killing of a Hamas leader on its soil shortly after that.
Israeli officials have taken pains to emphasize their readiness. On Monday, Israel’s defense ministry said it had equipped 97 “rapid response units” in towns along the northern border with Lebanon with “combat and rescue gear, medical supplies, uniforms and protective equipment.”
Hezbollah is not the only Iranian-backed group targeting Israel in solidarity with Hamas as it fights a guerrilla war against Israel in Gaza. The Houthis in Yemen have also been striking commercial ships in the Red Sea since the war in Gaza began last year and, over the weekend, the group launched a missile into central Israel.
On Monday, Iran’s president, Massoud Pezeshkian, at a briefing with reporters denied that Iran had provided Yemen with the missile that was launched at Israel. Still he stood by the Houthis’ actions. “Of course, we and Yemen are related and we do not want Israel to kill people,” he said, condemning Israel. “We want them to respect international laws.”
Here’s what else is happening in the Middle East:
Polio in Gaza: Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the main U.N. agency that aids Palestinians in Gaza, said on Monday that the first round of a polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip had been successfully completed, with hundreds of thousands of children vaccinated. The next stage of the campaign aims to administer a second vaccine dose to each child by the end of September, he added.
West Bank Violence: Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian school in the occupied West Bank and wounded seven people, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent and Palestinian new media. In a clip shared widely on X, three men armed with batons and speaking Hebrew are seen beating people in a school courtyard. The Times verified the location of the footage to a school northwest of Jericho in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military said it had responded to the scene, where “a number of Palestinians were injured.” Since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel and the start of the war in Gaza, attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians across the West Bank have surged.
Netanyahu rival goes to Washington: Yair Lapid, the leader of Israel’s parliamentary opposition, was in Washington on Monday. His office said he had met with Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser., and was also scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. Mr. Lapid’s office said he had told Mr. Sullivan that Israel faced “the danger of a severe war” and that “anyone who is able to prevent it must invest every effort in doing so.” In a post on social media, Mr. Lapid said he had also told Mr. Sullivan that time was running out for the hostages being held in Gaza and that a deal for their return was urgently needed.
Hamas’s political chief, Yahya Sinwar, congratulated the Houthi militia in Yemen for its missile attack on central Israel over the weekend in a letter published by the Houthi-run Saba news agency on Monday. It was the third missive from Mr. Sinwar, who is being hunted by the Israeli military in Gaza’s vast tunnel network, to emerge in about a week after an extensive silence. Last week, he wrote to Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, thanking Hezbollah for its support Mr. Sinwar also wrote to Algeria’s president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to congratulate him on his re-election.
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