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Biden expresses concern over Israel-Hezbollah tensions, vows to prevent wider conflict
US President Joe Biden has said that he is worried about the rising tensions between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Anadolu reports.
“Yes, I am,” Biden told reporters when asked whether he was worried about rising tensions in the Middle East.
“We’re going to do everything we can to keep a wider war from breaking out. And we’re still pushing hard,” Biden said in his home state of Delaware.
Netanyahu calls for unity as Israel escalates against Hezbollah
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the country faces “complicated days” as it stepped up strikes against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reports.
“I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north — that is exactly what we are doing,” he said in a message issued following a situational assessment at military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
He called on Israelis to stay united as the campaign unfolded.
US should prevent all-out Israel-Hezbollah conflict: NGO
The international NGO Crisis Group has cautioned that escalation in the past two weeks poses “grave dangers”, Al Jazeera reports.
“The point may be approaching at which [Hezbollah] decides that only a massive response can stop Israel from carrying out more attacks that impair it further,” Crisis Group said in a report.
“While the group has been keen to avert an uncontrolled escalation, and to avoid looking like the party that turned the tit-for-tat into all-out war, it may decide that the line between what it suspects Israel is about to do and such a war is no longer meaningful.
Israel kills at least 100 in strikes on Lebanon
At least 100 people were killed and more than 400 injured in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, the country’s health ministry said in a statement, Reuters reports.
Lebanon says 50 killed, more than 300 wounded in Israeli strikes on south
Lebanon said 50 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in Israeli strikes on the south, the heaviest daily toll in nearly a year of cross-border clashes, AFP reports.
“Continued Israeli enemy raids on southern towns and villages… killed 50 people and wounded more than 300, with children, women and emergency workers among the dead and wounded,” a health ministry statement said, adding that the toll was provisional.
Israel pouring fuel on the fire
At least 150 air raids have been carried out by the Israeli military across Lebanon this morning.
Shelters turned to graves: Israeli strike kill family of five
At least one dozen Palestinians including a mother and her four children were killed in two separate attacks on schools-turned-shelters.
Israeli forces carried out the attack on the ill-fated family in Deir el-Balah.
Israel says operations in Lebanon will continue until safe for evacuees to return
BEIRUT/HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) – Hezbollah and Israel exchanged heavy fire into Sunday, as the Lebanese group sent rockets deep into northern Israeli territory after facing some of the most intense bombardment in almost a year of conflict.
Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem told mourners at the funeral of one of the group's commanders killed last week in Beirut: "We have entered a new phase, the title of which is the open-ended battle of reckoning."
Israeli military bombs Hezbollah targets in Lebanon
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Israeli military launched its most widespread wave of air strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah, simultaneously targeting Lebanon's south, eastern Bekaa valley and northern region near Syria in nearly a year of conflict.
Asked by reporters about a possible Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said "we will do whatever is needed" in order to return evacuated residents of northern Israel to their homes safely, a war priority for the Israeli government.
Netanyahu examining siege plan for Hamas in north Gaza, Israeli media report
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel is examining a plan to use siege tactics against Hamas in northern Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted by several Israeli media outlets as saying on Sunday.
Netanyahu's office did not respond to a request for comment. The reports cited unnamed sources at a closed parliament committee meeting.
Hezbollah and Israel stand unyielding in their positions
The situation in the Middle East is deteriorating, as neither Hezbollah and Israel is willing to budge on their positions.
Concerns within the global community are also growing over the potential for a full-scale war in the region, as Hezbollah declares a “battle of reckoning” with Israel, and the Israeli military promises to escalate attacks on the Lebanese armed group.
Israel's military again targets schools
Israel's military is not sparing shelters, and it bombed two schools sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza, which led to the deaths of at least seven people.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is examining plans to impose a siege on Hamas in northern Gaza, Israeli media reported.
Military escalation not in Israel's 'best interest': White House
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A regional military escalation is not in Israel's "best interest," White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said on Sunday, as heightening cross-border tensions between Israel and Lebanon have led to fears of an all-out war.
"We don't believe that escalating this military conflict is in their best interest," Kirby said on ABC's "This Week," adding that the United States was "saying this directly to our Israeli counterparts."
Egypt fears 'all out' regional war between Israel and Hezbollah
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Egypt's foreign minister warned Sunday (Sep 22) of the risk of an all-out regional war as fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah intensified, saying the escalation "negatively impacted" Gaza truce talks.
Badr Abdelatty spoke ahead of an annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, with a chorus of international powers calling on Israel and Hezbollah to step back from the brink.
Israel and Hezbollah urged to avoid 'catastrophe'
PARIS (AFP) – World powers on Sunday implored Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement to refrain from escalating their conflict as the Gaza war threatened to spill over across the Middle East.
Hezbollah and Israeli forces have traded regular cross-border fire since Palestinian Islamist group Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel sparked the devastating war in Gaza.
