Tensions have been at a fever pitch on the Lebanese-Israeli border for the past two weeks, sparked by massive forest fires that have fueled the conflict. Hezbollah retaliated by firing hundreds of missiles and kamikaze-armed drones at Israel after an Israeli fighter jet killed one of its key field commanders.
A shower of missiles and kamikaze drones hit Israel’s sensitive radar stations and, for the first time, attacks by Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful military force, reached the coast of the Tiberian Sea, 30 kilometers inland.
The United States, Israel’s number one ally, again immediately dispatched President Joe Biden’s senior adviser, Amos Hochstein, to Tel Aviv and Beirut.
Hochstein, who met with a number of Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Tel Aviv on Monday, appeared before reporters in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, today.
Amos Hochstein said the border conflict, which began on October 8, had gone on long enough and stressed that it was in everyone’s interest to quickly resolve the issue through diplomacy.
The border between Lebanon and Israel is known as the Blue Line, and UN peacekeeping forces have been operating in the area for many years.
Al Jazeera correspondent Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said US representative Hochstein sent a message to Hamas from Lebanon.
Amos Hochstein called on Hamas to accept the ceasefire proposal on the table, noting that reaching an agreement in the Gaza Strip could also end the conflict on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Zeina Khodr described the statement as a joint message to Hezbollah and its ally Hamas, stressing that Hochstein had not said anything about what would happen if Hamas did not accept the agreement.
According to an Al Jazeera correspondent, the special representative underscored the level of danger and the Biden administration’s fears over the ongoing, limited war, which has at times spread deep inside the border.
Recalling that Amos Hochstein last visited Beirut in March and made completely different statements during that visit, Zeina Khodr said Washington had taken a step back compared to three months earlier. In fact, the US special representative said in March that a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip would not automatically end the conflict on the northern front, and that Israel was demanding security guarantees.
The conflict between Hezbollah and the Israeli military has been ongoing for 255 days. Hezbollah has lost more than 300 of its members in border clashes and dozens of civilians, including children, women and journalists, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
On the Israeli side, Hezbollah attacks killed 14 soldiers, including a general-ranking officer, and dozens of settlements on the Lebanese border have been evacuated, with more than 60,000 people waiting for months to return to their homes.
