Washington is racing to avert a full-blown war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah after the attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan killed 12 youths at the weekend, according to the five people who include Lebanese and Iranian officials plus Middle Eastern and European diplomats. Israel and the U.S. have blamed Hezbollah for the rocket strike, though the group has denied responsibility. The focus of the high-speed diplomacy has been to constrain Israel’s response by urging it against targeting densely populated Beirut, the southern suburbs of the city that form Hezbollah’s heartland, or key infrastructure like airports and bridges, said the sources who requested anonymity to discuss confidential details that haven’t been previously reported.
Don’t bomb Beirut: U.S. leads push to rein in Israel’s response
July 29 (Reuters) – The United States is leading a diplomatic dash to deter Israel from striking Lebanon’s capital Beirut or major civil infrastructure in response to a deadly rocket attack on the Golan Heights, five people with knowledge of the drive said.
Lebanon’s deputy parliament speaker Elias Bou Saab, who said he had been in contact with U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein since Saturday’s Golan attack, told Reuters Israel could avert the threat of major escalation by sparing the capital and its environs.
“If they avoid civilians and they avoid Beirut and its suburbs, then their attack could be well calculated,” he said.
Israeli officials have said that their country wants to hurt Hezbollah but not drag the region into all-out war. The two Middle Eastern and European diplomats said Israel hadn’t made any commitment to avoiding strikes on Beirut, its suburbs or civil infrastructure.
The U.S. State Department said it wouldn’t comment on the specifics of diplomatic conversations, though it was seeking a “durable solution” to end all cross-border fire. “Our support for Israel’s security is ironclad and unwavering against all Iran-backed threats, including Hezbollah,” a spokesperson told Reuters.
White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that Israel had every right to respond to the Golan strike, but that nobody wanted a broader war. “As for conversations over the weekend, you bet we’ve had them and we had them at multiple levels,” he added. “But I’m not going to detail the guts of those conversations.”
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, which comprises 10 ministers and has dictated policy on the Gaza war and Hezbollah, authorized the premier and the defense minister to “decide on the manner and timing of the response” against Hezbollah. This decision, coupled with the abstention of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – suggests that Israel has opted for a response short of the all-out war that some politicians have advocated for.
Following the Golan attack, Smotrich had issued a strong statement demanding robust action. He posted on X: “For the death of children, (Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan) Nasrallah should pay with his head. All of Lebanon should pay.”