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UN warns that 'miscalculation' could escalate Hezbollah-Israel conflict


FILE - Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Khiam on June 8, 2024, as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
FILE - Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Khiam on June 8, 2024, as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

There is a "very real" risk that a miscalculation along Lebanon's southern border could trigger a wider conflict between Hezbollah and the Israeli military, two United Nations officials in Lebanon warned Saturday.

The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the head of U.N. peacekeeping forces in Lebanon, Aroldo Lazaro, said they were "deeply concerned" about the recent escalation along Lebanon's border.

Iran-backed Hezbollah last week launched the largest volleys of rockets and drones yet in the eight months it has been exchanging fire with the Israeli military, in parallel with the Gaza war.

"The danger of miscalculation leading to a sudden and wider conflict is very real," the two officials said in a written statement Saturday.

The United States and France are working on a negotiated settlement to the hostilities along Lebanon's southern border. Hezbollah says it will not halt fire unless Israel's military offensive in Gaza stops.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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