An Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon killed three paramedics from the militant group Hezbollah on Monday, state media in Lebanon reported, hours after a missile strike blamed on the militants killed at least one foreign worker in northern Israel.
The attacks took place as U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein was arriving in Beirut for meetings with Lebanese officials.
The U.S. envoy urged calm along Israel’s border with its northern neighbor, Lebanon, as the ongoing war in Gaza sparks fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East.
Hochstein cautioned that even if a truce were to be reached between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, it wouldn’t necessarily mean a cessation of hostilities along Israel’s border with Lebanon. He also warned about the risks of an escalation of tension between the two countries. Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah have traded fire across their border throughout the war. Hezbollah is a Hamas ally.
"Escalation of violence is in no one's interest, and there is no such thing as a limited war," Hochstein told reporters after meeting Lebanon's parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, who is close to Hezbollah.
The U.S. special envoy noted that friction on Lebanon’s southern border had increased in recent weeks. It comes as the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza approaches its fifth month.
Earlier Monday, Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Kassem reiterated that the Iran-backed militia, which says it is acting in support of Palestinians and Hamas, would stop its attacks on Israel once the Gaza offensive ends.
"Stop the assault on Gaza and war will end in the region," Kassem said Monday at a speech in Hezbollah’s stronghold south of Beirut attended by Muslim clerics from several regional states.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said there will be no let-up in Israeli action against Hezbollah even if a Gaza cease-fire is secured.
Hochstein was scheduled to meet other officials and politicians during his Beirut visit.
“The United States remains committed to advancing lasting security solutions achieved through diplomatic process,” he told reporters after he met Berri. He said such a move would allow tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israelis who were displaced by the conflict “to safely return” to their homes.
Western diplomats have brought forward a series of proposals for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, most of which would depend on Hezbollah moving its forces seven to 10 kilometers away from the border.
Lebanon’s deputy parliament speaker, Elias Bou Saab, told the Reuters news agency he believed the timing of Hochstein's visit signaled progress in mediation efforts in Cairo over a Gaza truce.
The United States has stepped up pressure for a cease-fire in Gaza and for more aid deliveries into the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Kassem blamed the United States in his speech Monday for using its veto power three times to prevent resolutions at the U.N. Security Council to end the war in Gaza.
“We have said it clearly that whoever wants to be a mediator should mediate to stop the aggression,” Kassem said. He added that those who don’t want the war to expand in the region should deal with the cause “which is the brutal and criminal aggression by America and Israel against Gaza.”
Israeli officials have threatened a wider war in Lebanon if Hezbollah does not withdraw its elite fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River as stipulated in a 2006 truce that ended a 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began in Gaza on October 7, more than 215 Hezbollah fighters and nearly 40 civilians have been killed on the Lebanese side, while nine soldiers and 10 civilians have died in the attacks in Israel.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
