Sep 22, 2024 - Politics & Policy
U.S. fears war in Lebanon
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Over the last 24 hours, Hezbollah has dramatically expanded the range of its attacks against Israel in response to a series of deadly attacks last week. Israel conducted airstrikes in retaliation.
- Hezbollah fired medium-range rockets — the longest-range rockets launched in nearly a year of war — toward Haifa, which is far further from the Israel-Lebanon border than the targets of the group's previous attacks.
Why it matters: The latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is fueling fears about an all-out war between them, Axios' Barak Ravid reports.
U.S. officials say the Biden administration is "extremely concerned" about the risk of war.
- The Biden administration hopes to use growing Israeli military pressure on Hezbollah to get a diplomatic deal to return civilians to their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border.
The big picture: Israel and the U.S. are both looking for ways to decouple Hezbollah from Hamas. But Hezbollah hasn't agreed to any deal that would stop the current fighting with Israel before there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
- A UN official warned today that the region is "on the brink of an imminent catastrophe."
