JERUSALEM: The United States said it was working around the clock to prevent an all-out war in the Middle East, as Israel was on high alert Tuesday for possible Iranian retaliation for two high-profile killings.
US President Joe Biden, whose country has sent more warships and fighters to the region to support Israel, held critical talks with his national security team on Monday.
Biden and his top diplomat, Anthony Blinken, sought to defuse tensions that rose after a suspected Israeli attack on Tehran last Wednesday killed Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Biden called King Abdullah II, King of Jordan, whose country aided Iran's drone and missile attacks on Israel in April, while Blinken met with senior officials in Qatar and Egypt, key mediators seeking a ceasefire in the 10-year war. Mahe called Israel and Hamas. Gaza
“We are engaged in intense diplomacy, almost around the clock, with a very simple message — all sides must refrain from escalating,” Blinken said after joining other senior officials at the White House meeting.
Iran's President Masoud Mezkiyan on Monday criticized what he called Israel's “criminal actions” against the oppressed and defenseless people of Gaza, as well as the killing of Haniyeh.
In a conversation with a senior Russian official, Medeshian said: The Islamic Republic of Iran is not seeking to expand the scope of war and crisis in the region, but this regime will definitely answer for its crimes and arrogance. to the official IRNA news agency
The attack – which Israel has not directly commented on – came hours after an Israeli attack on Beirut killed Fouad Shakar, the military commander of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
Israel blames Shekar for a rocket attack on the annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children and calls him the “right-hand man” of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Nasrallah was supposed to give a speech on Tuesday on the occasion of one week since the death of Shakar.
Hezbollah has been engaged in almost daily cross-border clashes with Israeli forces since the day after Hamas attacked Israel in early October.
The group claimed responsibility for several attacks on Israel on Tuesday, including one with “explosive-laden drones” that targeted a garrison north of the coastal city of Acre.
According to a Lebanese security source, in southern Lebanon, five Hezbollah fighters were killed in an Israeli attack.
On a trip to Cairo, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib acknowledged that “there is a possibility of war between us and Israel…we cannot deny it.”
A European diplomat in Tel Aviv said a “coordinated response” was expected from Iran and its proxies against Israel, but efforts to de-escalate tensions continued.
“This does not mean there will be a simultaneous response from all fronts,” he added, declining to identify himself because he was not authorized to speak on the matter.
“We are telling them to stop playing with fire because the risk of flare-ups is higher than at any time since October 7,” he said.
Turkey joined several governments on Monday in urging its citizens to leave Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based, while China called for increased caution.
Many airlines have suspended their flights to Lebanon or limited them to daytime hours.
Lebanon's national carrier, Middle East Airlines, is operating additional flights for people who want to leave or return, a company source said.
An official of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation said that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation based in Jeddah is going to hold a meeting on Wednesday at the request of “Palestine and Iran” to discuss the developments in the region.
Volker Turk, the UN rights official, called on all parties and countries with influence to take immediate action to reduce tensions.
In a joint statement on Monday, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and his Iraqi counterpart, Fawad Hussein, “agreed to do all they can to prevent the escalation of tensions in the region.” Italy holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group.
The Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which began with the Palestinian group's October 7 attack on Israel, has already drawn in Iran-backed militias in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
According to an AFP report based on official Israeli statistics, the Hamas attack killed 1,197 people, most of them civilians.
Palestinian militants took 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still in Gaza, including 39 who were killed, according to the Israeli military.
Thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Monday to celebrate the birthday of Ariel Bibas, the fifth child of the hostage, and demanded the release of him and his family.
Israel's retaliatory military operation in Gaza has killed at least 39,653 people, according to the Hamas-controlled region's health ministry, which did not provide details of civilian or militant casualties.
Palestinian authorities in the occupied West Bank announced that Israeli forces killed eight people in two separate attacks on Tuesday.
