(19 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jerusalem – 19 June 2024
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Joe Federman, Associated Press:
"The Israeli military says it has prepared a plan to attack Lebanon. Now, this doesn’t mean that war is imminent or even definite, but the region has taken a step in that direction. Israel has grown increasingly frustrated after eight months of daily clashes with Hezbollah. This fighting erupted almost immediately after the war began in the Gaza Strip. But in recent weeks, the fighting has escalated on both sides of the border. The Israeli military isn’t releasing details of its planned offensive, but its military chief has visited soldiers stationed along the border. He tells them that Hezbollah has only seen a small part of what Israel is capable of doing. Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, meanwhile, has delivered his own speech and is not backing down. He says his group is prepared to fight and is warning Israel to think twice before escalating this conflict. He also issued a warning to some of Israel’s allies in the region, he mentioned Cyprus specifically. Nasrallah is providing a way out. He says his group is ready to stop the fighting if there’s a cease-fire in Gaza."
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group on Wednesday warned Israel against escalating the conflict in the region.
Hassan Nasralla’s comments came as the monthslong cross-border conflict simmering between Hezbollah and Israel appears to be reaching a boiling point and a day after a top U.S. envoy met Lebanese officials in his latest attempt to ease tensions.
Hezbollah said at least four of its fighters were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday.
Lebanese state media reported multiple Israeli strikes along the border and in an area north of the coastal city of Tyre, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the frontier.
The Israeli military said two Hezbollah launches damaged several vehicles in northern Israel.
Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, has been exchanging strikes with Israel almost daily since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7, with the aim to pull Israeli forces away from the embattled Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah’s attacks escalated after Israel expanded its offensive last month into the southern Gaza city of Rafah and spiked further last week after an Israeli strike killed high-ranking Hezbollah commander Taleb Sami Abdullah, the most senior militant killed so far during the Israel-Hamas war.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army said it has “approved and validated” plans for an offensive in Lebanon, although the decision to actually launch such an operation would have to come from the country’s political leadership.
In an address on Wednesday Nasrallah’s warned Hezbollah had new weapons and intelligence capabilities that could help it target more critical positions deeper inside Israel in case of an all-out war.
The warnings by both sides followed a visit by U.S. President Joe Biden’s senior adviser Amos Hochstein, who this week met with officials in Lebanon and Israel in his latest attempt to deescalate tensions.
Hochstein told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday that it was a “very serious situation” and that a diplomatic solution to prevent a larger war was “urgent.”
Nasrallah said a wider war with Lebanon would have regional implications and that Hezbollah would attack any other country in the region backing Israel, citing Cyprus, which has hosted Israeli forces for training exercises.
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