Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan told Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday that the international community must urgently implement a solution to stop Israel’s aggression, the Turkish presidency said, adding he had also voiced support for Lebanon.
Israel’s military chief told troops on Wednesday that airstrikes in Lebanon would continue, both to destroy Hezbollah’s infrastructure and to prepare the way for a possible ground operation by Israeli forces.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday he was dispatching his foreign minister to Lebanon this week as part of efforts to prevent a full-fledged war, calling on Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah to immediately stop hostilities.
International community must stop Israel, says Erdoğan
Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan told Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday that the international community must urgently implement a solution to stop Israel’s aggression, the Turkish presidency said, adding he had also voiced support for Lebanon.
A Nato member, Turkey has denounced Israel’s devastating military offensive in Gaza prompted by the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ cross-border attack on 7 October.
Turkey halted all trade with Israel and applied to join a genocide case against Israel at the World Court. Israel has said the genocide accusations are baseless and has repeatedly denied targeting civilians.
Erdoğan has previously condemned Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory, which Israel says are targeting Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure, and has called for international steps to halt Israel’s war in Gaza and cross-border fire with Hezbollah.
Turkey’s presidency said Erdoğan told Mikati in a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York that the international community must urgently implement a solution to stop “Israel’s aggression”.
“President Erdoğan said Israel was disregarding fundamental human rights, committing a genocide in front of the world, noting that stopping this and the humanitarian crisis that emerged as a result of the attacks was a humanitarian duty,” said the presidency.
Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib in New York that Israel’s attacks in Lebanon were “unacceptable” and meant to “drag the region into chaos”, according to the Turkish diplomatic source.
Strikes in Lebanon ‘prelude to possible ground assault’
Israel’s military chief told troops on Wednesday that airstrikes in Lebanon would continue, both to destroy Hezbollah’s infrastructure and to prepare the way for a possible ground operation by Israeli forces.
Israel on Wednesday widened its airstrikes in Lebanon and shot down a missile that the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement said it had aimed at the headquarters of the Mossad intelligence agency near Israel’s biggest city, Tel Aviv.
“You hear the jets overhead; we have been striking all day,” General Herzi Halevi told Israeli troops on the border with Lebanon, according to a statement from the military.
“This is both to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah.”
Israeli airstrikes this week have targeted Hezbollah leaders and hit hundreds of sites deep inside Lebanon while the group has fired barrages of rockets into Israel, where hundreds of thousands have fled the border region.
On Wednesday, Israel said its warplanes were hitting south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold further north, and that it was calling up two more reserve brigades for operations on the northern border.
In a brief video message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah was being hit harder than it could ever have imagined, and repeated a vow to return tens of thousands of Israelis to their homes in northern border areas.
Lebanese hospitals have filled with the wounded since Monday, when Israeli bombing killed more than 550 people in Lebanon’s deadliest day since its civil war ended in 1990.
At least 51 people were killed and at least 223 wounded in Wednesday’s strikes, according to the Lebanese health minister.
Hezbollah said it had aimed a missile at Mossad headquarters “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip ... and in defence of Lebanon and its people".
It blamed Mossad for the assassinations of its leaders and has also accused it of booby-trapping Hezbollah members’ pagers and radios that exploded last week, killing 39 people and wounding nearly 3,000. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.
Israeli officials said a “heavy missile” had headed towards civilian areas in Tel Aviv, not Mossad’s HQ, before being shot down.
Israel has expanded the zones in Lebanon that it had been striking since Tuesday night, with attacks for the first time on the beach resort of Jiyyeh, just south of Beirut.
It also attacked Bint Jbeil, Tebnin and Ain Qana in the south, the village of Joun in the southern Chouf district near Sidon, and Maaysrah in the northern Keserwan district.
As many as half a million people may have been displaced in Lebanon, its foreign minister said. In Beirut, thousands of people displaced from southern Lebanon were sheltering in schools and other buildings.
More than 60 people were evacuated from the Christian town of Alma Chaab, along the border, following strikes overnight.
France to send foreign minister to Lebanon in bid to stop war
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday he was dispatching his foreign minister to Lebanon this week as part of efforts to prevent a full-fledged war, calling on Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah to immediately stop hostilities.
“There cannot be, must not be war in Lebanon,” he said in a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York.
France has historical ties with Lebanon and before the recent flare-up had worked for months on proposals to defuse tensions between the two sides.
It has been working with the US at the United Nations on an initiative to stop the fighting and open the door to more diplomacy, said diplomats.
“We are firmly calling on Israel to stop the escalation in Lebanon and Hezbollah to stop firing towards Israel,” said Macron.
He said his newly appointed foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, would travel to Lebanon at the end of the week.
On the conflict in Gaza, Macron said that while Israel had a right to defend itself after the attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on 7 October, the war had lasted too long and needed to end now.
“There is no justification, no explanation for thousands of civilian Palestinian deaths. Too many civilians are dead,” he said.
‘US, France working on Lebanon diplomatic initiative’
The US and France were trying to hammer out an interim accord to halt hostilities between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah with a view to opening broader diplomatic talks, said Cyprus’ President Nikos Christodoulides on Wednesday.
“I don’t see that we can have a [broad] agreement, but a form of interim agreement in order to avoid further escalation. This is the effort right now especially from the United States and France,” said Christodoulides on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
The Mediterranean island of Cyprus is the closest European Union member state, some 264km from Lebanon. It has been at the forefront of maritime aid efforts for Gaza and has a key interest in developments in Lebanon should there be a need to evacuate foreign nationals.
Christodoulides said he had spoken to Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Macron in New York and by phone with Netanyahu.
“During the last days, there are a lot of deliberations to avoid further escalation, especially with Lebanon. There is a diplomatic initiative from the United States and France,” he said.
US, partners working to avoid full-blown war in Lebanon - Blinken
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday the risk of escalation in the Middle East was “acute” and that Washington and its allies were working tirelessly to avoid a full-blown war between Israel and Iran-aligned Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
“With regard to Lebanon, we’ve been working tirelessly with partners to avoid a full-blown war and to move to a diplomatic process that would allow Israelis and Lebanese alike to go back to their homes,” said Blinken at the start of a meeting with senior officials and ministers of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in New York.
“Risk of escalation in the region is acute. The best answer is diplomacy, and our coordinated efforts are vital to preventing further escalation,” he added.
Washington has also been pushing for months to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza that will bring the hostages back, but success has proven elusive. US officials say such a deal would also help calm tensions between Hezbollah and Israel.
“Each of us has to continue to press all of the parties to make the decisions necessary to get this deal over the finish line. It remains again, the best way to get hostages home, bring relief to people, and also can help us reduce tensions on other fronts,” said Blinken.
Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October and killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, while abducting 250 others, triggering the latest round of fighting in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In response, Israel launched a relentless military offensive on Gaza that killed more than 40,000 people, according to Palestinian officials, and reduced the tiny enclave to a wasteland.
UK sends troops to Cyprus anticipating mass Lebanon evacuation
Britain was moving troops to Cyprus to help evacuate nationals trapped in Lebanon, while Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for diplomacy and an immediate ceasefire to bring Israel and Hezbollah back from the brink.
After Israeli airstrikes brought Lebanon’s deadliest day since the end of a 1975-1990 civil war, Starmer told British citizens to leave while there were still commercial flights.
“It’s very important that they hear my message, which is to leave and to leave immediately,” he told reporters.
The government said in a statement late on Tuesday that 700 troops would travel to Cyprus, bolstering its presence in the area where it already has two Royal Navy ships, aircraft and transport helicopters.
Biden: All-out war is possible but not inevitable in Middle East
US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday an all-out war was possible in the Middle East but there was also the possibility of a settlement in Israel’s conflicts in Gaza and with the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“An all-out war is possible, but I think there’s also the opportunity — we’re still in play to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region,” Biden said in an appearance on ABC’s The View.
The US president, a staunch longtime ally of Israel, has pushed for a two-state solution in the Israel-Palestinian conflict and said he has openly disagreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the issue.
“I don’t agree with his position. There needs to be a two-state solution,” said Biden. “It needs to happen.”
Biden said once ceasefires were secured with Hezbollah and in Gaza, then attention could be turned to the West Bank.
“It’s possible, and I’m using every bit of energy I have ... to get this done. There’s a desire to see change.” DM
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