US warns Israel not to repeat Gaza destruction in Lebanon

WASHINGTON

The United States urged its ally Israel to avoid Gaza-like military action in Lebanon, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it could face "destruction" like the Palestinian territory.

Israel's military chief, Herzi Halevi, vowed to keep bombing Hezbollah targets, a campaign that has killed more than 1,200 people since September 23, "without allowing them any respite or recovery".

The comments came after a phone call between Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden, their first in seven weeks. The White House said Biden told Netanyahu to "minimise harm" to civilians in Lebanon, particularly in "densely populated areas of Beirut".

"There should be no kind of military action in Lebanon that looks anything like Gaza and leaves a result anything like Gaza," said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

Netanyahu said in a video address to the people of Lebanon on Tuesday: "You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza."

He added: "Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end."

'Deadly, precise' retaliation

Biden and Netanyahu's call had been expected to focus on Israel's response to last week's missile barrage by Iran.

Iran fired about 200 missiles at Israel in what it said was retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Most were intercepted by Israel or its allies.

Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: "Our attack on Iran will be deadly, precise and surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened."

Biden has cautioned Israel against attempting to target Iran's nuclear facilities, which would risk major retaliation, and opposes striking oil installations.

A Lebanese government source told AFP that Hezbollah had accepted a ceasefire with Israel on September 27, the day Israel killed Nasrallah.

But they said Israel's response had torpedoed the plan, backed by Washington and its allies, and the Lebanese government had "had no contact with Hezbollah" since his death.

Hezbollah rockets, Israeli strikes

Hezbollah said its fighters were locked in clashes with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, using rocket-propelled weapons to repel attempts to breach the border.

Two people were killed by suspected Hezbollah rocket fire in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, while Israel intercepted two projectiles fired towards the coastal town of Caesarea, officials said.

Lebanon's health ministry said at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike on a village southeast of Beirut, an area so far largely spared from Israeli bombing.

Lebanon's state civil defence body said an Israeli strike killed five of its personnel in the southern village of Derdghaiya.

Israel has intensified air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon since September 23, uprooting more than a million people, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Its ground forces crossed into Lebanon on September 30 in response to Hezbollah rocket and artillery attacks over the past year that have forced tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes.

Israel's military said Wednesday its troops "eliminated militants during close-quarter encounters and in aerial strikes" over the previous 24 hours, adding "100 Hezbollah terror targets were destroyed".

Israeli operations have expanded from border areas in the interior to the southern section of Lebanon's Mediterranean coast.

According to a toll from the Israeli army on Wednesday, 13 of its soldiers have died since ground operations inside Lebanon began.

Syrian state media reported an Israeli attack Thursday on the central provinces of Homs and Hama.

Off the coast of Yemen, a ship was struck and damaged by an "unknown projectile", a British maritime agency said, following months of attacks by Hezbollah and Hamas allies, the Huthis.

Civilians trapped in north Gaza

Israel expanded an ongoing military operation around Jabalia in northern Gaza, where about 400,000 people are trapped, according to Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.

Lazzarini said on X there was "no end to hell" in the area and that "recent evacuation orders from the Israeli authorities are forcing people to flee again & again".

The army surrounded Jabalia and its refugee camp at the weekend and shelled it on Wednesday, preventing the delivery of aid, Gaza's civil defence agency said.

Washington said it was "incredibly concerned" about the humanitarian situation in north Gaza as Israel tightens its siege.

"We have been making clear to the government of Israel that they have an obligation under international humanitarian law to allow food and water and other needed humanitarian assistance to make it into all parts of Gaza," said the State Department's Miller.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 42,010 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations has described as reliable.

Displaced in Beirut

Israeli police said at least six people were wounded Wednesday, some seriously, in a stabbing rampage in the central Israeli town of Hadera.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli border police killed at least four Palestinians in the northern city of Nablus, Palestinian health authorities and Israeli security forces said.

In Beirut, many people are sleeping out in the streets after Israeli air strikes.

Ahmad, a 77-year-old who did not want to give his family name for fear of reprisals, said he had a message for Hezbollah.

"If you can't continue to fight, announce you are withdrawing and that you have lost. There is no shame in losing," he said.

But Raed Ayyash, a displaced man from the south of the country, said he hoped Hezbollah would keep fighting.

"We hope for victory, and we will never give up."