Israel-Hamas: fears grow of wider war with Lebanon
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00:00Meanwhile, the fighting at Israel's northern border with Lebanon has also escalated in
00:03recent weeks, with near-daily exchanges of fire between Israel and Iran-backed militant
00:08group Hezbollah, citing increasingly bellicose rhetoric from both sides.
00:13The U.N. secretary-general warned Friday that Lebanon must not become another Gaza.
00:19Here's Antonio Guterres.
00:22The risk for the conflict in the Middle East to widen is real and must be avoided.
00:29One rash move, one miscalculation could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border
00:37and frankly, beyond imagination.
00:41For more, I'm joined on set by our international affairs editor, Ketaven Gorgastani.
00:45Ketaven, hello.
00:47We heard those latest words from Antonio Guterres.
00:49Just how significant is this latest fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border?
00:53Well, look, there have been nearly daily cross-border fighting since October 7th between Israel
01:01and Hezbollah.
01:03And there have been regularly some flare-ups, where you see an intensifying of this fire.
01:08And this past week is one of those flare-ups.
01:12And the bellicose rhetoric that Guterres was warning about is actually real.
01:18You saw on Tuesday, the Israeli military put out a statement saying that they had plans
01:24for a military offensive in Lebanon.
01:28And they said that those plans had been approved and validated, not that they would put them
01:32to execution, but that they had those plans.
01:36And then on Wednesday, you had Hassan Nasrallah, who is the head of Hezbollah, who said that
01:41no place in Israel would be spared if there was a full-out war against Hezbollah.
01:47And then you saw sort of tit-for-tat strikes across the border, the Israelis killing Hezbollah
01:55operative, Hezbollah retaliating with a series of strikes.
02:01And this, over the past few months, has meant that there have been tens of thousands of
02:06people displaced on both sides of the border, and hundreds killed, mostly on the Lebanese
02:13border, but also on the Israeli border.
02:16Now, obviously, if there is a full-out war, and this is something that has concerned the
02:20international community for months now, Israel is a very big and strong army.
02:28And so it has the means to do a lot of damage in Israel.
02:31And actually, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that if it were to happen, they would
02:36turn Beirut into Gaza.
02:38So that gives you an idea of what could happen.
02:41But at the same time, Hezbollah is not Hamas.
02:44They're much stronger, much better equipped.
02:47They have much stronger weapons, more missiles, and they could also inflict a lot more damage
02:52on Israel than Hamas has been able to.
02:55And there are concerns, especially among allies of Israel, including the United States, that
03:02Israel's famed Iron Dome could be overwhelmed by the number of missiles.
03:07They could stop some, but they might not be able to stop all of it.
03:10And that is why this is something that everyone is paying very close attention to, and that
03:15everyone, whether it's in the region or in the United States, is trying to, you know,
03:21use their sort of pressure on both sides to try to keep this at a sort of flare-up and
03:28avoid it becoming a full-out, full-blown war between the Israeli army and Hezbollah.
03:33And speaking of the United States, Ketavan, in this context, Israel has received a pledge
03:37of full support from the U.S.
03:39That's despite there being increasing tension between the two allies.
03:43Yes, and those reassurances came in person when Israeli officials were in Washington
03:50earlier this week, meeting at high level with their counterparts in the United States.
03:56And the U.S. officials basically telling them, you will, we will have your back.
04:02We will support you and help you in the case of a full-blown war with Hezbollah.
04:08The U.S., as I said, has been trying to avoid this escalation for months now.
04:14Antony Blinken was in the region talking about this.
04:17They had their envoy go to Lebanon to speak with a Lebanese official and try to avoid
04:25this.
04:26But there is a significant importance in the fact that the Americans are putting this out
04:33there.
04:34It's because of those tensions between the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,
04:37and the U.S. President Joe Biden.
04:40Earlier this week, there was this video in English by Benjamin Netanyahu, where he basically
04:45accused the U.S. of withholding weapons and ammunitions in recent months.
04:52Response from the White House, very clear, very strong.
04:56The press secretary saying, we genuinely don't know what he's talking about.
05:00And the spokesperson for the National Security Council, John Kirby, saying that it was disappointing
05:06and vexing, and most importantly, not true.
05:10There is, of course, that one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that has been paused by
05:15the Americans as they are reviewing it.
05:17And they're reviewing their policy because their concerns that these mass bombs could
05:22be used in high-density areas like in Rafah or elsewhere in Gaza.
05:27And that is why they've paused this.
05:28But that is the single shipment that has been paused.
05:31And that's what the White House is pointing to, saying everything else has been going
05:35to the Israelis.
05:36We've been providing weapons and ammunitions for several months now and several years,
05:42obviously.
05:43And so this is completely wrong.
05:45Benjamin Netanyahu seemingly doubling down on his criticism because he said on Thursday
05:52that he was prepared to suffer personal attacks, provided that Israel receives the ammunition
05:58from the U.S. that it needs in the war for its existence.
06:01So he's sort of going at it again, even though the Americans are sort of publicly saying
06:06you need to stop this, this is absolutely not true.
06:09Yet the Americans are showing the fact that despite all the problems between administrations,
06:16they are there to support Israel's right to defend itself.
06:19That's the policy of the United States.
06:21That's the message of the United States, sort of putting aside the frictions between the
06:26leaders to reiterate their support for the state of Israel and their ability to defend
06:33themselves against a possible attack from Hezbollah.
06:36Yeah, probably hoping it's going to work as a deterrent to a larger war.
06:40Ketaven, thank you so much for that.
06:42As always, that's our international affairs editor there, Ketaven Gorgastani.