White House, Israel Work To Head Off Widening of Mideast War Following Strike Against Hezbollah in Lebanon

UPDATED AT 5:15 P.M. EDTAs the Israeli war cabinet convened Tuesday, the White House said that even after that country’s strike at Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold, a wider Mideast war can be prevented. Earlier, Israel Defense Forces killed Fouad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander who, it said, was personally involved in Saturday’s killing of 12 children on the Golan Heights. The IDF spokesman, Daniel Hagari, confirms that Shukr, known as Hajj Muhsin, the closest adviser to Hezbollah’s chief, Hasan Nasrallah, has been killed in a strike conducted from fighter jets.In a statement, Rear Admiral Hagari described Shukr as Mr. Nasrallah’s right-hand man, and his top adviser for conducting the war against Israel since October 8. “He is responsible for the killing of children in Majdal Shams,” he said. Washington has warned Israel against attacks at Beirut. Yet, it was hesitant to denounce the attack on a terrorist who is also wanted in America.Israel “has the right to defend itself against the terrorist organization, which is exactly what Hezbollah is,” Vice President Harris said at Atlanta, adding, “but all of that being said, we still must work on a diplomatic solution to end these attacks, and we will continue to do that work.”“Hezbollah has crossed a red line,” Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, wrote on X shortly after reports of the Beirut strike emerged across the Mideast. The deadly attack on Majdal Shams Saturday shook Israel. Yet Hezbollah followed it with intensified attacks on the northern Galilee and the Golan Heights, killing a man in his 30s Tuesday at Kibbutz Hagoshrim. Multiple Lebanese press outlets initially claimed that Shukr, dubbed by Israel as Hezbollah’s chief of staff, had survived the IDF drone strike at southern Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighborhood. Yet, a Saudi-based television network, al-Arabiya, is reporting Shukr has been killed and his body is being held at a Beirut hospital. “One of Hezbollah’s senior commanders has been assassinated in Dahiyeh, southern Beirut,” a mouthpiece of the Tehran regime, IRNA, writes on X. Meanwhile, Israel is mum about the outcome of the strike that officials have acknowledged was conducted by the IDF. Shukr was considered the top military commander of the Iran-backed organization. He is a founding member of the Lebanon-based terror organization, and some see him as heir to a high-profile Hezbollah figure, Imad Moughniyeh, who was killed by Israel in 2008. The Department of State lists Shukr as a top terrorist. Washington has posted a $5 million award on his head for his role in the 1983 bombing of the American embassy at Beirut, in which 241 Americans were killed. Israel says the Hezbollah chief commander is responsible for the deaths of the 12 Druze children who were killed at the Golan Saturday. Since the attack in the Druze village Majd al-Shams, Washington officials have warned Israel against a reprisal that could involve the entire region. Specifically, members of the Biden administration have warned against any operation at the Lebanese capital. Israeli sources said they had updated American counterparts in advance of the Tuesday operation. Reports in the region say that the U.S. Navy is sending warships to the eastern Mediterranean in anticipation of a widening war. Yet Israelis now assess that as Mr. Nasrallah’s closest adviser has been targeted, the Hezbollah chief is unlikely to avoid a major counter-attack.“I believe Haifa will be a major target,” the mayor of Israel’s third-largest city, Yona Yahav, told several press outlets. Earlier this month Hezbollah published a video shot from one of its drones that depicted sensitive targets at Haifa, including Israel’s largest seaport. Other possible targets could include Tel Aviv, and especially Hakirya, which is the Israeli equivalent of the Pentagon, and Ben Gurion airport. “Israel must make all intelligence sensors operational,” a senior researcher at Israel’s Misgav Institute, Yossi Mansharof, writes. According to sources, Israel was able to gain intelligence on Hezbollah’s high-accuracy missiles, which the Lebanese organization exposed this week in anticipation of Israeli reprisal for the Saturday attack on the Golan. “The ball is now in Hezbollah’s court,” an unidentified Israeli official told Israeli reporters, indicating that as far as Israel is concerned it expects an end to the ever-escalating reprisals. Yet a Lebanese parliament member, Ali Ammar, said that Israel will “pay highly” for what he called a hit on a “civilian neighborhood of Beirut. Many Lebanese, though, are criticizing the attacks on Israel, which Hezbollah has been conducting since October 8 in support of Hamas. “I hope Hezbollah would react proportionally, to end the cycle of death,” Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said Tuesday. “The IDF must be ready for a major war,” a former head of Israel’s National Security Council, Yaakov Amidror, told Kan News. He added that even though more than 60,000 northern Israelis are yet to return home, Hezbollah is suffering more than the Jewish state. Since October, “we have killed 500 terrorists, including 370 Hezbollah members and the rest from other organizations,” Mr. Amidror said. “We damaged their military capabilities, they have hardly hit ours. Hezbollah is hit harder than the IDF, and Lebanon was hit harder than Israel.”

White House, Israel Work To Head Off Widening of Mideast War Following Strike Against Hezbollah in Lebanon

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