Israel has “lost sovereignty” in the northern part of its country due to the persistent cross-border attacks Hezbollah has launched against Israel since October, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday.
“People don’t feel safe to go to their homes,” he said during a public interview at the Brookings Institute in Washington. “Absent doing something about the insecurity, people won’t have the confidence to return,” he said.
He spoke as close to 60,000 Israelis from northern border communities are unable to return home and the areas remain largely deserted.
International concern remained high that the almost nine months of cross-border violence would escalate into a third Lebanon War.
Lufthansa Group on Monday halted night flights to and from Beirut until July 31 due to the situation in the Middle East, a spokesperson for the company said.
Swiss Air Lines also moves Beirut night flights to daytime
Swiss International Air Lines, a Lufthansa Group subsidiary, also said it would move its Beirut night flights to the daytime until the end of July “due to the political developments at the border between Lebanon and Israel.
Blinken said that there is “momentum” leading to a larger war between Hezbollah and the IDF, but that paradoxically no one really wants to see a larger war break out.
“None of the main actors actually want a war. Israel doesn’t want a war, although they may well be prepared to engage in one, if necessary,” he said.
“I don’t believe Hezbollah actually wants a war. Lebanon certainly doesn’t want a war, because it would be the leading victim in such a war,” Blinken said.
“I don’t believe that Iran wants a war in part because it wants to make sure that Hezbollah is not destroyed, and that it can hold on to Hezbollah as a card if it needs it if it ever gets into a direct conflict with Israel,” Blinken stated.
The best option is a diplomatic arrangement by which Hezbollah would pull back from the border area near Israel, he said.
The “United States has been deeply engaged in trying to advance this diplomacy,” he stated.
In Israel, MK Benny Gantz, who heads the National Unity Party, called on the Lebanese army to act against Hezbollah and ensure that the Iranian proxy group is relocated away from the border with Israel.
“They need to make sure Hezbollah stops. Hezbollah needs to decide whether it’s an Iranian branch or a Lebanese organization and pay the price for what comes with this, Gantz told a group of European ambassadors.
He spoke at an event sponsored by The European Leadership Network, stressing, “I will not agree to the reality as it is now in our northern arenas to continue.”
Gantz, a former IDF chief of staff and a former defense minister had been a minister in the government’s war cabinet, but withdrew from the national unity coalition in June, thereby rendering him unable to participate in decisions regarding the war.
Reuters contributed to this report.