Israel and Hezbollah say they will keep up attacks in an escalating conflict that has devastated Gaza, is causing misery in Lebanon and could draw Iran deeper into the fighting.
As Israel vowed to continue its attacks against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a White House emissary visiting Lebanon on Monday said the conflict had “escalated out of control” and called for the enforcement of a United Nations resolution that ended the previous major war between them, in 2006.
The U.S. official, Amos Hochstein, a special adviser to President Biden on the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, spoke in Beirut, his first visit to the Lebanese capital since the Israeli military launched a ground offensive and intensified its aerial attacks against Hezbollah last month.
Israel’s military campaign against the Iranian-backed armed group, prompted by months of cross-border rocket fire, has set off a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, displacing around a fifth of the population. The conflict has killed more than 2,400 Lebanese over the past year, according to the country’s health ministry.
After weeks of bombarding Hezbollah’s military and its leaders, the Israeli military shifted targets, saying it had conducted strikes overnight on “dozens of facilities and sites” used by Hezbollah to finance its attacks against Israel. The military said it had targeted Al-Qard al-Hasan, which U.S., Israeli and other officials have accused of operating as Hezbollah’s banking arm. The extent of any casualties was unclear.
In Lebanon, where Hezbollah is also a powerful political organization, Al-Qard al-Hasan is a registered charity and is at the heart of the group’s social services network.
“Hezbollah has paid and will continue to pay a heavy price for its attacks on northern Israel and its rocket fire,” Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said on social media. “We will keep striking the Iranian proxy until it collapses.”
