Hezbollah says wider Mideast war possible if Gaza assault continues

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The leader of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group warned the United States on Friday that if Israel did not stop its assault on Gaza then the conflict could widen into a regional war.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in his first speech since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7, also threatened the US, Israel’s main ally, hinting his Iran-backed paramilitary group was ready to confront US warships in the Mediterranean.

A heavily armed ally of Gaza’s Hamas, Hezbollah has been engaging Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border in the biggest flare-up since it fought a war with Israel in 2006.

“You, the Americans, can stop the aggression against Gaza because it is your aggression,” Nasrallah said. “Whoever wants to prevent a regional war, and I am talking to the Americans, must quickly halt the aggression on Gaza.”

He added that Hezbollah, the spearhead of a Tehran-backed regional alliance hostile to Israel and the United States, did not fear the US naval firepower Washington has assembled in the region since the crisis erupted.

“You, the Americans, know very well that if war breaks out in the region, your fleets will be of no use, nor will fighting from the air be of any benefit, and the one who will pay the price will be … your interests, your soldiers and your fleets,” he said.

Other Iran-aligned groups have entered the fray since October 7, with Tehran-backed Shi’ite groups firing on US forces in Iraq and Syria, and Yemen’s Houthis launching drones at Israel.

Nasrallah saluted those actions, and said further escalation along the Lebanese border between Israel and his group was contingent on what happened in the Gaza Strip, under assault by Israeli forces since Hamas attacked Israel four weeks ago.

In Washington, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said it was aware of Nasrallah’s speech but would not engage in “a war of words”. Hezbollah and other state and non-state actors should not try to take advantage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the spokesperson said.

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, in retaliation for the October 7 attack in which the group killed 1 400 people and took more than 240 people hostage.

Israel has struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and launched a ground assault, stirring global alarm at humanitarian conditions in the enclave, with food scarce, medical services collapsing and a civilian death toll that has surpassed 9 000.

Nasrallah’s remarks coincided with a visit to Israel by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his second tour of the region in less than a month to show support for close ally Israel in its confrontation with Hamas.

Blinken urged Israel to temporarily stop its military offensive to allow for aid to enter Gaza, but he faced pushback from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who rejected any such halt unless hostages held by Hamas are freed.

The Israeli military said its troops were fighting Hamas in close-quarter combat in the ruined streets after encircling Gaza City in their bid to wipe out the group that controls the small, densely populated territory.

Aid agencies warn a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in the bloodiest episode in decades in the Israeli-Hamas war. France plans to hold a humanitarian conference for Gaza’s civilians on Thursday, three diplomatic sources said.

Gaza health authorities said Israel struck a convoy of ambulances on Friday that was to leave al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and head to south Gaza to evacuate injured people. A spokesperson for the Israeli military said it was looking into the report.

Video shared on social media, which Reuters has verified, showed people lying in blood next to an ambulance with flashing lights on a city street as people rushed to help.

Gaza health authorities say at least 9 227 people have been killed since Israel started its blitz on the enclave of 2.3 million people.

The Israeli military said its troops and tanks were encountering mines and booby traps as they advanced in Gaza. Gaza City – traditionally a Hamas bastion – was surrounded, military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

Israel said it has lost 23 soldiers in the offensive.

Hamas said their fighters had detonated explosives against advancing troops, dropped grenades from drones, and fired mortars and anti-tank rockets in fierce urban warfare around destroyed buildings and heaps of rubble.

In one Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, a local journalist working for the official Palestine TV and at least nine of his immediate family were killed in their house, relatives and health officials said.

The Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt opened for a third day on Friday for limited evacuations under a Qatari-brokered deal to let out some foreign passport holders, their dependents and some wounded Gazans.