Urgent calls grew on Sunday for foreign nationals to leave Lebanon, which would be on the front line of a regional war, as Iran and its allies readied their response to high-profile killings blamed on Israel.
While diplomats worked to avert a feared conflagration, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Jordan’s King Abdullah II said a regional military escalation must be avoided “at all costs,” the French presidency said after they held a telephone call.
With major military action from Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and others widely expected, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “If they dare to attack us, they will pay a heavy price.”
The nearly 10-month-old war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas has already led to a violent fallout which has become routine around the region.
In the deadliest incident on Sunday in Gaza, the Civil Defense agency said an Israeli strike hit two Gaza City schools housing displaced people, killing at least 30.
This brings to at least 11 the number of schools hit in Gaza since July 6.
Israel’s army confirmed the latest strike, saying Hamas was using the schools.
Near the Israeli commercial hub of Tel Aviv, medics and police said two people were killed in a stabbing attack.
The assailant, a Palestinian from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was “neutralized” by police and taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
‘Highly volatile’
Hezbollah, which has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces since the Gaza war broke out in October, announced the deaths of two of its fighters without specifying where.
The Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli strike on the southern border village of Hula killed two people.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency had reported Israeli strikes on various areas of south Lebanon, after Hezbollah said it had fired a fresh barrage of rockets at northern Israel.
The Israeli military said most of the 30 projectiles launched from Lebanon were intercepted and spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that “as of now” Israel’s policy for protecting civilians has not changed.
The cross-border violence since October has killed some 547 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including 115 civilians, according to an AFP 스포츠 tally.
And Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels on Sunday claimed a strike on a cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden. It was the first such attack since Israel struck the rebel-controlled Hodeida port last month in retaliation for a Huthi drone strike on Tel Aviv.
Saudi Arabia and France became the latest of several countries calling on their citizens to leave Lebanon.
“In a highly volatile security context,” the foreign ministry in Paris “urgently asked” its nationals to avoid travelling to Lebanon and suggested those already in the country leave “as soon as possible.”
France also urged its nationals living in Iran to “temporarily leave.”
Several Western airlines have suspended flights to Lebanon and other airports in the region.
Qatar Airways said the Doha-Beirut route would “operate exclusively during daylight hours” at least until Monday.
