Two waves of device explosions in Lebanon over consecutive days have led to fears of an escalation to war in the Middle East.
In Cairo, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his frustration that the detonations of thousands of Hezbollah members’ pagers would derail efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Israel—widely believed to have engineered the explosive pagers and walkie-talkies, although it has not commented about the incidents—was pushing the Middle East to the brink of regional conflict.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said there is “a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon. Everything must be done to avoid that escalation.”
Egypt and Russia issued similar warnings.
On Sept. 17, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, eight people were killed and about 2,800 people were injured when pagers exploded in a wave of blasts at numerous locations in Lebanon and Syria, centered on Beirut’s Hezbollah-dominated neighborhoods.
Hezbollah members were targeted. Videos posted on social media of hospital emergency rooms showed only adult male victims.
In recent days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has affirmed his country’s commitment to doing whatever it takes to allow more than 80,000 Israeli residents to return to their homes in the country’s north, much of it uninhabitable since Oct. 7, 2023, because of Hezbollah’s constant rocketing.
The Israeli cabinet voted to add that objective to its formal list of war goals.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sept. 18 declared the start of a “new phase” of war as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) turned its attention to its northern border with Lebanon.
On Sept. 16, Gallant warned visiting U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein that “the possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas and refuses to end the conflict.”
“Therefore, the only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes will be via military action.”
Netanyahu’s office said he told Hochstein that “Israel appreciates and respects the support of the United States, but in the end will do what is necessary to maintain its security and to return the residents of the north to their homes safely.”
In a short video statement released on Sept. 18 after the second wave of bombings, Netanyahu said: “I have already said we will return the residents of the north safely to their homes, and that is exactly what we will do.”
Israeli army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Israel had drawn up plans for additional action against Hezbollah and was ready to strike.
He approved new operational plans at Israel’s Northern Command on Sept. 18.
The IDF’s 98th Division, with between 10,000 and 20,000 troops, has been redeployed to northern Israel after months of operating in the Gaza Strip. It was withdrawn from Khan Yunis in August.
The crisis came as the U.N. General Assembly supported a nonbinding Palestinian resolution on Sept. 18 demanding that Israel end its “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the West Bank within a year.
The vote was 124–14 to pass the resolution, with 43 abstentions. The United States opposed the resolution.
The U.N. failed in fall 2023 to pass a resolution condemning Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which about 1,200 people, primarily Jewish civilians, were massacred, thousands wounded, and another 250 taken hostage.
It was the largest killing of Jews since the Holocaust.
A resolution calling for an “immediate, sustained humanitarian truce” passed on Oct. 27, 2023, but the members failed to pass an amendment condemning the attack itself.
The amendment had 88 votes for, 55 against, and 23 abstentions. Resolutions require a two-thirds majority.
The U.N. also hasn’t enforced its 2006 resolution requiring Hezbollah to withdraw from Israel’s frontier to the other side of the Litani River, about 10 miles north.
The General Assembly has adopted 140 resolutions criticizing Israel since 2015, primarily for its treatment of the Palestinians, relationships with neighboring countries, and other alleged wrongdoings.
Over the same period, it passed 68 resolutions against all other countries.
“Each country has a vote, and the world is watching us,” Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the General Assembly on Sept. 17.
“Please stand on the right side of history. With international law. With freedom. With peace.”
Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon denounced the vote. “Let’s call this for what it is: This resolution is diplomatic terrorism, using the tools of diplomacy not to build bridges but to destroy them,” he said.
Palestine is now recognized as a nonvoting U.N. member nation. Its status was recently upgraded to allow it to introduce resolutions but not to vote for them.
The U.S. secretary of state’s press office, in response to an emailed query from The Epoch Times, declined to say whether it would veto such a resolution. “We do not speak to hypothetical scenarios,” it stated.
The United States, one of the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council, can veto resolutions there but not in the General Assembly.
