By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government, reacting to Israel’s heavy bombardment in Lebanon, said on Sunday that military pressure can enable diplomacy but can also lead to miscalculations.
Israeli air attacks battered Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday while dozens were killed separately in Gaza as the Israeli army launched a new incursion in the north.
The region has been on edge awaiting Israel’s response to a missile attack from Iran last week that Tehran carried out in retaliation for Israel’s escalations in Lebanon. The Iranian attack ultimately killed no one in Israel and Washington called it ineffective.
“Military pressure can at times enable diplomacy. Of course, military pressure can also lead to miscalculation. It can lead to unintended consequences,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told CNN that Israel was coordinating its response to Iran with the United States but would make its own independent decisions.
“Everything is on the table,” CNN quoted him as saying.
The United States said it supports Israel going after extremist targets in Lebanon like Iran-backed Hezbollah militants but does not want the targeting of civilians or civilian infrastructure.
“We’re in conversations with Israel about all these factors now. We have been clear and consistent that further escalation is in no one’s interest,” the spokesperson added. “Every civilian casualty is one too many.”
Washington’s occasional condemnation of ally Israel over civilian death tolls in Gaza and Lebanon has mostly been verbal, with no substantive change in policy even as the United States has seen months of protests demanding an arms embargo.
Washington’s goal is to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon to provide space for diplomacy, the State Department added.
The United States and France put forward a 21-day ceasefire proposal for the Israel-Lebanon border in late September. Washington and its allies also expressed support for a ceasefire in Gaza. However, efforts on both fronts have failed thus far.
Israel has since escalated its military campaign in Lebanon which in recent days has killed hundreds, wounded thousands and displaced over 1 million people. Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah.
French President Emmanuel Macron said over the weekend that shipments of arms to Israel should be stopped. Israel said such a step will serve the purposes of Iran.
A Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has not been reached due to gaps in exchanges of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners as well as Israel’s demand that it maintain presence in a corridor on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent military assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed almost 42,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Mark Porter)