Tensions heightened Sunday in the Middle East, with the U.S. moving warships to the region to defend Israel if Iran attacks, while several Western governments urgently told their citizens to leave Lebanon as Hezbollah launched a barrage of strikes targeting Israel.
France warned of “a highly volatile” situation following last week’s Israeli airstrike on a Beirut building that killed a Hezbollah commander, Fouad Shukur, and hours later Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran in a killing that Iran blamed on Israel.
The United States, France, Canada and Britain all told their citizens to leave Lebanon, and neighboring Jordan also did so. Several airlines suspended or curtailed service to the region.
Jonathan Finer, the White House National Security Council deputy adviser, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” show, “Our goal is de-escalation, our goal is deterrence, our goal is defense of Israel.”
“We are preparing for every possibility,” Finer told ABC’s “This Week” show, while adding, “We do not think a regional war is in anyone’s interest.”
After Haniyeh was assassinated last week in Tehran in a guesthouse he was staying in shortly after attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a statement, “We consider it our duty to take vengeance.” He ordered a direct strike on Israel in retaliation for the killing of Haniyeh, according to a New York Times report citing three Iranian officials on background.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told “Fox News Sunday,” “When the supreme leader says he’s going to respond, we have to take that seriously. We have to make darn sure we’re ready.”
U.S. President Joe Biden, asked by reporters Saturday if he thought Iran would stand down, said, “I hope so. I don’t know.”
The top U.S. diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, spoke Sunday with the G7 foreign ministers to discuss the urgent need to calm tensions in the Middle East.
A State Department spokesperson said Blinken and his counterparts “reiterated their commitment to Israel’s security and urged maximum restraint from all parties to keep the conflict from escalating.”
The Israeli military said Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militants fired 30 projectiles toward the northern part of Israel overnight Saturday into Sunday but that it had knocked down most of them. The two warring sides have traded near-daily fire since the Israeli-Hamas war started in Gaza nearly 10 months ago.
Even as Israel is on high alert anticipating an attack from Tehran, medics and police said two people were killed Sunday in a stabbing attack in a Tel Aviv suburb.
The assailant, a Palestinian from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was “neutralized” by police and taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Meanwhile, fighting raged on in Gaza, as the Israeli war with U.S. designated terror group Hamas nears the 10-month mark with no end in sight.
