Lebanon security source says six Hezbollah fighters dead in Israel strikes

JERUSALEM: The United States said it was working around the clock in the Middle East, with Israel on high alert Tuesday for possible Iranian retaliation for two high-profile assassinations.
US President Joe Biden, whose country has sent additional warships and fighter jets to the region in support of Israel, held crisis talks with his national security team on Monday.
Biden and his top diplomat, Antony Blinken, sought to defuse tensions that had escalated since Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, was killed in a suspected Israeli strike in Tehran last Wednesday.
Biden called on King Abdullah II of Jordan, whose country helped shoot down Iranian drones and missiles in an attack on Israel in April, while Blinken called on top officials from Qatar and Egypt, the main mediator in seeking a ceasefire in the 10-month Israel-Hamas war. Gaza.
“We are engaged in intensive diplomacy, around the clock with a very simple message – all parties must refrain from escalation,” Blinken said after being joined by other top officials at the White House meeting.
Iranian President Masoud Pezhekian on Monday criticized Israel for its “criminal act” and the killing of Haniyeh “against the oppressed and helpless people of Gaza.”
“The Islamic Republic of Iran is by no means seeking to expand the scope of war and crisis in the region, but this regime will certainly get an answer for its crimes and arrogance,” Pezheskian said in talks with a senior Russian official. to the official news agency IRNA.
The attack – on which Israel has not directly commented – came hours after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fouad Shouk, the military chief of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
Israel held Shukra responsible for a rocket attack on the occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 children and called him the “right-hand man” of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Nasrallah was to deliver a speech on Tuesday to mark one week since Shukra's death.
Hezbollah has engaged in almost daily cross-border skirmishes with Israeli forces since Hamas invaded Israel in early October.
The group claimed several attacks in Israel on Tuesday, including an “explosive-laden drone” targeting a barracks north of the coastal city of Acre.
In southern Lebanon, five Hezbollah fighters were killed in an Israeli strike, according to Lebanese security sources.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib admitted during a visit to Cairo that “there is a possibility of war between us and Israel… We cannot rule it out.”
A European diplomat in Tel Aviv said a “coordinated response” against Israel was expected from Iran and its proxies but de-escalation efforts were continuing.
“This does not mean there will be a simultaneous reaction from all fronts,” he added, declining to be identified as he was not authorized to speak on the issue.
“We are telling them to stop playing with fire, because the risk of a flare-up is higher than at any time after October 7,” he said.
Turkey joined several governments on Monday calling on their citizens to leave Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based, while China urged increased caution.
Many airlines have suspended flights to Lebanon or limited them to daylight hours.
Lebanese national carrier Middle East Airlines held extra flights for people who wanted to leave or return, a company source said.
The Jeddah-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation will meet on Wednesday at the request of “Palestine and Iran,” an OIC official said, to discuss developments in the region.
UN rights chief Volker Türk urged “all parties, including affected states, to take immediate action to de-escalate what has become a very precarious situation”.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein, “agreed to make every effort to avoid regional conflict” in a joint statement on Monday. Italy holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of countries.
The Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which began with an Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian group, has spilled over into Iran-backed fighters in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
According to AFP figures based on official Israeli figures, Hamas attacks killed 1,197 people, most of them civilians.
Palestinian militants captured 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still being held in Gaza, killing 39 Israeli soldiers.
Thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Monday to celebrate the fifth birthday of child captive Ariel Bibas and call for his and his family's release.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,653 people, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not detail civilian and militant deaths.
In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said Israeli forces killed eight people in two separate attacks on Tuesday.

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