JERUSALEM: The United States said it was working “around the clock” to avert an all-out war in the Middle East, as Israel remained on high alert on Tuesday for potential Iranian retaliation for two high-profile killings.
US President Joe Biden, whose country has sent extra warships and fighter jets to the region in support of Israel, held emergency talks on Monday with his national security team.
Biden and his top diplomat Antony Blinken sought to calm tensions that have soared since a suspected Israeli attack in Tehran on Wednesday killed Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Biden called King Abdullah II of Jordan, whose country helped shoot down Iranian drones and missiles in an attack on Israel in April, while Blinken called top officials in Qatar and Egypt, the main mediators pushing for a truce in the 10-month war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
“We are engaged in intensive diplomacy, pretty much around the clock, with a very simple message — all parties must refrain from escalation,” Blinken said after joining other top officials in a White House meeting.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday lashed out at what he called Israel's “criminal actions” “against the oppressed and defenseless people of Gaza” as well as the killing of Haniyeh.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran is not in any way trying to expand the scale of war and crisis in the region, but this regime will definitely be answered for its crimes and arrogance,” Pezeshkian said during talks with a senior visiting Russian official, according to the official news agency IRNA.
The attack – which Israel has not directly commented on – came hours after an Israeli strike on Beirut killed the military chief of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, Fuad Shukr.
Israel held Shukr responsible for a rocket attack on the annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children, calling him the “right-hand man” of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Nasrallah was due to give a speech on Tuesday to mark one week since Shukr's death.
Hezbollah has engaged in almost daily cross-border clashes with Israeli troops since the day after Hamas attacked Israel in early October.
The group claimed several attacks on Israel on Tuesday, including one with “explosive-laden drones” targeting a barracks north of the coastal city of Acre.
In southern Lebanon, five Hezbollah fighters were killed in an Israeli attack, according to a Lebanese security source.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib admitted on a visit to Cairo that there was “a possibility of a war between us and Israel… We cannot deny that.”
A European diplomat in Tel Aviv said “a concerted response” from Iran and its proxies was expected against Israel but detente efforts continued.
“It doesn't mean there will be a simultaneous response from all fronts,” he added, declining to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the matter.
“We are telling them that they have to stop playing with fire, because the risk of flare-ups is higher than at any time since October 7,” he said.
Turkey on Monday joined several governments urging their citizens to leave Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based, while China urged increased caution.
Many airlines have canceled flights to Lebanon or limited them to daylight hours.
Lebanon's national carrier Middle East Airlines put on extra flights for people wanting to leave or return, a company source said.
The Jeddah-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation is to meet on Wednesday at the request of “Palestine and Iran”, to discuss developments in the region, an OIC official said.
UN rights chief Volker Turk called on “all parties, together with the states that have influence, to act urgently to de-escalate what has become a very precarious situation”.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein agreed in a joint statement on Monday to do everything possible to avoid a regional escalation. Italy holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of countries.
The Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the Palestinian group's October 7 attack on Israel, has already drawn Iran-backed militants into Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
The Hamas attack left 1,197 people dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP report based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, of whom 111 are still being held in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.
In Tel Aviv on Monday, thousands of Israelis gathered to celebrate the fifth birthday of hostage Ariel Biba, and to call for the release of him and his family.
Israel's military retaliation campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,653 people, according to the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry, which did not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.
In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said Israeli forces killed eight people in two separate raids on Tuesday.
