Escalation in the Middle East Looms Over the General Assembly Meeting

Escalation in the Middle East Looms Over the General Assembly Meeting

The war in Gaza has endured more than 11 months, and violence between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia, has risen sharply over the last week.

• Share full article

By Eve Sampson

The United Nations General Assembly convened in New York on Tuesday against the backdrop of a world embroiled in several wars, including Israel’s expanding and increasingly deadly wars with Hamas and Hezbollah.

Despite a mounting death toll and a catastrophic humanitarian disaster, progress in peace talks remains elusive nearly one year after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel that set off the war in Gaza.

Violence between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia, has escalated over the last week as the two groups ramp up tit-for-tat strikes across the Lebanese border.

Hezbollah’s leaders have vowed to retaliate against Israeli strikes, saying the group will continue its attacks on Israel until a cease-fire deal is reached between Israel and Hamas, Hezbollah’s ally.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the first 11 months of the war, according to the Gazan Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Many more have been displaced. Lebanon had remained relatively unscathed until recently, when Israel turned its attention to Hezbollah.

Israel pummeled Lebanon with airstrikes on Monday, the deadliest day in the country since at least 2006. The attack left more than 550 dead and more than 1,500 injured. The Israeli military said in a statement on Tuesday that its air force hit about 1,600 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Monday and was continuing to strike the country.

Israel’s escalation comes after hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies owned by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon last week, killing more than 30 people, including two children, and injuring thousands. Israel did not explicitly claim responsibility, but Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, said that the “center of gravity” of Israel’s military effort, which had concentrated on eliminating Hamas in Gaza, was “moving north.”

Israel bombarded Lebanon throughout the weekend. On Friday, Israel hit Beirut, the Lebanese capital, killing several top Hezbollah commanders, including one of the group’s most senior leaders, according to Israeli officials. The attack also flattened a residential building, killing and wounding dozens of civilians.

On Sunday, Hezbollah launched more than 100 missiles, rockets and drones into Israel, striking around 30 miles inside the country’s borders in its deepest attack since last October.

António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, called on Monday for an immediate end to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, with his spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, saying in a statement that, “there is no military solution that will make either side safer.”

On Tuesday, Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., said Israel was not eager to start a ground invasion in Lebanon. “We don’t want to send our boys to fight in a foreign country. But we are determined to protect the civilians of Israel. We prefer a diplomatic solution — if it’s not working, we are using other methods to show to the other side that we mean business.”