As Israel’s 11-month war on Gaza rages on, U.S. officials are increasingly concerned that the conflict may spread to neighboring Lebanon. Recent synchronized blasts involving pagers and walkie-talkies left dozens dead and thousands injured in an unprecedented attack that Beirut has attributed to Israel.
These attacks followed heavy Israeli missile strikes on southern Lebanon last Thursday, which prompted retaliatory rocket fire from Hezbollah. The escalation has raised fears of a broader regional conflict, leading to urgent calls for de-escalation.
In an exclusive interview, a senior U.S. State Department official expressed concern over the potential for the Gaza war to extend into Lebanon.
“The pager attacks were deeply troubling,” the official stated. “We are certainly worried about the conflict spilling over into Lebanon. No one wants to see the violence spread further, and the U.S. is actively engaging with all parties to prevent escalation.”
The official emphasized that the U.S. had no prior knowledge or involvement in the device explosions. “We had zero knowledge or operational involvement in that incident whatsoever,” the official clarified.
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has accused Israel of carrying out a “covert operation” that caused the explosion of thousands of communication devices. Calling it a “declaration of war,” Nasrallah vowed that Israel would face “tough retribution and just punishment, where it expects and where it does not.”
The two-day explosion spree killed at least 37 people, including children and medics, and injured nearly 3,000 as hostilities along the Israeli-Lebanese border intensified. As Nasrallah spoke, Israeli jets carried out strikes in southern Lebanon, causing sonic booms over Beirut, while Hezbollah launched rockets at Israeli military targets in northern Israel.
The potential for an Israel-Lebanon conflict poses the risk of drawing the U.S. into a more complex and dangerous situation, which the Biden administration is keen to avoid.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
