Hezbollah on Sunday threatened further aggression in its war on Israel, leaving U.S. officials scrambling to contain the fallout of a weekend strike on the Jewish state that saw the Iran-backed terror group fire hundreds of missiles and drones.
At least one Israeli was killed over the weekend when Hezbollah bombarded the country with advanced missiles and suicide drones as payback for the assassination last month of senior commander Fuad Shukr. Israel successfully fended off the strike, which was focused on civilian centers and military facilities, including those near Tel Aviv. It preemptively destroyed Hezbollah rocket launchers aimed at Tel Aviv and set to fire Sunday morning, limiting damage.
Hezbollah threatened further escalation, with its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, saying Sunday that "if the result" of the current strike "is not enough, then we retain the right to respond another time." Israel also said it is prepared for further action and will not back down from the threats posed by Iran’s terror proxies. "This is not the end of the story," Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanuyahu warned over the weekend after his military blasted more than 40 Hezbollah-controlled sites across Lebanon.
The surprise attack, the largest in nearly 10 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, threatens to unleash a broader war in the Middle East with Iran’s most sophisticated terror proxy. It also throws a wrench in U.S.-led efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which rejected a weekend deal that would have ended hostilities and brought more than 100 hostages back home. Soon after balking at the agreement, Hamas reportedly launched a rocket at central Israel.
The Biden-Harris administration has been scrambling for months to pressure Israel into accepting a ceasefire agreement ahead of the 2024 presidential election. But the fresh violence has erased hope a deal would be finalized this weekend.
The Gaza war has emerged as a central issue for Democratic voters, with large swaths of the party pressuring presidential nominee Kamala Harris to more forcefully confront Israel and impose an arms embargo on the Jewish state. Last week’s Democratic National Convention was marred by anti-Israel protests, including one from a group of party delegates.
Former president Donald Trump commented on the regional chaos on Sunday, accusing the Biden-Harris administration of waging a failed diplomatic campaign to ease the tension.
"Who is negotiating for us in the Middle East? Bombs are dropping all over the place!" Trump wrote on X. "Let’s not have World War lll, because that’s where we’re heading!"
The White House, in a statement, said the United States "will keep supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, and we will keep working for regional stability."
Harris has not commented on the situation.
Hezbollah’s attack was timed to coincide with American-led peace talks aimed at securing a Gaza war ceasefire. The United States reportedly had intelligence showing a strike was likely to take place this weekend and is said to have shared at least a portion of this information with Israel.
Regional analysts said the attack was clearly meant to upset peace talks.
"Please ask yourself why Hezbollah would attack Tel Aviv on the weekend of Gaza ceasefire talks," said Richard Goldberg, a former White House National Security Council official who now works for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank. "This is Iran’s chess game with the objective being to squeeze Israel with a ring of fire. Stop pressuring Israel for a ceasefire and start pressuring the head of the octopus: Tehran."
Following the assassination earlier this month of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, the region was poised for a massive attack on Israel. American mediators spent weeks pressing Tehran to hold back on a promised attack, but it appears they could not convince the Islamic Republic’s terror proxies to hold their fire.
Iranian state-controlled media celebrated Hezbollah’s weekend strike, saying that "more than 320 missiles were fired at 11 Israeli military bases during the operation." It also published videos showing "heavy missile and drone attacks by Lebanon's Hezbollah on occupied Palestine."
Unlike Hamas, Hezbollah’s arsenal is much larger and more sophisticated. A full-scale war could mean heavy casualties across both Israel and Lebanon.
The terror group has around 40,000 trained combatants and 150,000 mortars, unguided rockets, and various ballistic missiles. Hezbollah is also armed with anti-tank guided missiles and unmanned aerial systems, much of which has been provided by Iran.