Israel and Hezbollah exchange messages calling for de-escalation – after Netanyahu warns ‘this is not the end’
Israel and Hezbollah have reportedly exchanged messages via intermediaries aimed at preventing further escalation after both sides traded heavy fire on Sunday.
The development comes hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned “this is not the end of the verse” after Israel launched “pre-emptive strikes” against Hezbollah in Lebanon in the early hours of Sunday.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said nearly all the targets it struck were short-range rockets aimed at northern Israel.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, said it fired drones and hundreds of rockets at Israel on Sunday morning in response to the killing of one of its top commanders in the Lebanese capital Beirut last month.
The group said it had hit an Israeli military intelligence site near Tel Aviv as part of the barrage.
IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the Lebanese group was planning to “harm Israeli civilians” and managed to launch “only about 230 rockets” and around 20 drones.
“Most of them either fell on their way to Israeli territory, landed in open areas, or were intercepted by Israeli air force defence systems and Israeli navy ships,” he said.
As it happened: Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire
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Moment iron dome intercepts missiles
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the group’s attack against Israel went “as planned” and dismissed IDF statements that its strikes had prevented a larger assault.
He also said Hezbollah’s attack had been delayed to give Gaza ceasefire talks a chance, and so fellow Iran-backed groups could discuss with Iran whether to attack Israel all at once.
Mr Nasrallah said Hezbollah “will now reserve the right to respond at a later time if the results of Sunday’s attack aren’t sufficient”, adding that allied Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iran had yet to respond.
He told the Lebanese people: “At this current stage, the country can take a breath and relax.”
Hezbollah and Israel said they aimed only at military targets during their attacks.
Israel said no military target was hit by Hezbollah but that one soldier with its navy was killed and two others were wounded either by an interceptor for incoming fire or by shrapnel from one.
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Smoke is seen on the Lebanese side of the border after Hezbollah and Israel traded blows. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, two Hezbollah fighters and a militant from an allied group were killed in the Israeli strikes, the group said.
Speaking on Sunday afternoon, Mr Netanyahu said: “What happened today is not the end of the verse.
“Hezbollah tried to attack the State of Israel with rockets and drones early in the morning. We instructed the IDF to carry out a powerful pre-emptive strike to remove the threat.
“The IDF destroyed thousands of short-range rockets, and they were all intended to harm our citizens and our forces in the Galilee.
“In addition, the IDF intercepted all the UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] that Hezbollah launched for a strategic purpose in the centre of the country.
“We are hitting Hezbollah with surprising thrusts.”
His comments came before Reuters reported that both sides had exchanged messages in an effort to prevent further escalation at Israel’s border with Lebanon.
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Israeli navy soldier killed
One diplomat told the news agency that the overarching message was that both sides considered the overnight exchange of fire “done” and neither wanted a full-scale war.
World leaders have feared the 10-month Israel-Hamas war conflict spiral into a wider regional conflict between Israel and Iran or Iran-backed proxies.
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Hours after Hezbollah and Israel carried out their strikes, Hamas’s armed wing claimed it had fired a rocket at Tel Aviv.
The militant group says the attack was in response to Israeli “massacres against civilians”.
The latest violence comes after talks in Cairo aimed at negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza ended with no agreement, Reuters reported, citing two Egyptian sources.
The sources reportedly said that neither Hamas nor Israel agreed to several compromises suggested by mediators.
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How did Israeli and Hezbollah attacks unfold?
Hamas said it has rejected new Israeli ceasefire conditions which it claims deviated from a US proposal which was put forward in July.
The militant group has now accused Israel of backtracking on a promise to withdraw its troops from a narrow stretch of land along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.
It added that Israeli officials had proposed other new conditions, such as screening displaced Palestinians on their return to northern Gaza.
“We will not accept discussions about retractions from what we agreed to on July 2 or new conditions,” Hamas official Osama Hamdan told its Al Aqsa TV.
World
Ukraine war: 14 killed as Russian missile and drone attacks strike Kyiv – including American citizen
Russian missile and drone attacks have killed 14 people in Kyiv overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.
A 62-year-old US citizen who suffered shrapnel wounds is among the dead.
At least 99 others were wounded in strikes that hollowed out a residential building and destroyed dozens of apartments.
Pic: AP
Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble.
Images show a firefighter was among those hurt, with injured residents evacuated from their homes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “one of the most terrifying attacks on Kyiv” – and said Russian forces had fired 440 drones and 32 missiles as civilians slept in their homes.
“[Putin] wants the war to go on,” he said. “It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it.”
Pic: AP
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said 27 locations across the capital have been hit – including educational institutions and critical infrastructure.
He claimed the attack, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, was one of the largest on the capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Drones swarmed over the city, with an air raid alert remaining in force for seven hours.
One person was killed and 17 others injured as a result of separate Russian drone strikes in the port city of Odesa.
Pic: Reuters
It comes as the G7 summit in Canada continues, which Ukraine’s leader is expected to attend.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold talks with Donald Trump – but the president has announced he is unexpectedly returning to Washington because of tensions in the Middle East.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says Moscow’s decision to attack Kyiv during the summit is a signal of disrespect to the US.
Moscow has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks, and says the attacks are in retaliation for a Ukrainian operation that targeted warplanes in airbases deep within Russian territory.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says fires broke out in two of the city’s districts as a result of debris from drones shot down by the nation’s air defences.
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Pic: AP
On X, Ukraine’s foreign ministry wrote: “Russia’s campaign of terror against civilians continues. Its war against Ukraine escalates with increased brutality.
“The only way to stop Russia is tighter pressure – through sanctions, more defence support for Ukraine, and limiting Russia’s ability to keep sowing war.”
Olena Lapyshnak, who lived in one of the destroyed buildings, said: “It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life. I can only curse the Russians, that’s all I can say. They shouldn’t exist in this world.”
World
Israeli tank shelling kills 51 people waiting for aid in Khan Younis, Hamas-run health ministry says
Israeli tank shellfire has killed at least 51 Palestinians in Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
Hundreds of others have been injured, with “dozens of critical cases” arriving at a medical complex.
It is feared that the number of fatalities will rise.
Pic: Reuters
The strikes took place as people waited for United Nations and commercial aid trucks in the southern Gaza city.
Witnesses said that Israeli forces carried out an airstrike on a nearby home before opening fire toward the crowd.
“Emergency, intensive care, and operating rooms are experiencing severe overcrowding,” a statement said.
Officials say medical staff “are operating with limited supplies of life-saving medicines” – with the ministry renewing an “urgent appeal” to increase aid.
Pic: Reuters
Hours earlier, Donald Trump had joined other G7 leaders to call for a “de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza”.
The Israeli military is yet to comment on this incident.
On Monday, Gaza’s health ministry said at least 34 people were shot dead near food distribution centres.
This was the highest reported daily total since Israel and US-backed aid centres opened last month, with thousands of Palestinians moving through Israeli military-controlled areas to reach them.
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