Hezbollah enters 'new phase' of battle with Israel as world powers urge to avert 'catastrophe'

Hezbollah announced to enter into an “open-ended battle of reckoning” with Israel, following a barrage of rocket attacks targeting northern Israel. The development comes as global powers appealed Sunday to both sides to pull back from the precipice of full-scale war.

The conflict escalated as Israeli warplanes unleashed their most intense bombardment in nearly a year across southern Lebanon. In response, Hezbollah launched its deepest rocket attacks into Israeli territory since the onset of the Gaza war.

Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said Sunday his group was in a “new phase” in its battle against Israel, which it has waged from across the Lebanese border since the Gaza war erupted.

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“We have entered a new phase, namely an open reckoning” with Israel, Qassem said at the funeral ceremony of a senior Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli strike on Friday.

“Threats will not stop us… We are ready to face all military possibilities,” he said, in the first comments from a senior group official since the strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs killed Ibrahim Aqil, the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force.

World powers are intensifying diplomatic efforts to prevent further escalation, emphasising the imperative for restraint and de-escalation.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have traded regular cross-border fire since Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel sparked the devastating war in Gaza.

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But fears of an all-out regional conflagration soared this week as both sides intensified the fighting, with Israeli strikes killing dozens in Lebanon, including top Hezbollah commanders.

United Nations

UN chief Antonio Guterres told broadcaster CNN he feared “the possibility of transforming Lebanon (into) another Gaza”.

The UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, warned on X that the region was “on the brink of an imminent catastrophe” and that no military solution would make either side safe.

Guterres also said neither Israel nor Hamas were interested in achieving a ceasefire to end the brutal war in Gaza that has raged for almost a year.

“That is a tragedy, because this is a war that must stop,” he added.

United States

White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said escalating the conflict was not in key US ally Israel’s “best interest”.

Washington was saying this “directly to our Israeli counterparts” and believes “there can be time and space for a diplomatic solution here and that’s what we’re working on”, he told ABC.

Egypt

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told AFP there was “great concern about… the possibility of an escalation in the region” leading to all-out war.

The latest surge in violence “negatively affects” the Gaza ceasefire talks Egypt has been mediating for months with Qatar and the United states, he added.

European Union

The 27-nation bloc is “extremely concerned” about the escalating violence and is calling for an “urgent” ceasefire, its foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.

A full-blown war “must be averted, including by renewed intense diplomatic mediation efforts”, he added.

Britain

Foreign Secretary David Lammy urged Israel and Hezbollah to reach an “immediate ceasefire” following a “worrying escalation”.

Addressing his Labour party’s annual conference, Lammy said a ceasefire would facilitate “a political settlement, so that Israelis and Lebanese civilians can return to their homes and live in peace and security”.

With inputs from AFP.