Iran and Israel exchange stark new warnings over Lebanon border battle

Iranian and Israeli officials shared with Newsweek new warnings for one another as threats of a major escalation continued to mount on the Israel-Lebanon border amid an already raging conflict in the Gaza Strip.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Lebanese Hezbollah movement have regularly exchanged fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since the surprise attack led by the Palestinian Hamas movement in October sparked the longest and deadliest war to date in Gaza. With no lasting solution to the conflict in sight, fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah has only intensified, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top officials have repeatedly asserted they were prepared to wage a larger offensive into southern Lebanon.

The threats have caught the attention of Israel’s archfoe and Hezbollah’s main ally, Iran, which issued some of its starkest language yet on Friday.

“Any imprudent decision by the occupying Israeli regime to save itself could plunge the region into a new war, the consequence of which would be the destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure as well as that of the 1948 occupied territories,” the Iranian Mission to the United Nations said in a statement shared with Newsweek and published on X, formerly Twitter.

“Undoubtedly, this war will have one ultimate loser, which is the Zionist regime,” the Iranian Mission stated. “The Lebanese Resistance Movement, Hezbollah, has the capability to defend itself and Lebanon—perhaps the time for the self-annihilation of this illegitimate regime has come.”

Responding to the remarks, an IDF spokesperson told Newsweek that “the IDF is prepared to defend the State of Israel on all its fronts, and in the face of a diverse range of threats.”

That same day, Hezbollah claimed at least five new operations, using drones and rockets to target a naval site in Ras Naqoura along the border, an artillery position and other military sites within or near the occupied Shebaa Farms “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and honorable resistance.”

The IDF, for its part, reported a successful interception of a “hostile aircraft” along with “a number of launches” from the Lebanese side of the border, and claimed artillery operations targeting Kfarhamam and Labouneh as well as airstrikes against Hezbollah positions in Taybeh, Deir Seryan, Khiam, Meis El Jabal and Tallouseh in southern Lebanon.

The previous day, the IDF claimed the killing of Hezbollah’s commander in the Jouiyya area, Fadel Ibrahim, and vowed to continue operations in southern Lebanon.

As bellicose rhetoric mounted over the deteriorating security situation, a Hezbollah spokesperson told Newsweek earlier this month that, since October 7, the Israelis have been threatening, but whoever has a loud voice cannot do anything.

“They have not emerged from their quagmire in Gaza after eight months with any achievement other than killing innocent civilians and children,” the Hezbollah spokesperson said at the time. “Hezbollah is always ready for anything and will defend its citizens and its land without any hesitation.”

Hezbollah Executive Council Deputy Chair Sheikh Ali Damoush reiterated this message on Friday and referenced other fronts through which fellow factions of the Iran-aligned “Axis of Resistance” have staged attacks against Israel since the war in Gaza began.

“Today, we are still in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq in the heart of the battle to confront the aggression on Gaza, and all attempts to stop these fronts failed,” Damoush said, “and all targets, pressures and threats failed with them and did not succeed in stopping them.”

In addition to Hamas and Hezbollah, a coalition of Iraqi militias known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthi movement, have repeatedly claimed attacks against Israel. Last week, a senior Ansar Allah official told Newsweek the group would press on with missile and drone attacks against both Israel and commercial vessels across the region until “the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people is lifted.”

During his sermon on Friday, Damoush also took aim at President Joe Biden, accusing the U.S. administration of “pressing by all means to stop these fronts and transmit messages of threat and intimidation to Lebanon.” He called on the White House “to take an actual decision to stop the war on Gaza, because the decision is in its hands, and then all fronts, including Lebanon, will stop.”

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller reiterated Washington’s desire for de-escalation on the Israel-Lebanon border, putting the blame on Hezbollah.

“We’ve been extremely concerned about the situation in the north of Israel,” Miller said. “We don’t want to see the conflict escalate. We have seen a dramatic increase in strikes by Hezbollah across the border targeting Israeli villages, civilian infrastructure, and so we have been pursuing a diplomatic resolution to try to make clear that there should be no further escalation, and that’s what we’ll continue to pursue.”

The remarks came as the Biden administration continued to press for a three-phase ceasefire and prisoner swap agreement first unveiled by the president three weeks ago. While talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt continue, the agreement has been subject to conflicting narratives by U.S., Israeli and Hamas officials, leaving its fate uncertain as Washington persisted in hopes a breakthrough would also accelerate diplomacy in cooling down tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border.

“We continue to actively pursue a ceasefire in Gaza, primarily to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza and to secure the return of hostages,” Miller said. “But a very important side effect, we assess, would be making it much easier to achieve a ceasefire and diplomatic resolution along the Israel-Lebanon border.”

“That said, we’re not waiting for a ceasefire in Gaza. We’re continuing to pursue diplomacy because it’s important to do,” Miller said. “But, again, it’s very difficult to reach such a resolution while the conflict in Gaza continues at the pace it is today.”