After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threats to Lebanon, the United States of America warned on Wednesday that the situation in that country must not become similar to that in the Gaza Strip, where more than 42,000 people were killed last year.
“We cannot and must not allow the situation in Lebanon to turn into anything like what is happening in Gaza. That, of course, would not be acceptable,” State Department spokesman Matthew told reporters.
He added that the decision on who forms the government of Lebanon belongs to the Lebanese people and not to anyone else.
“No country in the region should impose on the Lebanese people who their leaders are, neither Israel, nor the United States of America, nor any other country in the region,” said Miller.
In a video message released on Tuesday, Netanyahu strongly criticized the Lebanese group Hezbollah and called on the people of Lebanon to act before their country “falls into the abyss of a protracted war that will bring destruction and suffering, similar to what we are witnessing in Gaza.”
Since September 23, Israel has been conducting massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets, killing more than 1,323 people and wounding nearly 3,700.
The air campaign is an escalation of the year-long cross-border conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which began after Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.
Despite international warnings that the Middle East region is on the brink of regional war amid continued Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv widened the conflict by launching a ground invasion of southern Lebanon on October 1.
