WASHINGTON/MANILA/BEIRUT (Info Desk) – US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday said a fight between Hezbollah and Israel wasn’t something inevitable, as Washington is reportedly leading a diplomatic dash to deter Tel Aviv from striking Lebanon’s capital or major civil infrastructure after a recent rocket attack on the Golan Heights, as more airlines cancelled their flights to Beirut.

“While we’ve seen a lot of activity on Israel’s northern border, we remain concerned about the potential of this escalating into a full-blown fight. And I don’t believe that a fight is inevitable,” Austin quoted by Reuters as saying.

“We’d like to see things resolved in a diplomatic fashion,” Austin said during a joint press conference in Manila.

On the other hand, oil prices fell by nearly 2 per cent with the Brent futures settling at $79.78 a barrel, falling $1.35, 1.7 per cent. US crude futures ended $1.35, or 1.8 per cent, lower at $75.81 a barrel.

The latest tensions are a result of a rocket attack that killed 12 children and teenagers at a football pitch in a Druze village. Israel has accused the Iran-backed Hezbollah for the incident and vowed a harsh response. Hezbollah has denied involvement.

Although both sides have previously indicated they do not seek a wider confrontation, the hostilities have prompted concerns about the risk of a slide towards a wider, more destructive conflict between the heavily armed adversaries.

The Israeli military said it struck around 10 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon overnight and killed one of the group’s fighters.

Hezbollah confirmed one of its fighters had been killed.

Two Israeli officials said on Monday that Israel wanted to hurt Hezbollah but not drag the Middle East into all-out war.

Since October, Israeli strikes have killed around 350 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and more than 100 civilians, according to security and medical sources and a Reuters tally of Hezbollah death notifications.

Israel says 23 civilians and at least 17 soldiers have been killed in Hezbollah attacks since October.

DON’T BOMB BEIRUT

Quoting sources, Reuters reported on Monday that Washington is racing to avert a full-blown war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah.

The focus has been to constrain Israel’s response by urging it against targeting densely populated Beirut.

It also includes avoiding the southern suburbs of the city that form Hezbollah’s heartland, or key infrastructure like airports and bridges.

Lebanon’s deputy parliament speaker Elias Bou Saab, who said he had been in contact with US mediator Amos Hochstein since Saturday’s Golan attack, told Reuters Israel could avert the threat of major escalation by sparing the capital and its environs.

“If they avoid civilians and they avoid Beirut and its suburbs, then their attack could be well calculated,” he said.

The US State Department said it wouldn’t comment on the specifics of diplomatic conversations, though it was seeking a “durable solution” to end all cross-border fire. “Our support for Israel’s security is ironclad and unwavering against all Iran-backed threats, including Hezbollah,” a spokesperson told Reuters.

White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that Israel had every right to respond to the Golan strike, but that nobody wanted a broader war. “As for conversations over the weekend, you bet we’ve had them and we had them at multiple levels,” he added. “But I’m not going to detail the guts of those conversations.”

The Israeli Prime Minister’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment, while Hezbollah declined to comment.

An Iranian official said the United States had also conveyed messages to Tehran at least three times since Saturday’s attack on the Golan Heights, “warning that escalating the situation would be detrimental to all parties.”

FRENCH WARNING

In a phone call on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron told his Iranian counterpart Massoud Pezeshkian that his nation had a role to play to avoid escalation in Lebanon-Israel tensions by halting support for destabilizing players.

Iran should also stop the worrying escalation of its nuclear program and comply with international organizations, Macron said.

He also warned the Iranian president against Iran’s continuing support for Russia’s war in Ukraine and said releasing three French hostages would be a must in order to improve Franco-Iranian relations.

A French diplomat told Reuters that Paris had also been involved in passing messages between Israel and Hezbollah to de-escalate the situation.

France has historic ties with Lebanon, which was under French mandate from 1920 till it gained independence in 1943. Paris has maintained close ties since then and has about 20,000 citizens in the country, many dual nationals.

AIR TRAFFIC

Greece’s Aegean Airlines and Germany’s Condor cancelled flights to Beirut on Tuesday, thus joining Air France and Lufthansa Group carriers – Swiss, Eurowings and Lufthansa – on Monday announced flight cancellations to the Lebanon capital.

Aegean said it would suspend flights until Thursday, while Condor cancelled Tuesday’s flight from Dusseldorf.

A number of other carriers have suspended, delayed or cancelled some flights, although Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport listed arrivals on Tuesday from airlines including Pegasus, Emirates, Royal Jordanian, EgyptAir, Iran Air, Qatar Airways and Etihad.