US says Hezbollah should not 'take advantage' of Israel-Hamas war

WASHINGTON

Lebanese group Hezbollah should not "take advantage" of the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, the White House warned on Friday after the group's leader delivered his first public remarks since the conflict began earlier this month.

"We are aware of Hezbollah’s leader speech today. We will not engage in a war of words. The United States does not seek escalation or widening of the conflict that Hamas brought onto Israel," a National Security Council spokesperson told Anadolu on condition of anonymity.

"Hezbollah and other actors – state or non-state – should not try to take advantage of the ongoing conflict. This has the potential of becoming a bloodier war between Israel and Lebanon than 2006. The United States does not want to see this conflict expand into Lebanon. The likely devastation for Lebanon and its people would be unimaginable and is avoidable," they added.

Just hours before, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah addressed supporters in Lebanon, saying his group would increase military pressure on Israel, but said it would not commit to all-out war.

“For those who say that Hezbollah should start a war in the entire region, I say wait. These are the beginnings,” he said, according to the Wall Street Journal newspaper, in remarks delivered to the Lebanese public via video link. “More actions will be taken against Israel from several different fronts and this issue will become more obvious in the next few days.”

The US has been seeking to deter a wider regional war as Israel continues its invasion of Gaza, deploying two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean and another off the coast of Iran in the Persian Gulf, and increasing the number of troops and aircraft deployed to the region.

The deployments were made in the wake of Hamas's shocking Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel that killed over 1,400 Israelis and led to over 200 other individuals being taken back to Gaza as hostages.

Israel retaliated by imposing a crippling siege on Gaza that has ground humanitarian aid deliveries to a near halt, and cut off all fuel deliveries and electricity to the coastal enclave as supplies of food run out, and as people are increasingly forced to consume unsanitary water.

In addition, Israel has carried out a relentless bombing campaign across the strip that has killed over 9,200 Palestinians, including 3,826 children and 2,405 women, according to the enclave's Health Ministry. Over 23,000 others have been injured.