Israel pushing region into war, Macron tells Netanyahu

JERUSALEM

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Tel Aviv is pushing the region into a war, according to Israeli media.

According to the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Macron talked to Netanyahu over the phone following an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon that killed 14 people.

The newspaper quoted Macron as telling Netanyahu that "Israel is pushing the region into war."

Netanyahu told Macron that "instead of putting pressure on Israel, it's time for France to increase the pressure on Hezbollah," according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

The newspaper also quoted a French official, without mentioning his name, who said France believes that the recent developments in Lebanon have further increased the chances of a war.

An Israeli airstrike on Friday killed at least 14 people and injured 66 others in Beirut's southern suburb, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

The Israeli army claimed it targeted and killed Ibrahim Aqil, a top Hezbollah military commander.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, a series of explosions across Lebanon involving wireless communication devices, including pagers and two-way radios, killed at least 37 people.

The deadly attacks came amid an escalation in cross-border warfare with Israel since the start of Tel Aviv's war on the Gaza Strip, where nearly 41,300 people, mostly women and children, were killed following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar