Tel Aviv – President Biden is scheduled to speak Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone, two sources familiar with the plan told CBS News. It will be the first conversation between the leaders in two months, and will come as Israel has its plans promised revenge for Iran’s ballistic missile attack last week.
The top-level talks will also come amid concerns that Israel’s retaliatory actions against Iran could precipitate an escalation of violence in the Middle East into a wider regional war, with the potential to drag Iran and the US directly into combat.
New Israeli airstrikes hit the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh on Wednesday – a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. The Israeli Air Force said it had targeted Hezbollah’s weapons production facilities and intelligence headquarters in Dahieh.
Louisa Gouliamaki / REUTERS
The Israel Defense Forces said, meanwhile, it is expanding the number of troops deployed on the ground in southern Lebanon, as well as Hezbollah’s stronghold for a long time, and push further west into that area. Israel launched a cross-border ground operation against Hezbollah in late September, saying it would be “limited, localized, and targeted ground strikes based on precise intelligence.”
Since then, the IDF has ordered people in more than 100 towns and villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate, and according to Lebanese government figures, more than 1,000 people have been killed in the country since the Israeli military operation began just a week ago.
Jim Urquhart/REUTERS
The IDF said Hezbollah launched around 180 projectiles at Israel on Tuesday, sending thousands of people in northern Israel to bomb shelters. Iran’s powerful proxy group began firing rockets into Israel on October 8, 2023, after its ideological ally Hamas. leading to war in the Gaza Strip with the terrorist massacre the day before.
The IDF says Hezbollah has fired more than 10,000 rockets at Israel over the past year, most of which were intercepted by Israeli missile defenses or land in empty areas.
In a speech Tuesday night, Netanyahu railed against Hezbollah and warned the Lebanese that failure to resist the Iran-backed group would mean “a long war that will cause destruction and suffering like we saw in Gaza.”
The death toll from the war in Gaza rose to more than 42,000 people on Wednesday, the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory said, as Israel stepped up its offensive in the enclave’s north.
At least 45 people were killed and dozens injured near the northern Gaza town of Jabalia. Three hospitals in the area were given evacuation orders and said they had 24 hours to evacuate all patients and staff.
“It’s like hell. We can’t go out,” Mohamed Awda, who lives with his six siblings and his parents, told The Associated Press by phone. The AP said explosions could be heard in the background as he spoke.
Hussam Al-Zaanin/REUTERS
Locals say thousands of people have been trapped since Israel launched its latest operation in Jabalia on Sunday.
“The quadcopters are everywhere, and they fire at anyone. You can’t even open the window,” Awda told AP.
Six people were wounded on Wednesday in a stabbing attack in the northern Israeli town of Hadera. Police said the assailant was “neutralized” after initially fleeing the scene.
CBS News producer Michal Ben-Gal in Jerusalem and correspondent Weijia Jiang in Washington contributed to this report.
