Israel, Hezbollah war feared as missile strikes break cease-fire

U.S. officials on Wednesday urged calm between Israel and Hezbollah after a barrage of anti-tank missile strikes by the Iran-backed militant group triggered retaliation from Israeli military forces and raised fears that the two sides may be on the verge of a war like the one that broke out between them in 2006.

State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said the U.S. “strongly condemns” Hezbollah for striking Israel and framed the action as a “blatant violation” of the U.N. cease-fire that ended the 2006 war, but she also called on all parties — including Israeli forces — to “refrain from any action that could escalate the situation.”

A counteroffensive by Israel’s military Wednesday featured an aerial and ground assault on Hezbollah positions in Lebanon that reportedly killed a Spanish soldier who was among U.N. peacekeepers in the area.

The counterstrike came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the governments of Lebanon and Syria, as well as Iran, for the Hezbollah strikes earlier in the day — vowing that “whoever is behind today’s attack will pay the full price.”

The strikes hit an Israeli military convoy, killing two soldiers and wounding seven others along a disputed tract of land along the Israel, Lebanese and Syria borders.

Ms. Psaki put the onus on Hezbollah, a well-armed militia that carries political influence in Lebanon, where it holds a small number of seats in the nation’s parliament. Hezbollah ranks high on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.

“Hezbollah continues to incite violence and instability inside Lebanon by attacking Israel and by its presence and fighting inside Syria, which violates Lebanese leaders’ agreed policy of dissociating Lebanon from foreign conflicts,” Ms. Psaki said.

Mr. Netanyahu went further: “The Lebanese government and the [Syrian] Assad regime share responsibility,” he said, according to The Jerusalem Post. The prime minister also said that “Iran — via Hezbollah — has been trying to establish an additional terrorist front against us from the Golan Heights.”

It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Netanyahu would order Israel’s military to take action beyond the counterstrikes it launched Wednesday.

According to The Associated Press, Hezbollah said in a statement that its own attack was carried out by a group calling itself the “righteous martyrs of Quneitra,” suggesting it was retaliation for what was believed to have been an Israeli airstrike that killed six Hezbollah fighters this month.

In a twist that may fuel a widening conflict, an Iranian general was among those killed in the Jan. 18 airstrike, which occurred in the Syrian-controlled part of the disputed Golan Heights.

While Iran and Hezbollah have blamed Israel for the strike, the Israeli government has refused to comment, although it recently has appeared to be bracing for a response from Hezbollah by increasing its air defenses.

In recent days, Iranian military officials have been threatening to punish Israel for the Jan. 18 airstrike. According to an Iranian state news agency, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami said Tuesday night that Iranian forces would take “revenge from the Israelis” at a “time and place they don’t expect.”