UN, September 21. /TASS/. Israel has no intention to enter a war with Lebanon and the Shiite Hezbollah movement, though the current state of affairs cannot continue, Israel's Permanent Representative to the UN Danny Danon told reporters.
"We don't want to see escalation in the region. We have no intention to enter a war with Hezbollah and Lebanon but we cannot continue this way," he said.
Unless de-escalation is reached through diplomacy, Israel will have no other choice except to use all means for protection of its citizens on the border with Lebanon, Danon added.
He refused to answer the question whether Israel was behind the mass explosion of mobile devices in Lebanon.
The Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) press service said earlier that it had conducted a targeted strike on Beirut, adding that Ibrahim Aqil, a military commander of Hezbollah’s militia, was killed along with other top brass representatives. According to the Israeli military, they were in charge of planning an invasion of northern Israel. According to the latest figures, the attack killed 14 people and left 11 severely injured.
Multiple explosions of communication devices occurred in Lebanon on September 17 and 18. On the first day, a large number of pagers blew up almost simultaneously in various regions of Lebanon. According to the country’s Health Ministry, 12 people, including two children, were killed, and 2,800 more were hospitalized. On the following day, a new wave of blasts swept across Lebanon. This time, walkie-talkies, phones, fingerprint scanners, as well as devices operating on solar and lithium-ion batteries exploded. At least 25 were killed and 608 were injured in the new attack.