Netanyahu 'not interested' in war with Hezbollah

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's top advisers minister Ron Dermer and national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi came to Washington on June 20 for meetings at the White House and told U.S. President Joe Biden's top aides that the Israeli PM is “not interested in a war with Hezbollah and prefers a diplomatic solution,” two U.S. officials told U.S. news portal Axios.

A U.S. official said Biden's advisers told Dermer and Hanegbi that the U.S. is working on a diplomatic solution, but if there's a war in Lebanon because “Hezbollah decides to attach itself to Hamas' leader Yahya Sinwar's interests,” the U.S. will “fully support Israel.”

Axios noted that Israeli and U.S. officials are trying to find an off-ramp that is short of a ceasefire in Gaza, which “doesn't seem to be imminent but will de-escalate the situation at the Lebanon-Israel border.”

“One option is to try to use the end of the Israeli military operation in Rafah, which could take place in two weeks and end the high-intensity phase of the war in Gaza, as a point for de-escalation,” Axios said.

Tensions have been rising with growing exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Netanyahu has said Israeli forces are winding up the most intense part of the Gaza war and will redeploy to the northern border, although he cast the move as defensive.

More than eight months of cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have left at least 481 people dead in Lebanon, mostly fighters, but also including 94 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Israeli authorities say at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed in Israel's north.

Tens of thousands of residents have also been displaced on both sides of the border and Israel has repeatedly threatened that it might use military action to return its citizens to their communities.