Israeli officials 'want to avoid all-out war in Lebanon retaliation'

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00:00Joining me in the studio is our International Affairs Editor, Angela Diffley.

00:04Angela, more worries about a major escalation, a much wider war in the Middle East.

00:10What exactly is at play here?

00:12Yeah, this has been a worry right since October the 7th, how much this might widen into a bigger

00:20war and it flared up very dangerously back in April, if you remember. We have heard an Israeli

00:27government spokesman saying to Reuters that they want to hurt Hezbollah, they do not want an

00:34all-out war and it is likely to be, quote, a few days of fighting. That's what Reuters are

00:40reporting from an Israeli government spokesperson. They will feel the need to have some sort of

00:46retaliation and the options really range from doing something, getting closer to Beirut,

00:54which would mark a serious development, targeting some kind of civilian infrastructure in Lebanon,

01:05or going for targeted assassinations of key people in Hezbollah. Those are likely to be

01:12the options under discussion and we will see in the coming days. You and I were talking earlier

01:18and it's often a sign of something happening when you see mobilisation of reservists

01:25heading up to the north. That hasn't been seen so far. That might be something of a signal of

01:30what is likely not to happen. The fact is that all of the key players here do not want a major

01:38escalation of the war. That isn't to say that it might somehow happen through a miscalculation.

01:44Hezbollah, backed by Iran, Iran probably doesn't want to waste its firepower and its reputation

01:54and so much on defending Hamas eventually. And so they are probably aware of how far they want

02:02to go. Lebanon, where Hezbollah is basing these attacks from, absolutely does not want the impact

02:12of Israeli retribution. They have seen what's happened in Gaza. They have seen in previous wars

02:17what that might deliver onto their country. But the Beirut Lebanese government doesn't control

02:23southern Lebanon. That is controlled by Hezbollah. And at the end of the last war,

02:28there was a United Nations resolution 1701, which said that all militias should be disbanded within

02:36Lebanon. They were, except for Hezbollah, which is comparable, bigger, many people say,

02:41than the National Army in Lebanon. It has 150,000 missiles and rockets. It could overwhelm Israel's

02:51anti-missile domes. So it is a big force to be reckoned with. Israel doesn't want it because

02:56it's war-weary. Hezbollah is a formidable enemy and it doesn't want to escalate things.

03:04And the United States, which would be drawn into this, is busy urging restraint on all sides.

03:11As we've been here before, we will hope that restraint prevails.

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