A CNN report revealed on Friday that the Biden (US president Joe Biden) administration prompted the alarm over Israel’s repeated military attacks on the US-backed Lebanese army and raised sharp rebukes from top US officials to Israeli leadership.
According to US officials, a regional security source, and a list of the incidents compiled by the US and reviewed by CNN, the Israelis have struck Lebanese Armed Forces positions more than 34 times since October 7, including with small arms and artillery fire, drones and helicopters.
The Biden administration has told Israel that “the strikes are unacceptable”, officials said. One senior US official said that “the US believes at least some of those strikes have been accidental, intended instead for Hezbollah which also operates along the Lebanon-Israel border and has been hitting Israeli military positions”. However, “the intention of other strikes has been less clear”, the official said, and more junior Israeli troops may not be exercising enough restraint.
The CNN highlighted that “the scope of the incidents, which has not been previously reported, has frustrated US officials”, noting the US believes “the LAF will need to be part of any eventual diplomatic solution between Israel and Lebanon to quiet the current violence”. The American media said that the US is also “deeply concerned” that the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could expand to the north, and that US officials “have been working with Israel and Lebanon to try to contain the war.”
“The United States has been clear we do not want to see this conflict spread to Lebanon and we continue to urge the Israelis do all they can to be targeted and avoid civilians, civilian infrastructure, civilian farmland, the UN, and the Lebanese Armed Forces,” a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council told CNN. “The United States is proud of its partnership with the LAF, an essential institution, not only to the stability and security of Lebanon, but of the entire region.”
“The Israeli army continued pattern of strikes against LAF positions are concerning and irresponsible. The LAF is a critical and independent force that successive US administrations have supported in recognition of its important role in stability in Lebanon,” said a senior congressional aide.
“As the pace of the strikes escalated, administration officials made clear to Israeli leadership that they need to be more careful”, US officials told CNN.
