In wake of Netanyahu's threats, US warns Lebanon must not turn into anything similar to Gaza

By Rabia Iclal Turan

WASHINGTON (AA) - Following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's threats toward Lebanon, the US on Wednesday warned that the situation there must not turn into something resembling the situation the Gaza Strip, where more than 42,000 people have been killed in the last year.

"We cannot and must not see the situation in Lebanon turn into anything like the situation in Gaza. That would, of course, not be acceptable," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

"It is up to the Lebanese people, not anybody else, to decide on who their government is," he said.

“No country in the region should dictate to the Lebanese people who their leaders are, not Israel, not the United States, not any of the other countries in the region."

In a Tuesday video, Netanyahu strongly criticized the Lebanese group, Hezbollah, and called on the Lebanese people to act before their country "falls into the abyss of a prolonged war that will bring destruction and suffering, similar to what we are witnessing in Gaza."

Israel since Sept. 23 has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets, killing more than 1,323 people and injuring nearly 3,700.​​​​​​​

The aerial campaign is an escalation of the year-long cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed over 42,000 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Despite international warnings that the Middle East region was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching a ground invasion into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1.