The US Department of Defense is “very concerned” about a ground war erupting between Israel and Hezbollah in the wake of the wave of deadly explosions of pagers and other electronic devices in Lebanon, reported The Wall Street Journal.
The Pentagon is alarmed that the situation is close to “spiraling out of control,” a senior official was cited as saying.
“You would do this as shaping one before doing something else,” a former defense official told the outlet, in a nod at the timing of the detonations.
Israel recently transferred a division consisting of thousands of commando and paratrooper soldiers that had been operating in Gaza to the north, the publication cited sources as saying. While Israel has not been calling up reserves, it could start a smaller-scale operation imminently, according to unnamed US defense officials.
Fears of an impending Israeli ground operation in the south of Lebanon had been cited at a Pentagon meeting by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday, said the outlet. The wave of blasts had taken the risk of a full-blown regional war to new heights, it noted. After speaking with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, Austin got the impression that Tel Aviv was gearing up for new military options regarding Lebanon, a US defense official was cited as saying.
Austin urged Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant to “give diplomatic negotiations time to succeed,” according to Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed on Wednesday that it was “imperative that all parties refrain from any actions that could escalate the conflict.”
Media reported that pagers were used by Hezbollah as a closed communication system least susceptible to hacking and eavesdropping. Other detonated devices, according to various reports, included walkie-talkies, phones and fingerprint scanner. Sputnik has not been able to verify the information on the full list of exploding devices.
The Israeli defense minister posted a message on X on Wednesday, announcing that Israel was embarking upon “a new phase in the war” by “allocating resources and forces to the northern arena.”
Israel has not made any official statements about the explosions.
While military analysts have speculated in interviews for Sputnik that that US intelligence services could be behind the explosions, Washington has rushed to distance itself from the incident with the weaponized gadgets. The US had no involvement with the electronic attacks against Hezbollah, the White House said on Wednesday.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also remarked on Wednesday that the pager detonations in Lebanon could be a preemptive action ahead of a major military operation which has to be avoided at all costs.
"Obviously, the logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a preemptive strike before a major military operation. So as important as the event in itself is, the indication that this event confirms that there is a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon, and everything must be done to avoid that escalation.” Guterres told journalists in a press briefing.