The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, warned on Monday that the escalation between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah threatens to plunge the entire Middle East into “total war.”
“I can say that we are almost on the brink of total war,” said the EU High Representative, who was set to participate in a meeting of his G7 counterparts on the sidelines of the “high-level week” of the UN General Assembly in New York, which officially begins today.
“If this is not almost a wartime situation, I don’t know how you would describe it,” he insisted, referring particularly to the heavy toll of civilian casualties in Lebanon.
Israeli airstrikes against hundreds of Hezbollah positions yesterday resulted in the death of 492 people in Lebanon, including 35 children, according to the country’s authorities, who experienced the deadliest day since hostilities began at the borders following the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.
Mr. Borrell called for a ceasefire along the so-called blue line, which separates northern Israel from southern Lebanon, the stronghold of Hezbollah.
The UN blue line has separated areas where Lebanese armed forces are located from those where Israeli armed forces are located since 2000.
Just like in the Gaza Strip, which has suffered unimaginable damage and faces a humanitarian disaster after nearly a year of war, the High Representative denounced the fact that civilians in Lebanon “pay an unbearable, unacceptable price.”
“It is time to do something. Everyone must do what we can to stop” the war, added Mr. Borrell, acknowledging, however, that diplomatic efforts so far to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip have failed.