Netanyahu says Israel will escalate strikes against Hezbollah

Israel will escalate strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, as a US official said the militia had ignored warnings to halt firing at Israel in a conflict that could threaten US-Iran negotiations.

Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have continued to trade blows despite an April 16 truce aimed at halting the deadliest spillover of the US-Israeli joint war on Iran.

Tehran has demanded a halt to Israeli attacks in Lebanon as a condition in talks with the US aimed at ending the broader war.

As the US and Iran appeared to draw closer to a potential deal on Sunday, Netanyahu said he and President Donald Trump agreed in a phone call that Israel would retain the right to confront perceived threats on all fronts, including Lebanon.

Netanyahu doubled down on that message on Monday night, saying in a video released on Telegram: "We are at war with Hezbollah, and we will intensify our strikes."

He said Israel's military was not taking its "foot off the gas. On the contrary, I said to step on the gas even more."

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah or from Lebanese officials.

Israel's military has remained deployed in a broad swathe of southern Lebanon since the April 16 truce, with its air force striking what it describes as Hezbollah positions and its ground forces demolishing towns where it says the militia holds sway.

Hezbollah has fired explosive drones at Israeli troops and toward towns in northern Israel, killing at least 11 soldiers since the truce, the military says.

At least 608 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli attacks during the same period, according to the World Health Organization. Hezbollah has not released figures on its war dead.

Fearing a renewed Israeli assault on Beirut, which suffered weeks of heavy bombardment before the April 16 truce, people began fleeing the city's southern suburbs on Monday night after Netanyahu's video message was released, Lebanese security sources said.

Israel views the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs as a Hezbollah stronghold. Except for a strike targeting a Hezbollah commander in the area earlier this month, there have been no strikes on Beirut or its surroundings since the April 16 truce.

Netanyahu did not say in his video message whether Israel planned to resume broader attacks in Beirut.

After his video was released, the military said it was attacking Hezbollah sites in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, rarely hit since the truce.

The truce helped enable negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, brokered by the US in Washington, where a May 15 round saw the two sides agree to a 45-day ceasefire extension.

It was not immediately clear whether Netanyahu's pledge to intensify strikes in Lebanon would impact those discussions.

A US official said Hezbollah "has ignored repeated requests to stop firing at Israel, including a recent ultimatum."

The official accused the militia of trying to derail Israel-Lebanon talks by firing rockets and drones at Israel.

"Israel will never be expected to passively absorb attacks on its forces and civilians," the official said.

Netanyahu's pledge comes as top Iranian officials arrived in Doha for talks on a potential deal with the US to end the three-month-old war in Iran, after Washington and Tehran played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough.

The Israeli leader has been under pressure to address Hezbollah's increased use of explosive drones to attack Israeli troops, one of whom was killed in such an attack on Sunday.

Two of Netanyahu's far-right ministers on Monday called on him to resume bombing Beirut in response to the kamikaze drones.

"The explosive drones harming our fighters are not a decree of fate," Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement. "For every explosive drone, 10 buildings should fall in Beirut."

Smotrich, leader of a small far-right party in Netanyahu's cabinet, has frequently made comments that go beyond official Israeli policy, including that Israel must annex southern Lebanon and Gaza.

Another ultranationalist minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, said Israel must not normalize the reality of explosive drones.

"It is time for the Prime Minister to bang on (President Donald) Trump's desk and tell him that we are returning to war in Lebanon," Ben Gvir said.