Report: US hopes intensified Israeli military pressure will push Hezbollah to diplomatic solution, not all-out war

US officials are hoping that intensified Israeli military pressure on Hezbollah in Lebanon will push the Iran-backed terror group to come to a diplomatic agreement to allow civilians on both sides to return to their homes after almost a year of cross-border fighting, Axios reports.

The report says that while the US officials agree with their Israeli counterparts that recent strikes on Hezbollah aim to reach “de-escalation through escalation,” they are concerned that this is an “extremely difficult calibration” that could easily spark an all-out war.

“One of the key messages was that we want to keep a path open to a diplomatic resolution and therefore don’t want the Israelis to take steps that will close such a path,” one of the US officials is quoted as saying.

Both US and Israeli officials quoted in the report say that the Biden administration has asked Jerusalem to hold off from a ground invasion or airstrikes in civilian areas that are likely to escalate the conflict.

The report comes after a wave of IDF strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon today, including launchers primed for attack, and after the terror group fired at least 10 rockets at northern Israel a short while ago, triggering sirens across the Jezreel Valley for the first time since the beginning of the war in October.