UNIFIL chief warns of escalation in north

The head of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon expresses worries that hostilities on the border with Israel will continue to spiral out of control, calling for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

“The danger of escalation is real,” Aroldo Lazaro says in a statement posted by UNIFIL. “There is no military solution to the current confrontation and violence; a political and diplomatic solution is the only way forward.”

The statement does not mention Hezbollah’s flagrant violations of UN Resolution 1701, which requires that the group’s armed wing not be allowed to operate in southern Lebanon.

Israel has threatened to go to war to force the Iran-backed terror group away from the border if it does not retreat in line with 1701 and continues to threaten northern communities.

Speaking to Army Radio, Education Minister Yoav Kisch says the government must do something about the north, where a daily barrage of Hezbollah rockets have forced tens of thousands to flee the Upper Galilee. He insists that residents of the north cannot still be homeless when the next school year begins.

“There’s five months until the school year starts — within this time there has to either be an agreement with Lebanon or a war,” he says.