US pushes diplomats to convince Israel not to attack Beirut or Lebanon infrastructure

The United States is leading a diplomatic dash to prevent Israel from striking Lebanon’s capital Beirut or the country’s major civil infrastructure in response to a deadly rocket attack on Majdal Shams, five people with knowledge of the drive says.

The focus of the high-speed diplomacy has been to constrain Israel’s response by urging it to avoid targeting densely populated Beirut, the southern suburbs of the city that form Hezbollah’s heartland, or key infrastructure like airports and bridges, say the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss confidential details that were not previously reported.

The five people with knowledge of the diplomatic push over the past two days have either been involved in the conversations or briefed on them. They say the efforts aim to achieve a calibrated approach similar to that which contained April’s exchange of missile and drone attacks between Israel and Iran, sparked by an Israeli strike that killed a senior IRGC commander in Damascus.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.