Israel ready with ‘finger on the trigger’ to continue Iran war as it pounds Lebanon

Smoke rises from the targeted sites following an Israeli airstrike on the Dahieh district in the south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

• Israel threatened continued strikes on Iran, despite a ceasefire agreement.
• Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon, fired rockets at northern Israel.
• US President Donald Trump said that US military deployed near Iran would remain stationed in the area.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had its “finger on the trigger” and was prepared to return to fighting at “any moment”.

Israel pounded Lebanon with its heaviest strikes yet on Wednesday, killing hundreds of people and drawing a threat of retaliation from Iran.

Lebanon’s civil defence service said 254 people had been killed in Israel’s ‌strikes across Lebanon ⁠on Wednesday.

The highest toll was in the capital, Beirut, where Israeli strikes killed 91 people, it said.

Residents said some of the Israeli strikes had come without the usual warnings for civilians to evacuate.

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon, said early on Thursday that it fired rockets at northern Israel in response to “ceasefire violations”.

READ | Iran threatens retaliation over Israel strikes on Lebanon, ceasefire talks ‘unreasonable’

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned “in the strongest possible terms” what he called indiscriminate Israeli attacks on Lebanon, saying in a statement on X that Lebanon “must be fully covered” by the ceasefire.

The US and Iran reached a tentative ceasefire agreement, though tensions remain high.

US President Donald Trump wrote on his social media platform that US military deployed near Iran would remain stationed in the area until a “real agreement” is reached, as it enters a fragile two-week ceasefire with Tehran.

“All US Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy, will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

He also appeared to threaten the NATO alliance, lamenting on Thursday that the alliance failed to respond to US requests for assistance.

“NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!”

Leaders of 13 European countries, Japan and Canada also issued a joint statement welcoming the ceasefire and calling for a swift end to hostilities in order to “avert a severe global energy crisis”.

AFP reported that the United Nations secretary-general on Wednesday warned that deadly Israeli strikes on Lebanon posed a “grave risk” to the fragile US-Iran truce, his spokesperson said in a statement.

“The ongoing military activity in Lebanon poses a grave risk to the ceasefire and the efforts toward a lasting and comprehensive peace in the region. The Secretary-General reiterates his call to all parties to immediately cease hostilities,” UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesperson said.

“There is no military solution to the conflict. The Secretary-General continues to call on all sides to avail themselves of diplomatic channels,” he added.

Smoke rises over a residential area following the Israeli attack on Beirut.

Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images

The UN rights chief and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) earlier condemned the “scale of killing and destruction in Lebanon” as “nothing short of horrific”.

“Such carnage, within hours of agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran, defies belief,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.

So far, Iran retains both its stockpile of near-weapons-grade highly enriched uranium and its ability to hit its neighbours with missiles and drones.

The clerical leadership, which faced mass protests months ago, has withstood the superpower onslaught with no sign of internal collapse.