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Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III spoke on Thursday with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, about Israel’s expanding military operations in Lebanon, the Pentagon said on Friday.
A short summary of the call released by Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, Mr. Austin’s spokesman, made no mention of any discussion about Israel’s expected retaliation for Iran’s recent missile barrage.
Israel has not commented publicly on the call, but Mr. Gallant posted a video on Wednesday saying that Israel’s attack against Iran would be “deadly, precise and, above all, surprising.” He added: “They will not understand what happened and how it happened. They will see the results.”
Iran’s attack earlier this month came in retaliation for Israel’s killing of top leaders in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, as well as leaders in Hamas and Hezbollah, both Iran-backed armed groups. One leader, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political chief, was assassinated while staying in a state guesthouse in Tehran in July.
Most of Iran’s missiles were intercepted, but a Palestinian man was killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank when a fragment of an Iranian missile fell on him. Two Israeli air bases also sustained light damage, according to the Israeli military.
Mr. Gallant and Mr. Austin had been scheduled to meet in Washington on Wednesday to discuss Israel’s response. But Mr. Gallant postponed the visit until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could speak to President Biden, which he did on Wednesday for the first time in two months.
When that meeting ended, American officials said nothing about Israel’s plans, or whether Mr. Netanyahu indicated he would heed Mr. Biden’s warnings not to hit nuclear or energy sites, which the White House fears could lead to an escalating cycle of Iranian missile strikes and Israeli responses.
The Pentagon statement on Friday focused instead on Israel’s air and ground operations in Lebanon.
“The secretary reaffirmed ironclad support for Israel’s right to defend itself and reiterated U.S. commitment to a diplomatic arrangement that safely returns both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to their homes on both sides of the border,” General Ryder said.
Mr. Austin also emphasized the importance of securing the safety of a United Nations peacekeeping mission along Lebanon’s border with Israel. On Friday, the U.N. force said two peacekeepers were injured in two explosions near an observation tower at the force’s headquarters and that an Israeli bulldozer struck the perimeter of another location while tanks moved nearby. It was the second day in a row in which U.N. peacekeepers were injured in Lebanon.
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