Israel has warned Lebanon that the time for a “diplomatic solution” to repeated attacks from Hezbollah along its northern border “is running out”.

War cabinet minister Benny Gantz said that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) would soon intervene if Lebanese authorities did not act to stop the Iran-backed group from firing across the frontier.

“The situation on Israel’s northern border demands change,” Mr Gantz told a press conference on Wednesday night.

“The stopwatch for a diplomatic solution is running out, if the world and the Lebanese government don’t act in order to prevent the firing on Israel’s northern residents, and to distance Hezbollah from the border, the IDF will do it.”

Cross-border exchanges have steadily intensified since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

More than 100 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters. But civilians, including several journalists, have also been killed in Israeli strikes. 

The clashes have led to fears of a wider conflict in the region.

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