Lebanon latest: Hezbollah buries commander killed in Israeli strike while conflict escalates

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent, reporting from Jerusalem

At a time when Israeli government officials continue to maintain a studied silence about who was behind the explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah in Lebanon this week, President Isaac Herzog has appeared to deny that Israel was involved.

“I reject out of hand any connection to this or that source of operation,” he told Sky News. Pressed to elaborate, he continued to sound ambiguous.

“I did not allude to anything,” he said, “except saying that there are many enemies of Hezbollah out there.”

No-one, in Israel or anywhere else, is in any doubt that Israel’s intelligence services were behind the attacks, which left thousands of Hezbollah members maimed, blinded or killed.

“Israel is not interested to be at war with Lebanon,” Herzog said.

He said that Lebanon had been “hijacked by a terror organisation” – referencing militia and political group Hezbollah – and had been “armed to its teeth by the Iranian empire of evil”.

Asked whether Israel had decided to abandon restraint in the wake of pager and walkie-talkie explosions and an Israeli air strike in Beirut, Herzog said: “We do not want war. We absolutely did not seek this war.”

He continued: “Israel is fighting for its wellbeing, for its existence, its citizens, and that’s what we are doing.”