Iran war live: China wants swift end to war, Israel escalates in Lebanon

Iran war: China demands ceasefire as Israel strikes deeper into Lebanon

*Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat*

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called Tuesday for an immediate Gaza ceasefire and warned Israel against widening its assault into Lebanon, hours after Israeli jets bombed a Hezbollah arms depot 40 km north of Beirut.

Wang’s plea followed the deadliest Israeli raid yet inside Lebanese territory since cross-border exchanges began last October, leaving 7 civilians dead and 19 wounded in the southern village of Houla.

Beijing rarely intervenes in Middle-East flare-ups, but its foreign ministry said the region is “on the brink of multi-front war” that could derail China’s $400 billion energy and infrastructure network anchored in Iran.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz told army radio the Houla strike was “phase 2” of a plan approved Sunday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding that troops “will not stop at the Litani River.”

Washington, Tel Aviv’s main arms supplier, urged “de-escalation” yet rushed a 300-member logistics unit to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus to help evacuate Americans if Beirut airport closes.

Lebanon’s caretaker PM Najib Mikati said he asked the UN Security Council to convene within 48 hours, warning that “Lebanon cannot absorb another war” while hosting 1.2 million Syrian refugees.

Flashing victory signs to reporters in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu cited satellite images he said showed Hezbullah moving precision-guided missiles from a Tehran warehouse to the bombed depot. “We hit what they moved,” he said.

Hezbollah retaliated with 90 Katyusha rockets at northern Israel, lightly injuring 2 Thai farmworkers near Kiryat Shmona and sparking forest fires on the Golan Heights.

The Israeli military registered more than 200 cross-border projectiles in 24 hours, the highest single-day tally since the exchanges began six months ago.

Energy markets reacted instantly. Brent crude surged $3.42 to $93.78 a barrel, its loftiest since last November, while Iran’s rial slid to another record low of 675,000 to the dollar on the black-market.

Chinese state giant Sinopec suspended loading of two supertankers bound for Iran’s Kharg Island terminal, traders said, fearing EU secondary sanctions if maritime insurance rules tighten.

Wang, hosting his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Beijing, pressed for a quick truce that would “safeguard common energy interests” and keep shipping lanes open through the Strait of Hormuz.

Araghchi replied Iran “backs any initiative that stops Zionist aggression,” but warned Israel “faces direct retaliation” if Lebanese civilian deaths rise, a foreign ministry read-out said.

Israel Army Radio said the security cabinet voted 8-3 to deepen the Lebanon sorties, overriding warnings from military intelligence that Hezbollah’s estimated 150,000 rockets dwarf Hamas’s arsenal.

Pentagon spokesman Major Pete Nguyen confirmed the US has placed extra Patriot batteries on standby for Israel but denied reports that an amphibious ready group was ordered to the eastern Mediterranean.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told supporters via loudspeaker in Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb that “escalation will be met with escalation” and claimed the group still has 95% of its firepower intact.

Schools within 5 km of the Lebanese frontier were shuttered and Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry urged farmers to move livestock indoors after brush fires ignited by rocket sparks.

Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces said more than 80,000 residents fled southern border districts since Monday night, creating traffic jams on the coastal road to Sidon.

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen instructed the state utility to prepare rolling blackouts if gas platforms off Ashkelon come under Hezbollah drone attack, a precaution last taken during the 2006 war.

A European diplomat who tracks maritime insurance said tanker owners already demand war-risk premiums of $250,000 for a single Gulf voyage, up from $50,000 two weeks ago.

Commercial flights skirt southern Lebanon. Middle East Airlines rerouted night-time approaches over Syria, while Cyprus Airways cancelled 4 Beirut rotations.

France dispatched a small team of gendarmes to help safeguard Beirut’s embassy amid what President Emmanuel Macron called “a deteriorating security envelope.”

Background

Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in 2006 that killed 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. A UN-brokered truce placed 10,000 peacekeepers in a coastal strip south of the Litani, but the force, UNIFIL, has complained for years about Hezbollah’s secret weapons caches in the same zone.

Iran bankrolls and arms Hezbollah to the tune of an estimated $700 million a year, seeing the group as insurance against an Israeli or US attack on its nuclear sites. China, for its part, buys roughly 9% of its crude from Iran and has spent $15 billion upgrading Iranian oil terminals since 2021 under a 25-year strategic partnership, putting Beijing’s economic stake next to Tehran’s strategic one.

What’s Next

The UN Security Council debate requested by Lebanon is set for Thursday, though US diplomats said Washington might veto any resolution demanding Israeli withdrawal without also barring Hezbollah cross-border fire. Israeli officials expect internal cabinet approval within days for limited ground raids if rocket fire persists, while Hezbollah’s Nasrallah has pledged to hit Tel Aviv with long-range missiles if Israeli troops cross the border.

A full-blown Israel-Hezbollah war would disrupt shipping through the eastern Mediterranean and could pull in Iran, whose Revolutionary Guards maintain forward drone bases in western Syria. Watch the Litani line: if Israeli tanks move north of it, analysts say Iran could activate allied militias in Iraq to target US bases, widening the Gaza war into a regional conflict that even China might struggle to contain.