With no Gaza ceasefire deal yet agreed, clashes between Israel and Hezbollah have raised the risk of all-out war in the Middle East.
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00:00A top U.N. official says the crossfire between Israel and Lebanon is creating a serious risk
00:08of an all-out war in the Middle East. Jean-Pierre Lacroix is concerned about rocket attacks
00:13on Israel from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia from their stronghold in southern
00:17Lebanon. The Lebanese government do not have the powers to forcibly disarm the Shiite Islamist
00:23militia. Meanwhile, Israel is conducting regular air strikes on Hezbollah positions in southern
00:29Lebanon. The diplomat recently visited the region and spoke to Euronews about the need
00:34for de-escalation before attending the EU Council of Defence Ministers in Brussels.
00:39So I pay particular attention to the situation there where we have our mission in UNIFIL.
00:49The risk of escalation continues to be very, very serious. And we're talking about regional
00:56escalation because the situation in Gaza and the various other situations in the Middle
01:03East, they're all very much interconnected. Since Israel invaded Gaza, around 90 percent
01:09of the population has been displaced, and around 40,000 people, most of them women and
01:15children, have been killed. On April 1st, Israeli airstrikes on Damascus, the Syrian
01:22capital, killed two senior Iranian officers. Two weeks later, Iran launched its first direct
01:28attack on Israel with a barrage of 300 missiles and drones. On July 31st, Ismail Haniyeh,
01:35a senior Hamas official, was killed in Iran. Israel did not deny responsibility. The day
01:41after, the U.S. reinforced their military deployment in the region, as Iran promised
01:45to retaliate. We've seen episodes of tits for tats, you know, and retaliations, and
01:54that is all contributing to maintaining high risk of regional escalation beyond what we're
02:01already seeing. So obviously the efforts are currently going on as far as the peace talks
02:07in Gaza are critically important. Recently, after 25 years without the disease, polio
02:13has just returned to Gaza. Several members of the U.N. Security Council have discussed
02:19the possibility of creating a peacekeeping mission there. But La Croix says it's premature,
02:24as it would require the agreement of all parties, as well as the unanimous vote of the U.N.
02:28Security Council. Any kind of third party presence, and certainly that applies to U.N.
02:34peacekeeping type of presence, has to be also accepted by the local communities, the local
02:39parties. They have to see that this would bring, that would make a positive difference
02:44in their life. A pause in the fighting is nearing. Israel has just agreed to three pauses
02:51in Gaza from next week to allow polio teams to vaccinate around 640,000 children.