STORY: A top American diplomat on Tuesday said the United States is trying to avert a greater war along the border between Israel and Lebanon.
"What (U.S.) President (Joe) Biden wants to do is to avoid a further escalation to a greater war. That is the effort here."
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein was in Beirut following an escalation in cross-border fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
Hochstein said he had been dispatched to Lebanon immediately following a brief trip to Israel because the situation was "serious."
Iran-backed Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel, in parallel with the Gaza war that broke out on Oct. 7.
Last week, the group fired the largest volleys of rockets and drones in the last eight months after an Israeli strike killed a high-ranking militant commander.
Hochstein has something of a track record in the region. In 2022 he helped negotiate the first ever Israel-Lebanese accord on a maritime boundary between the two countries.
But Hezbollah says it will not halt its attacks on Israel unless there is a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Hochstein on Tuesday urged the Palestinian militant group Hamas to accept a U.S.-backed proposal for a truce.
"A ceasefire in Gaza and/or an alternative diplomatic solution could also bring the conflict across the blue line to an end, creating conditions for displaced Lebanese civilians to go home in the south and for Israeli civilians to go home in their north."
But a ceasefire in Gaza appears remote. The Israeli military on Tuesday released video showing what it said were its forces in Rafah, where it claimed it is trying to root out remaining Hamas brigades and recover hostages.
The conflict erupted after Hamas militants stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 and taking more than 250 captives, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's devastating retaliation has killed more than 37,000 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian health ministry figures.
Earlier this month, Israeli special forces staged a daring rescue that freed four hostages, who were taken by helicopter back to Israel.
Israel's military on Tuesday released this video of one of the pilots in the operation describing his conversation with the newly freed Shlomi Ziv.
"During the flight to the hospital I looked back and I saw Shlomi looking out of the window so I asked the crew chief that was beside him, if Shlomi wants to get in the cockpit and talk with us. So we let him in, we gave him earphones and we had a 10 minute conversation with an hostage that was just released from captivity."
"Well yes, June 8, the day of the operation was my birthday, and I'm positive that it's the best present that I could get."
But for Palestinians in Gaza, no such happy moments.
At a hospital in Khan Younis, residents mourned those killed in an Israeli airstrike on a commercial street.
Umm Mohammed Daloul is the aunt of one of the dead.
"They are merchants, they have nothing to do with anything. They hit them with missiles. There is no safety, there is no safety...They are innocent people. They are honest people. They have nothing to do with anything. They are merchants. They killed the merchants, they killed people. They killed children. They killed women. They have mistreated us. God is our suffice and the best disposer of our affairs. I can't say anything more than that."
Funerals were held in the Nuseirat refugee camp on Tuesday after airstrikes killed 17 people.
