Israel warns it could take Lebanon ‘back to the Stone Age’ as defence minister wraps up Washington trip

Israel’s military has confirmed that one soldier was killed and another injured in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

In a statement on its official Telegram channel, the IDF said the injured soldier was “evacuated to receive medical treatment at a hospital” and that his family has been notified.

Haaretz reports that “16 other soldiers sustained light-to-moderate wounds in the incident”, which is in line with earlier reports from Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera has been banned from operating inside Israel by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

The details of the incident given by Haaretz are:

Members of the force were hit by an explosive device burried about a meter and a half underground, the army says, adding that a rescue force was then hit by a second explosive device.

The army added that military bulldozers scanned the area prior to the forces’ entry, including the road under which the explosives were buried.

Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has warned that Israel’s military is capable of taking Lebanon “back to the stone age” in any war with Hezbollah militants, but insisted his government prefers a diplomatic solution on the Israel-Lebanon border.

Speaking to reporters as his trip to Washington wrapped up, Gallant also said he discussed with senior US officials his “day after” proposals for governance of postwar Gaza that would include local Palestinians, regional partners and the US, but that it would be “a long and complex process.”

More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.

• US president Joe Biden’s top aides told Gallant that Washington would maintain a pause on a shipment of heavy bombs for Israel while the issue is under review, a senior US official told the Reuters news agency. The official said the allies remain in discussions about the single shipment of powerful munitions, which was paused by Biden in May over concerns they could cause more Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza.
• Israeli forces pounded several areas across Gaza on Wednesday, and residents reported fierce fighting overnight in Rafah. Residents said fighting intensified in the Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood in western Rafah, where tanks were also trying to force their way north amid heavy clashes. The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said fighters attacked Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs.
• Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused western powers of backing what he said were Israeli plans to attack Lebanon and “spread war” throughout the region. “Israel is now setting its sights on Lebanon and we see that western powers behind the scenes are patting Israel on the back and even supporting them,” he told lawmakers from his ruling AKP party.
• Vatican secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, on Wednesday urged warring parties in the Middle East to accept “peace proposals”, saying the region including Lebanon “doesn’t need war”. He told a press conference in Beirut, “the Middle East is going through a critical moment.”
• The outgoing United Nations humanitarian chief warned that a spread of the war to Lebanon would be “potentially apocalyptic”. Martin Griffiths described Lebanon as “the flashpoint beyond all flashpoints”. A war involving Lebanon “will draw in Syria … it will draw in others”, he told reporters in Geneva. “It’s very alarming.”