Austin and Gallant will meet as attacks intensify across Israel’s border with Lebanon.

 

Austin and Gallant will meet as attacks intensify across Israel’s border with Lebanon.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/06/25/world/israel-gaza-war-hamas

 

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, will meet on Tuesday in Washington to discuss the war with Hamas in Gaza  and to address the intensifying conflict along Israel’s border with Lebanon.

 

Mr. Gallant’s last visit to the Pentagon was in March, but the two defense chiefs have been in “almost weekly” contact since the Hamas-led attack in Israel on Oct. 7 set off the war in Gaza, Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, a Defense Department spokesman, said in a briefing on Monday.

 

Mr. Gallant is meeting with Mr. Austin on his third day of talks with senior Biden administration officials. Days before, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, declared that the intensive phase of fighting in Gaza was nearing an end and indicated that Israel was preparing to turn its focus to the threat from Hezbollah. The United States is seeking to prevent those tensions along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon from becoming another full-fledged war.

 

In a statement on Monday, Mr. Gallant’s office said that he had discussed with American officials the transition in Gaza and its effect on the region, including with Lebanon.

 

The indication of a new phase of the war in Gaza increases pressure on Israeli officials to develop “robust, realistic” plans for governance in Gaza after the war, Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, said in a briefing on Monday. “We don’t want to see in Rafah what we’ve seen in Gaza City and Khan Younis, which is the end of major combat operations and then the beginning of Hamas reasserting control,” he said.

 

Mr. Gallant and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met in Washington on Monday.  According to Mr. Miller, they discussed the stalled cease-fire negotiations with Hamas, next steps for governance and security in Gaza, and the importance of those efforts to Israel’s security. Mr. Blinken also emphasized the importance of keeping the conflict with Hezbollah from escalating further.

 

That was a recurring theme in American officials’ talks with Mr. Gallant this week. “We’ve been very clear that we’re focused on a diplomatic solution as it relates to the tensions that we see on the border,” General Ryder said at the Pentagon briefing. “We’ll stay focused on that.”

 

The Israeli defense minister began his meetings in Washington on Sunday, sitting down with Amos Hochstein, a Biden adviser who has overseen previous talks between Israel and Lebanon. A week earlier Mr. Hochstein met with Mr. Netanyahu in Jerusalem and with Lebanese officials in Beirut, as the Israeli military warned that Hezbollah’s cross-border strikes against Israel risked a wider confrontation.

 

On Monday, Mr. Gallant met with William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director. On Wednesday, he is scheduled to meet with President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.

 

— Ephrat Livni