Transcript of "Middle East on brink of catastrophe” says UN with fears of all-out war | BBC News

The UN has warned that the Middle East is on the brink of imminent catastrophe amid fears of an all-out war, as Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon carry out large cross-border strikes. Hezbollah, a prescribed terrorist organization, launched more than 100 rockets into Israel. Its response to the fatal explosions of Pages and Walkie Talkies thought to have been carried out by Israel. Schools have closed and gatherings restricted in the city of Haifa. And other northern areas near the Lebanese border. Meanwhile, Israel struck targets in Southern Lebanon, saying it had destroyed thousands of Hezbollah's rocket launches.

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In the last For the next few days, we inflicted on Hezbollah a sequence of blows that it did not imagine. If Hezbollah has not understood the message, I promise you it will understand the message.

Today, thousands attended the funeral of Ibrahim Akim Akil, a high-ranking Hezbollah commander, killed in an Israeli strike on Friday. In a moment, we'll hear from our international editor, Jeremy Bowen, who's in Jerusalem. But first to our senior international correspondent, Oleg Irin in Beirut.

Hezbollah today, in morning, but unbowed. This was the funeral of a top military commander, Ibrahim Akil, killed on on Friday in an Israeli airstrike. The armed group's deputy leader said it was entering a new phase of open-ended battle against Israel. There's resounding support for that in its stronghold in Southern Beirut, where Hezbollah fighters, living and dead, are heroes.

Many have lined the streets here to say goodbye to Ibrahim Akil. His killing is a major loss for Hezbollah at a time when the organization is suffering blow after blow. There is anger here and grief, but there is also defiance. The message is Hezbollah is not broken and will fight on.

It's been doing that today, firing missiles deeper into Israel. Hezbollah says its targets are military, but this residential area in northern Israel was hit. This, too, was a residential area in Beirut until Friday's Israeli strike, which killed the Hezbollah commander and 15 of his men as they met below ground. A Lebanese government Minister, linked to Hezbollah, says Israel is dragging the region to war.

At the end, Lebanon is not seeking the war. Even the Libanese people. But Israel is calling us worldwide, Come to war. Come to war.

And do you think it will happen?

I don't know. Who will see?

Around 30 civilians were killed here, too, including entire families. Some of their relatives still waiting at the scene today, hoping for remains to be found. Orelgeeran BBC News, Beirut.

Well, we can go to Jeremy Bowen now, who's in Jerusalem for us. Jeremy, we've heard bleak warnings from the international community. How do you assess things tonight?

Well, I think they're right to be worried. I think that both sides have in the past pulled back from the brink, and there's nothing to say that that won't happen again. But that, I'm afraid to say, is not how it looks tonight. The progress is in one direction towards that bigger war. The damage done to Hezbollah means I think, they would struggle to take any effective offensive action. However, they are firing missiles deeper into Israel. As for the Israelis, I think they feel they have an advantage here that maybe they can push forward. They have said the time has come to push Hezbollah back from their northern border so that the 60,000 Israelis who've been forced to leave their homes in the course of the last year will be able to get back there. Now, if Hezbollah doesn't buckle, and I don't expect them to because fighting Israel is deep in their DNA, then Israel says it will do more. That might be some ground operation involving sending tanks and troops into Lebanon. And that, I think then, goes into a very escalatory and dangerous situation. And that's what the Americans particularly are really worried about.

They're still saying there should be some a diplomatic solution, but quite frankly, at the moment, I don't think anyone's listening.