Sullivan expresses worry over escalating Israel-Lebanon tension, calls Hezbollah strike as justice served

By Trevor Hunnicutt

WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) - U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Saturday said he was worried about escalation between Israel and Lebanon but that the Israeli killing of a top Hezbollah leader brought justice to the Iran-backed group.

Sullivan, speaking with reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, said he still sees a path to a ceasefire in Gaza but that the U.S. is "not at a point right now where we're prepared to put something on the table."

Sullivan said the U.S. is continuing to work with Qatar and Egypt as the two countries talk with Hamas, but that Washington, as it talks with Israel, is not in a position to propose a deal that could be accepted by both parties.

"Could that change over the course of the coming days? It could," Sullivan said.

Hezbollah overnight said 16 of its members including senior leader Ibrahim Aqil and another top commander, Ahmed Wahbi, were among the 37 people that Lebanon's health ministry said were killed in an Israeli airstrike in a Beirut suburb on Friday.

The Israeli airstrike, which the Lebanese health ministry said killed three children and seven women, was the deadliest in its conflict with Hezbollah since Oct. 8, when the group began firing rockets into Israel in sympathy with Palestinians in the nearly year-old Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza.

Sullivan said the Friday strike served justice to Aqil, who was wanted by the U.S. for two 1983 Beirut truck bombings that killed more than 300 people at the American embassy and a U.S. Marines barracks.

"Any time a terrorist who has murdered Americans is brought to justice, we believe that that is a good outcome.”

Sullivan said the risk of further escalation is "acute," following the Israeli strike as well as the detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies across Lebanon this month that killed at least 39 and injured roughly 3,000. Those attacks were widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

"While the risk of escalation is real, we actually believe there is also a distinct avenue to getting to a cessation of hostilities and a durable solution that makes people on both sides of the border feel secure," Sullivan said.

An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza City on Saturday killed at least 22 people including 13 children and six women, Gaza's health ministry said. Israel said it was targeting a Hamas command center it said was embedded in the school.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette; editing by Diane Craft)