Israeli opposition leader warns of ‘multi-arena war’ in Gaza conflict

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid warned on Monday that the Gaza conflict could escalate into a "multi-front war" in the region.

"There is a possibility of this becoming a multi-arena war," he said during his speech at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Berlin.

He expressed concern over rising tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border, and the exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah almost every day.

"They are firing at our villages on daily basis, we are firing back. And we're trying to maintain this as a limited conflict, but this can go in flames every moment," he said.

Lapid accused Hamas of trying to escalate the situation in the West Bank and said activities of the radical and extremist Israeli settlers were also worrisome.

"So there's a lot of forces who are still trying to corner us into a multi-arena war," he said but underlined that his centrist party and moderates in society were standing against this.

"We are, the more sensible parts of the Israeli society, along with the Americans and our European friends... We're trying to avoid this and make sure that we're going to deal with Gaza now, and nothing else," Lapid said.

The Israeli politician also thanked the German government for its diplomatic efforts to prevent the war from escalating into a wider conflict in the Middle East region.