Israel-Hezbollah Fire Flaring Up At Lebanon Border
Since the leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah talked of multiple fronts of Middle East conflict, ignited by Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, tensions are growing fast between Israel and Lebanon.
Since the leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah talked of multiple fronts of Middle East conflict, ignited by Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, tensions are growing fast between Israel and Lebanon.
Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces across the border since October 7, when Hamas -- another Iran-funded militia – declared war on Israel in a multi-thronged terror attack codenamed al-Aqsa Flood (Storm in Persian) and killed over 1,400 mostly civilians and took at least 241 more hostages into the Gaza Strip. Since Friday, when Hassan Nasrallah broke his month-long silence on its Palestinian ally’s war with Israel, the conflict has become deadlier with more frequent bouts of fire.
On Saturday, Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes along the border with Lebanon as the militant Hezbollah group attacked several Israeli army posts, including one that was struck with two large rockets. On Sunday, an Israeli civilian was killed when an anti-tank missile from Lebanon hit a vehicle near Kibbutz Yiftah in the Upper Galilee. Also on Sunday, a barrage of rockets launched from Lebanon landed in Kiryat Shmona, causing damage. Kiryat Shmona has been evacuated, along with dozens of other communities along the Lebanon border, due to repeated Hezbollah rocket and missile attacks. Earlier in the day, an Israeli airstrike reportedly killed four civilians in southern Lebanon.
On Monday night, Hamas militants in southern Lebanon fired some 30 rockets at Israel, triggering air-raid sirens in cities including Haifa, Nahariya and Acre. Several of the rockets were intercepted, while most fell in the Mediterranean Sea. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it “struck the occupied city of Nahariya and southern Haifa in northern occupied Palestine [Israel] with 16 missiles.”
The Israeli army on Tuesday said it hit two targets inside the Lebanese territory, including a military post of the Hezbollah group. An IDF tank targeted a terror cell preparing to launch an anti-tank missile towards Moshav Shtula. A “suspicious aerial target” was also prevented from entering Israel from Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon. The death toll of the Hezbollah fighters killed by the Israeli forces since October 8 has risen to 63, according to a statement by the group.
Although Nasrallah denied any involvement in the Hamas October 7 attack, he thanked all other Iranian proxy forces across the region for joining hands at the war against Israel. The al-Aqsa Flood battle has extended to more than one front, he said, adding, “We thank the Iraqi, Yemeni hands that joined this battle."
Iran's Revolutionary Guards founded Hezbollah in 1982, in the middle of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. It was part of Iran's effort to export its 1979 Islamic Revolution around the region and fight Israeli forces after their 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Alongside continued calls for action against Israel from the top echelons of Iran's regime, Hezbollah has been escalating day by day, forcing Israel to keep its forces near the Lebanese border instead of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Nasrallah said in the televised address. "What's happening on the border might seem modest but is very important."
Iran and Hezbollah have been accused of full involvement in the planning of the October attack, with several public and secret joint meetings having been held since April in Beirut and Damascus. Interrogation of Hamas militants has revealed even the timing of the attack was coordinated with Tehran. Iran, along with Hezbollah has repeatedly threatened that the war will escalate to other fronts unless Israel halts its retaliatory offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
Lebanese pundit Bechara Khairallah told Iran International there is a kind of chaos in Hezbollah's leadership, especially because Nasrallah had promised to connect the battlefields but did not act on that promise. He underlined that Nasrallah’s halfhearted involvement in the war sparked by the October 7 attack showed that Hezbollah's primary allegiance is to the Islamic Republic, and Tehran's interests take precedence over the interests of Arab countries and the so-called Palestinian cause.
He also stressed that Hezbollah would not expand the conflicts in southern Lebanon since it is concerned about the severity of Israel's reaction. Despite the Lebanese people showing solidarity with Gazans, no one advocates for entering a war, and no political figure encourages Nasrallah to expand the war in Gaza, Khairallah noted.
Last week, Samir Geagea, the leader of Lebanon's biggest Christian party, the Lebanese Forces, called on Hezbollah to withdraw its forces from the south of the country, stating that “dragging us into the war would be a crime," the country already economically on its knees.
As the conflict between Israel and Hamas reverberates across the Middle East, the risk of war between Hezbollah and Israel remains higher than at any point since their last big conflict in 2006. In addition to sporadic clashes in the West Bank and multiple rocket and drone attacks against bases hosting US forces in Iraq and Syria, Hezbollah’s active engagement in the war can significantly change the landscape of the conflict.
However, Hezbollah has not yet unleashed its large missile arsenal against Israel or tried any incursions. According to the latest public estimates, Hezbollah has around 150,000 rockets and missiles, most with a reported range of a few dozen to hundreds of kilometers. On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia's Wagner mercenary group plans to provide Hezbollah with an air defense system, foreshadowing planning for a looming war.
Netanyahu said a general ceasefire would hamper his country's war effort, but pausing fighting for humanitarian reasons, an idea supported by Israel's top ally the United States, would continue to be considered based on circumstances.
"As far as tactical little pauses - an hour here, an hour there - we've had them before. I suppose we'll check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages, to leave," Netanyahu told ABC News on Monday.
Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a social media post on his personal account said that the United States has been suggesting humanitarian pauses in the fighting but accused Washington of duplicity. Tehran has been focusing its rhetoric against the United States in recent days, but so far has chosen not to get directly involved in the conflict.
However, Iran’s proxy forces in Iraq and Syria continue to target US military bases, with injuries among servicemen increasing. So far, the Biden administration has responded in kind only once, despite repeated warnings to Tehran and its militant allies.
Having encircled densely populated Gaza City in the north of the enclave, where the Hamas Islamist group is based, Israel's military said it had taken a militant compound and was set to attack fighters hiding in a warren of underground tunnels.
Israel has bombarded the enclave since the Hamas raid on southern Israel one month ago, when its fighters killed 1,400 people and seized 240 hostages.
Gaza health officials say the Israeli assault has killed more than 10,000 Palestinians, including some 4,100 children, but these figures cannot be independently verified.
Both Israel and Hamas have rebuffed mounting calls for a halt in fighting. Israel says hostages should be released first. Hamas says it will not free them nor stop fighting while Gaza is under attack.
"But I don't think there's going to be a general ceasefire."
US President Joe Biden discussed such pauses and possible hostage releases in a phone call with Netanyahu on Monday, reiterating his support for Israel while emphasizing that it must protect civilians, the White House said.
Like Israel, the US fears Hamas would take advantage of a full ceasefire to regroup.
International organizations have said hospitals cannot cope with the wounded and food and clean water are running out with aid deliveries nowhere near enough.
"We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. It's been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop now," said a statement from the heads of several United Nations' bodies on Monday.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it took control of a Hamas military stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip, where it said the forces located anti-tank missiles and launchers, weapons and various intelligence materials.
Israeli aircraft struck several Hamas militants who had barricaded themselves in a building near the al-Quds Hospital and planned to launch an attack on Israeli forces, it said.
The Israeli military on Monday released video of tanks moving through bombed-out streets and groups of troops moving on foot. It says it has surrounded Gaza City, cutting off northern parts of the narrow coastal strip from the south.
In a press briefing, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said troops were hunting Hamas field level commanders to weaken the militants' ability "to carry out counter attacks."
The UN Security Council met behind closed doors on Monday. The 15-member body is still trying to agree a resolution after failing four times in two weeks to act. Diplomats said a key obstacle is whether to call for a ceasefire, cessation of hostilities or humanitarian pauses to allow aid access in Gaza.
At a meeting of foreign ministers from the G7 leading democracies in Tokyo, Japan's Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said the group plans to call for a pause in fighting and allowing humanitarian access to Gaza.
With reporting by Reuters