The Israeli army accused Hezbollah on Sunday of seeking military escalation, even at the risk of dragging Lebanon into war, after renewed clashes at the border, where tensions have been high since the Palestinian Hamas attack were high in Israel on October 7th.
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“Hezbollah is attacking Lebanon and dragging it into a war from which it has no benefit but in which it risks great losses,” warned spokesman Jonathan Conricus on X (ex-Twitter).
The last war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 left 1,200 dead on the Lebanese side, mostly civilians, and 160 on the Israeli side, mostly military.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu warned on Sunday that the Iran-backed Lebanese formation would “make the mistake of a lifetime” if it decided to go to war against Israel and that the consequences would be “devastating for Lebanon.” .
The international community fears that the war that began on October 7 between Hamas and Israel will spill over and that Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, will be particularly involved.
The Israeli army has been on alert on the northern border with Lebanon since October 7th. The two countries are technically at war and the border area in southern Lebanon is a stronghold of Hezbollah, which has a very significant military force.
Cross-border clashes this weekend left six Hezbollah fighters and a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member dead in Lebanon, while three Israeli soldiers were injured, one seriously, and two Thai farm workers.
Since October 7, 29 people have died on the Lebanese side, mostly combatants but also civilians, including a journalist from the Portal agency.
AFP
The Israeli army, for its part, reported four deaths, including three soldiers.
“Is the Lebanese state really willing to put what is left of Lebanese prosperity and sovereignty at risk (…)?” “That is a question that the Lebanese authorities must answer,” said Jonathan Conricus on Sunday.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati reported on Sunday “diplomatic contacts at the international level and in the Arab world, as well as local meetings, to put an end to Israeli attacks against Lebanon” and to prevent the conflict from Gaza from spilling over into Lebanese territory .
“Friends of Lebanon continue to make all necessary efforts to bring the situation back to normal,” Mr. Mikati said in a press release, but referred to an emergency plan currently being developed as a precautionary measure.”
AFP
On Saturday, Hezbollah’s number two, Sheikh Naïm Qassem, again threatened escalation. On Sunday, Iran warned Israel and the United States that the situation was at risk of spiraling “out of control.”
The official Lebanese news agency ANI reported on Sunday morning about Israeli aircraft overflights in southern Lebanon, adding that Israel was bombing border areas.
The agency had already reported on Saturday evening about Israeli attacks on the border and indicated that an Israeli drone had fired a missile at the Lebanese region of Jezzine, more than 15 kilometers from the border.
On Sunday morning, the Israeli army said it had prevented the firing of “anti-tank missiles” at Avivim, an agricultural village on the border, and then reported that an anti-tank missile had been fired at an Israeli tank in the disputed “Har Dov” sector of the border area Chebaa Farms.
“In response, the tank opened fire on the cell,” it added, without reporting any casualties or damage on the Israeli side.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense also announced the evacuation of fourteen additional communities in the border area, from which many residents have already fled.
Several thousand Lebanese have also fled the border regions and are seeking refuge further north in the southern city of Tyre.