There must be a political solution, he warned in another post. According to state news agency NNA, Borrell warned that Lebanon should not be drawn into a regional conflict with Israel. There will be no winners, he said, also addressing Israel. Mikati told the meeting that a major attack in southern Lebanon would send the region into a “full explosion.”
Since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, following the massacre perpetrated by the Islamist Hamas in Israel, the situation in the border area has worsened. It is the worst escalation since the second Lebanon war in 2006.
Following the assassination of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon, pro-Iranian Hezbollah said it fired more than 60 rockets at an Israeli military base. “As part of the initial response to the murder of” Arouri, Hezbollah fired “on the Meron air base with 62 different types of rockets,” the Hamas-allied militia said on Saturday.
The Israeli military said it identified around 40 rocket launches into Lebanese territory on Saturday. Shortly afterwards, Israeli forces attacked a cell responsible for some rocket launches, the army said. Overhead alarms sounded in towns and villages in northern Israel and later also in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
On Saturday, Hezbollah claimed at least five attacks. This included an attack on a group of Israeli soldiers in the city of Avivim, close to the border. The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV station reported several Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has reported the deaths of more than 150 fighters since the start of the war. Israel's army said nine Israeli soldiers were killed on its northern border during the same period.
Arouri and six other Hamas members were killed on Tuesday in an attack on a Palestinian organization office in a suburb south of Beirut. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack – but a US defense official said the country carried out the attack. Arouri was considered a key Hamas military strategist and one of its leaders in the West Bank. Israel blamed him for planning numerous attacks.
Lebanese security sources said the situation in the border area was very tense. The UN observation mission UNIFIL declared the second highest alert level. Soldiers from the so-called United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, which has monitored the border area between Israel and Lebanon since 1978, would have to wear protective vests and helmets and remain near bunkers. Initially, nothing was reported about possible victims on both sides of the border.
Israel demands that the Hezbollah militia withdraw from the border for the safety of its citizens in the north of the country and has threatened that it could use military means if diplomatic efforts are unsuccessful.
Since the fighting began, more than 76,000 people have had to abandon their homes in southern Lebanon, close to the border, and on the Israeli side, more than 80,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their hometowns in the border area.
An Israeli military spokesman described the military structure of the Islamist group Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip as “dismantled” on Saturday. Spokesman Daniel Hagari said Hamas had two brigades with 12 regiments in the northern coastal strip before the war began three months ago. “In total, there were about 14,000 terrorists,” Hagari said. Since then, numerous commanders have been killed and weapons and ammunition destroyed.