Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met with Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, the Shiite party allied with the Palestinian Hamas said on Thursday.
In a statement, Hezbollah said the two officials “reviewed recent developments in Palestine, Lebanon and the region, as well as… efforts to end Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip.”
Mr. Amir-Abdollahian, who warned on Wednesday of war spilling over if the ceasefire did not last, then left Beirut for Doha, Iran’s Nour news agency said on Thursday.
While a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that took effect on Thursday was postponed, clashes in southern Lebanon increased the day after an attack that killed five Hezbollah fighters, including the son of the party’s parliamentary bloc.
The Shiite party claimed in the morning that it had used “48 Katyusha rockets” to “directly attack a military base” in Ein Zeitim, near the city of Safed in northern Israel, about 10 km from the border.
Hezbollah says it has intervened in support of Hamas since the Palestinian Islamist movement’s bloody attack on Israeli territory on October 7, which authorities said killed 1,200 people.
In retaliation, Israel, which had promised to “destroy Hamas,” is relentlessly bombing the Gaza Strip, killing more than 14,000 people, according to the Islamist movement’s government.
On Thursday morning, Hezbollah also claimed responsibility for at least ten additional attacks against various Israeli border posts and said they had caused casualties.
According to the National Information Agency (Ani), the Israeli army fired artillery at several locations in southern Lebanon.
There have been daily cross-border exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah since October 7th.
According to an AFP count, the violence in Lebanon claimed at least 108 lives, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also at least 14 civilians, including three journalists.
According to the authorities, six soldiers and three civilians were killed on the Israeli side.