2023-10-22 14:20:49
The Israeli army on Sunday accused Hezbollah of seeking military escalation at the risk of dragging Lebanon into a war, after new clashes at the border, where tension has been high since the attack launched on October 7 by Hamas Palestinian in Israel.
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“Hezbollah is attacking and dragging Lebanon into a war from which it will not benefit, but in which it risks losing a lot,” warned spokesperson 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 soldiers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu warned on Sunday that the Lebanese formation supported by Iran “would make the mistake of its life” if it decided to go to war against Israel and that the consequences would be “devastating for Lebanon”.
The international community fears a spillover from the war launched on October 7 between Hamas and Israel, and a greater involvement in particular of Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
The Israeli army has been on alert on its northern border with Lebanon since October 7. The two countries are technically in a state of war and the border area in southern Lebanon is a stronghold of Hezbollah, which has a very significant military strike force.
Cross-border clashes left six Hezbollah fighters and a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member dead in Lebanon this weekend, while three Israeli soldiers were injured, one seriously, as well as two Thai agricultural workers.
Since October 7, 29 people have died on the Lebanese side, the majority combatants, but also civilians, including a journalist from the Archyde.com agency.
The Israeli army, for its part, reported four deaths, including three soldiers.
“Is the Lebanese state really ready to jeopardize what remains of Lebanese prosperity and sovereignty (…)? This is a question that the Lebanese authorities must answer,” Jonathan Conricus said on Sunday.
The Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, reported on Sunday “diplomatic contacts at the international level and in the Arab world as well as local meetings in order to put an end to Israeli attacks against Lebanon” and to prevent the conflict from Gaza does not overflow into Lebanese territory.
“Friends of Lebanon continue to deploy all necessary efforts to restore the situation to normal,” said Mr. Mikati in a press release, referring however to an emergency intervention plan currently being developed, as a measure precautionary”.
On Saturday, Hezbollah’s number two, Sheikh Naïm Qassem, once again threatened an escalation. On Sunday, Iran warned Israel and the United States that the situation risked becoming “out of control.”
The official Lebanese news agency ANI reported Israeli aircraft overflights in southern Lebanon on Sunday morning, adding that Israel was bombing border areas.
The agency had already reported Israeli strikes on the border on Saturday evening and indicated that an Israeli drone had fired a missile at the Lebanese region of Jezzine, more than 15 kilometers from the border.
Sunday morning, the Israeli army said it had prevented the firing of “anti-tank missiles” towards Avivim, a border agricultural village, then reported an anti-tank missile fired on an Israeli tank “in the Har Dov sector”, in the disputed border area of Chebaa Farms.
“In response, the tank opened fire towards the cell,” she 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 to take refuge further north in the southern city of Tyre.
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