Israel-Hezbollah border clashes: Latest developments
Israeli warplanes carried out Monday several airstrikes on the southern border towns of Yarin, al-Bustan, and Odeisseh.
The Israeli army said its warplanes attacked "Hezbollah infrastructure" in the southern border town of Dhayra.
On Sunday, Hezbollah had attacked seven posts in northern Israel, three of them in the occupied Shebaa Farms.
The border region has seen near daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah since October 8 when Israel waged a war on Gaza following Hamas' attack on southern Israel.
The cross-border exchanges have killed at least 268 people on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 40 civilians. On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army.
The fighting has also displaced tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border and Israel has repeatedly warned that it might use force against Hezbollah to secure its residents' return amid ongoing indirect negotiations over a political solution.
Across the tense Israeli-Lebanese border, fighting has heated up last week. Rocket fire from Lebanon killed an Israeli soldier on Wednesday. In response, an Israeli airstrikes killed a Hezbollah commander, two other operatives and 10 Lebanese civilians, prompting Hezbollah to fire a salvo of rockets into northern Israel and threaten to expand the conflict.
Hezbollah is a major political party in Lebanon with a sizeable rocket and infantry force. It fought Israel to a standstill in a previous war in 2006. It receives backing from Iran, which relies on it to pressure Israel, its archenemy. They have been engaged in low-intensity fighting since the start of the Gaza war. Both sides say they don’t want another war but there are constant fears that things could slip out of control.
Source: Naharnet
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