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The latest flurry of Israeli threats regarding an imminent military operation in Lebanon are only aimed at “intimidation,” diplomatic sources said.
“They are also aimed at blocking the latest Iranian-American rapprochement, whose first signs have appeared in the agreement reached in Iraq, which would not have happened without an Iranian green light,” the sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Monday.
Full StoryLebanon’s Jamaa Islamiya said Monday that its military wing fired a volley of rockets at Israel’s Beit Hillel military post in the Kiryat Shmona settlement, resuming military action from Lebanon against Israel after several months of apparent suspension.
The group said its attack came after Israel escalated “its aggression against our people and villages in the South and in support of our people in Gaza and Palestine as part of the national and humanitarian duties.”
Full StoryHezbollah said Monday that it targeted Israel’s Ma'ayan Baruch military post near Lebanon’s border with the “appropriate weapons,” managing to achieve a “direct hit.”
The Israeli army meanwhile announced that four drones infiltrated Israel’s Western Galilee area of which three were intercepted and a fourth hit a tall building in Nahariyya. Israel’s Channel 12 said security officials estimate that the fourth drone had been targeted at military bases south of Nahariyya.
Full StoryA Lebanese judge Monday issued an arrest warrant for ex-central bank chief Riad Salameh, a judicial official said, after the embattled former governor was questioned in an embezzlement case.
Salameh, 74, who led the central bank for three decades, faces numerous charges including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion in separate probes in crisis-hit Lebanon and abroad.
Full StoryIsraeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant commented the situation on the Lebanese border Sunday during a tour of the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, telling troops "we are preparing for anything that may happen in the north."
"The shift of the center of gravity can happen quickly and can also involve you in a short period of time," Gallant said, according to a statement issued by his office.
Full StoryFormer war cabinet member Benny Gantz has said in Washington that Israel should shift its focus toward Hezbollah and the Lebanese border, warning that "we are late on this."
Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading near-daily cross-border fire, with the Lebanese militant group saying it is acting in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas in the ongoing war in Gaza.
Full StoryA senior Israeli security official told Israel’s Channel 12 on Sunday that "the campaign in Lebanon is getting closer, although the exact timing has not yet been determined."
According to the security source, Israel faces two scenarios: “reaching a deal (with Hamas over a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange) or collapsing the negotiations and quickly entering a direct war against Hezbollah.”
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that he has instructed the army and security forces to prepare to change the situation on Lebanon’s border, where Israel has been engaged in near-daily clashes with Hezbollah since October 8 last year.
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Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday warned of a perceived attempt to take over "Christian state posts," calling on the political parties to cooperate with the efforts of the five-nation group for Lebanon regarding the presidential election file.
Full StoryHezbollah said Sunday that it staged two separate rocket attacks on Israel's Kiryat Shmona and a third on the Shamir settlement further north, in response to the "massacre" in the southern town of Froun that killed three Lebanese Civil Defense members and wounded two others.
On Saturday, Lebanon's health ministry said three emergency responders were killed and two others wounded, one of them critically, in an Israeli strike on Froun.
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