Israel, Hezbollah Edge Closer to War as Artillery, Rocket Fire Escalates
There was artillery and rocket fire between Israel and Hezbollah, the strong armed group in Lebanon, on Sunday after the deadliest attack on Israel by Palestinian attackers in years.
As of right now, there were no reports of injuries in either Israel or Lebanon from the fighting on Sunday.
On Saturday, Palestinian attackers attacked Israeli towns in several ways, killing at least 250 Israelis. In response, Israel bombed Palestinian towns, killing more than 300 Palestinians.
A group with weapons called Hezbollah, which gets help from Iran, said on Sunday that it had fired guided rockets and guns at three posts in the Shebaa Farms “in solidarity” with the Palestinian people.
They said on Sunday that they fired weapons into a part of Lebanon where cross-border fire was coming from. “IDF (Israel Defense Forces) artillery is currently striking the area in Lebanon from where a shooting was carried out,” it stated.
The Israeli military said that one of its drones hit a Hezbollah post in the Shebaa area of Har Dov.
“Right now, there is no more threat in Har Dov or the northern arena,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said on TV, adding that the military was still on high alert.
Afterward, the IDF said it had fired a warning shot at a group of “suspects” in Har Dov in the same area. A security source in Lebanon told that Hezbollah forces had set up a new tent after the first one they had taken down was hit.
After a few hours, there was a second exchange of fire. Two Lebanese security sources said that rockets fired from Lebanon hit Israeli forces in the Shebaa Farms again, and Israel fired artillery at the town of Kfar Shouba in response.
The Israeli military and the Lebanese army did not say anything right away about the second battle. A different Lebanese security source, who did not want to be named, said that the army had stepped up searches in the south.
This 15-square-mile (39-square-km) piece of land is owned by Israel and has been since 1967. They both say that the Shebaa Farms are in Lebanon.
For its part, UNIFIL, the UN force in southern Lebanon that keeps the peace, said it had “detected several rockets fired from southeast Lebanon toward Israeli-occupied territory” and artillery fire from Israel into Lebanon in reaction.
“We are in contact with authorities on both sides of the Blue Line, at all levels, to contain the situation and avoid a more serious escalation,” spokeswoman Andrea Tenenti said.
The Blue Line is the border between Israel and Lebanon. It shows where Israeli troops stopped when they left south Lebanon in 2000.
UNIFIL said on Saturday that it had increased its presence in southern Lebanon in response to events in Israel and Gaza. This included actions to stop rocket launches.
A U.N. official in charge of Lebanon, Joanna Wronecka, said on the site X, which used to be called Twitter, that the fighting made her “deeply concerned” and asked everyone to “shield Lebanon and its people from further conflagration.”
Hezbollah, which controls southern Lebanon, said on Saturday that it was in “direct contact” with the leaders of Palestinian “resistance” groups. It also said that it saw the attacks on Israel by the Palestinians as a “decisive response to Israel’s continued occupation and a message to those seeking normalization with Israel.”
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