Beirut, Lebanon:

The head of the Christian political party Lebanese Forces on Sunday accused Hezbollah of dragging the country into a war with Israel without consulting the people.

In a speech attacking the Shiite Muslim group, Samir Geagea, who heads the main Christian bloc in parliament, accused Hezbollah of “confiscating the Lebanese people’s decision on war and peace, as if there were no state”.

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October, Hezbollah has engaged in near-daily cross-border fire with Israel in support of its Palestinian ally, which the Lebanese Forces and other parties oppose.

The clashes are “a war that the Lebanese people reject, but has been imposed on them”, Geagea said in a speech to supporters north of Beirut.

“It is a war that the Lebanese people do not want and over which the government has had no say. This war does not serve Lebanon, it has brought nothing to Gaza, nor alleviated its suffering one iota,” he added.

Iran-backed Hezbollah was the only Lebanese faction that did not disarm after the 1975-1990 civil war.

Its arsenal, reputed to be significantly larger than that of the Lebanese army, is touted by its supporters as a shield against Israel.

The movement’s critics call Hezbollah a “state within a state”.

“This war, in which Hezbollah is engaged, must stop before it brings about a major war that will spare no one,” Geagea said.

He called on the government to “urge” Hezbollah to stop its fight with Israel. 

Lebanon is without a president and the caretaker government is struggling to run a country gripped by a crippling financial crisis.

Tensions on the border appeared to have cooled since a major escalation last month. Analysts say both parties are showing restraint to avoid a regional escalation.

In the latest incident, one person was killed and 11 wounded in Israeli strikes on south Lebanon Sunday, the health ministry in Beirut said.

Hezbollah announced that one of its fighters had been killed by Israeli fire. 

The violence since October has killed some 607 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but including at least 132 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.

Tens of thousands of people remain displaced on both sides. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Paris:

After an escalation of hostilities Sunday amid over 10 months of cross-border clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement, here are the major eruptions of violence since their 2006 war.

The devastating month-long war in the summer of 2006 cost Lebanon more than 1,200 lives, mostly civilians, while some 160 Israelis were killed, mostly soldiers.

The following years saw sporadic attacks, which surged following the October 7 attack by Hezbollah’s Palestinian ally Hamas on Israel.

2007-2013: rocket fire and incursion

On June 17, 2007, two rockets were fired into northern Israel from Lebanon hitting an industrial zone in the border town of Kiryat Shmona without causing casualties. Hezbollah denies responsibility.

In early August 2010, a move by Israeli troops to uproot trees in a disputed border area at Adaysseh sparks a deadly border battle in which two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist are killed along with a senior Israeli officer.

On August 7, 2013, four Israeli soldiers on patrol were wounded in a blast claimed by Hezbollah 400 metres (yards) inside Lebanese territory.

2014-2015: Israeli strikes

On February 26, 2014, Hezbollah says Israeli warplanes had carried out an air raid on one of its positions at Lebanon’s border with Syria.

On October 7, Israel strikes two Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon in response to its bomb attack against Israeli troops on the ceasefire line on the Shebaa hills between the two countries that wounded two soldiers.

On January 28, 2015, two Israeli soldiers are killed in a Hezbollah ambush in the Shebaa hills.

The attack is carried out in retaliation for a raid blamed on Israel 10 days earlier on the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan Heights, which killed at least six members of Hezbollah and an Iranian general.

In retaliation, Israeli tanks and artillery bombarded several villages in southern Lebanon.

2019: drones and missiles strikes

On August 25, 2019, two explosive-laden drones hit the southern Beirut suburbs, causing material damage according to Hezbollah, which blames the attack on Israel.

The day before, an Israeli air strike in Syria had killed two Hezbollah members.

On September 1, the Israeli army and Hezbollah traded missile fire along the border.

2021: uptick in clashes

On August 4, 2021, three rockets were fired from Lebanon, of which two fell in Israel. The Israeli army responds with air strikes on southern Lebanon.

On August 6, Hezbollah fires more than 10 rockets at Israel, which responds with artillery fire.

2023-2024: October 7 attacks aftermath

Hezbollah has traded almost daily cross-border fire with Israel since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

In southern Lebanon, a Reuters video journalist was killed on October 13, and six other journalists from AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera were wounded in a strike by an Israeli tank.

On January 2, 2024, Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri was killed in Beirut’s southern suburbs in a strike blamed on Israel.

On February 26, Israeli strikes Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa Valley in the first such raid on Lebanon’s east since fighting erupted in October.

July, August 2024: Hezbollah, Fatah chiefs killed

On July 27, a rocket strike killed 12 children aged 10-16 in the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

Israel blames the strike on Hezbollah, which denies the claim.

The Israeli army responds by striking Beirut’s southern suburbs on July 30, killing Hezbollah’s top commander in the south, Fuad Shukr.

In an August 21 strike, the Israeli military kills Khalil Maqdah, described by the Palestinian Fatah movement as “one of the leaders” of its armed wing in Lebanon.

August 2024: hostilities surge

On August 25, Hezbollah says it launched a barrage of hundreds of rockets and drones on Israel in response to the killing of Shukr. It says its operation “was completed and accomplished”.

But Israel says it has thwarted the attack, launching air strikes into Lebanon that the military says destroyed “thousands” of Hezbollah rocket launchers.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) on Sunday conducted a series of precision strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, thwarting what Israeli officials described as a large-scale attack. The strikes, which began at 5 am local time, were part of a military campaign aimed at neutralising Hezbollah’s growing threat along Israel’s northern border.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released a video showcasing the operation, stating, “Our operation in Lebanon targeted the terrorist infrastructure Hezbollah planned to use against us, protecting Israeli families and homes.”

WATCH how the IAF acted precisely today to stop a large-scale terrorist attack from Hezbollah.

Our operation in Lebanon targeted the terrorist infrastructure Hezbollah planned to use against us, protecting Israeli families and homes. pic.twitter.com/2J3sqAnFWB

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 25, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing his cabinet later that day, warned that the military action was far from over. “We are striking Hezbollah with surprising, crushing blows,” Netanyahu said. “This is another step towards changing the situation in the north and safely returning our residents to their homes. And, I repeat, this is not the final word.”

Netanyahu highlighted the success of the operation, noting that the military had destroyed thousands of short-range rockets, all of which were intended to harm civilians and forces in the Galilee region of Israel. He also confirmed that the IDF had intercepted all the drones that Hezbollah launched at a strategic target in central Israel, which Israeli media reported to be the headquarters of its spy agency Mossad. 

Over 100 Israeli warplanes participated in the preemptive assault, targeting thousands of Hezbollah missile launchers across southern Lebanon. The strikes were based on what Israeli officials described as “precise intelligence” indicating that Hezbollah was on the verge of launching a massive missile barrage at northern Israel, as well as drone attacks on key intelligence centres.

In the immediate aftermath of the strikes, Israel declared a 48-hour state of emergency and temporarily shut down its main airport, leading to the cancellation of several flights. Despite Hezbollah’s retaliation, which involved firing over 300 projectiles into Israel, the damage was minimal. Israeli officials reported that one soldier was killed by falling debris, while three fatalities were reported in Lebanon.

Diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the broader conflict in the region continued. Negotiations in Cairo, aimed at establishing a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza, proceeded as planned. However, the talks faced challenges, with Hamas accusing Israel of setting new conditions and prolonging the cease-fire negotiations.

 

Israel:

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken was due to travel to Egypt on Tuesday for talks on a Gaza ceasefire after saying Israel had accepted a US “bridging proposal” for a deal and urging Hamas to do the same.

Blinken, on his ninth visit to the Middle East since the Palestinian operative group’s October 7 attack triggered the war with Israel, was scheduled to fly from Tel Aviv to El Alamein, the Mediterranean city famous for a World War II battle in 1942, to speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at his summer palace.

Afterwards, he will head to a meeting with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in Doha, the scene of ceasefire talks last week.

Both Egypt and Qatar are working alongside the United States to broker a truce in the 10-month Gaza conflict.

Washington put forward the latest proposal last week after the talks in Doha.

Blinken said Monday he had “a very constructive meeting” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who “confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal”.

Ahead of those talks, Hamas called on the mediators to implement the framework set out by US President Joe Biden in late May, rather than hold more negotiations.

The movement said on Sunday that the current US proposal “responds to Netanyahu’s conditions” and leaves him “fully responsible for thwarting the efforts of the mediators”.

Earlier on Monday, the US secretary of state had said: “This is a decisive moment — probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security”.

Months of on-off negotiations with US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have failed to produce an agreement.

Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for delays in reaching an accord that diplomats say would help avert a wider conflagration in the Middle East that could draw in Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“There is, I think, a real sense of urgency here, across the region, on the need to get this over the finish line and to do it as soon as possible,” Blinken said.

The Biden administration is under domestic pressure over Gaza, with pro-Palestinian protests taking place outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday.

Biden said in his farewell speech to the convention that the protesters “have a point”, adding that “a lot of innocent people are being killed, on both sides”.

Permanent ceasefire

Israel and Hamas have traded blame for delays in reaching a truce deal.

Hamas insisted on “a permanent ceasefire and a comprehensive (Israeli) withdrawal from the Gaza Strip”, saying Netanyahu wanted to keep Israeli forces at several strategic locations within the territory.

Western ally Jordan, hostage supporters who protested in Tel Aviv during Blinken’s visit, and Hamas itself have called for pressure on Netanyahu in order for an agreement to be reached.

Far-right members crucial to the prime minister’s governing coalition oppose any truce.

The October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 40,139 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and operative deaths.

Out of 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s attack, 111 are still held in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

The Biden framework would freeze fighting for an initial six weeks while Israeli hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and humanitarian aid enters Gaza.

Netanyahu said on Monday that negotiators were aiming to “release a maximum number of living hostages” in the first phase of any ceasefire.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Beirut:

Amid escalating tensions in the region, Indian Embassy in Lebanon has advised Indians to avoid all non-essential travel to Lebanon. They have been advised to exercise caution, restrict movements and remain in contact with Indian Embassy in Beirut.

Taking to X, the Indian Embassy in Lebanon stated, “In view of the recent escalations in the region, Indian nationals are advised to avoid all non-essential travel to Lebanon. All Indian nationals in Lebanon are advised to exercise caution, restrict their movements and remain in contact with Embassy of India in Beirut through their email id: cons.beirut@mea.gov.in or the emergency phone number 96176860128.”

Tensions have further escalated after the rocket attack at Golan Heights, allegedly fired by Hezbollah killed 12 children. In response to the attack at Golan Heights, The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said that top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed in the Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Tuesday (local time).

Fuad Shukr, the “most senior Hezbollah military commander,” was killed in the Israeli strike, the IDF said in a statement. Shukr sat on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s top military body, and was considered to be the head of its strategic division.

Since the October 7 attack by Hamas, he has been managing Hezbollah’s attacks against Israel, including the deadly strike in Majdal Shams over the weekend that killed 12 children, according to the military.The IDF says Shukr was “responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced weaponry, including precise-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets, and UAVs” and for the terror group’s “force build-up, planning, and execution of terror attacks against the State of Israel,” as reported by The Times of Israel.

“Eliminated: Fuad Shukr “Sayyid Muhsan,” Hezbollah’s Most Senior Military Commander and Hassan Nasrallah’s Right-Hand Man,” the IDF said in a post on X.

“Shukr has directed Hezbollah’s attacks on the State of Israel since October 8th, and he was the commander responsible for the murder of the 12 children in Majdal Shams in northern Israel on Saturday evening, as well as the killing of numerous Israelis and foreign nationals over the years. He was also responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced weaponry, including precise-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets and UAVs,” it added.

Houthis and Hamas have both condemned the Israeli strike in separate statements, CNN reported.

“While we affirm our solidarity with Lebanon and its resistance in the face of Zionist arrogance, we appreciate the great role of Hezbollah in supporting the Palestinian people and triumphing over their oppression, at a time when the Arab regimes have abandoned their role and responsibility in defending the Palestinian people and confronting crimes,” a statement read from the Houthi political wing, also known as Ansar Allah.

In another statement, Hamas declared “full solidarity with our brotherly Lebanon and the brothers in Hezbollah.”

Hamas also said it considers the Israeli strike a “dangerous escalation.”Israel had blamed Hezbollah for the rocket attack at Golan Heights on Sunday. However, Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Beirut:

Amid escalating tensions in the region, Indian Embassy in Lebanon has advised Indians to avoid all non-essential travel to Lebanon. They have been advised to exercise caution, restrict movements and remain in contact with Indian Embassy in Beirut.

Taking to X, the Indian Embassy in Lebanon stated, “In view of the recent escalations in the region, Indian nationals are advised to avoid all non-essential travel to Lebanon. All Indian nationals in Lebanon are advised to exercise caution, restrict their movements and remain in contact with Embassy of India in Beirut through their email id: cons.beirut@mea.gov.in or the emergency phone number 96176860128.”

Tensions have further escalated after the rocket attack at Golan Heights, allegedly fired by Hezbollah killed 12 children. In response to the attack at Golan Heights, The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said that top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed in the Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Tuesday (local time).

Fuad Shukr, the “most senior Hezbollah military commander,” was killed in the Israeli strike, the IDF said in a statement. Shukr sat on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s top military body, and was considered to be the head of its strategic division.

Since the October 7 attack by Hamas, he has been managing Hezbollah’s attacks against Israel, including the deadly strike in Majdal Shams over the weekend that killed 12 children, according to the military.The IDF says Shukr was “responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced weaponry, including precise-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets, and UAVs” and for the terror group’s “force build-up, planning, and execution of terror attacks against the State of Israel,” as reported by The Times of Israel.

“Eliminated: Fuad Shukr “Sayyid Muhsan,” Hezbollah’s Most Senior Military Commander and Hassan Nasrallah’s Right-Hand Man,” the IDF said in a post on X.

“Shukr has directed Hezbollah’s attacks on the State of Israel since October 8th, and he was the commander responsible for the murder of the 12 children in Majdal Shams in northern Israel on Saturday evening, as well as the killing of numerous Israelis and foreign nationals over the years. He was also responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced weaponry, including precise-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets and UAVs,” it added.

Houthis and Hamas have both condemned the Israeli strike in separate statements, CNN reported.

“While we affirm our solidarity with Lebanon and its resistance in the face of Zionist arrogance, we appreciate the great role of Hezbollah in supporting the Palestinian people and triumphing over their oppression, at a time when the Arab regimes have abandoned their role and responsibility in defending the Palestinian people and confronting crimes,” a statement read from the Houthi political wing, also known as Ansar Allah.

In another statement, Hamas declared “full solidarity with our brotherly Lebanon and the brothers in Hezbollah.”

Hamas also said it considers the Israeli strike a “dangerous escalation.”Israel had blamed Hezbollah for the rocket attack at Golan Heights on Sunday. However, Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Beirut:

Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Sunday said it fired Katyusha rockets at northern Israel in response to an overnight Israeli strike that, according to state media, hit a weapons depot and wounded six people.

Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces in support of Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered war in the Gaza Strip.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah said it targeted northern Israel’s Dafna area with Katyusha rockets “in response to the Israeli enemy’s attacks that targeted civilians in the town of Adloun, injuring several of them”.

This comes after the Israeli military said its air force “struck two Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in southern Lebanon, containing rockets and additional weaponry”.

Late on Saturday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said “the Israeli enemy launched a raid” on the town of Adloun, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Israel, later saying the target was “an ammunition depot”.

“Six civilians sustained moderate injuries,” the NNA said on Sunday, revising the figure up from three the night before.

Rockets were still exploding about an hour after the strike was first reported, the NNA said, with videos circulating online showing several large explosions in Adloun.

“Shrapnel from the explosions flew to surrounding villages,” the NNA said.

Hezbollah on Sunday said in separate statements that three of its fighters were killed. 

Earlier on Saturday, Hezbollah and its Palestinian ally Hamas had fired rocket salvos and explosive-laden drones at Israeli positions.

Hezbollah said it had launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” towards northern Israel “in response” to a strike blamed on Israel that injured civilians.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said they also fired a rocket salvo from south Lebanon towards an Israeli military position in the Upper Galilee.

The violence since October has killed at least 518 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally. Most of the dead have been fighters, but they have included at least 104 civilians.

On the Israeli side, 18 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israel during a Monday meeting with its defense minister to avoid further escalation in Lebanon as they discussed efforts to reach a deal to free hostages in Gaza.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was on a visit to Washington seeking to reaffirm the value of ties with Israel’s top ally, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly chastised the United States for what he said was a delay in weapons deliveries.

In a two-hour meeting with Gallant at the State Department, Blinken discussed indirect diplomacy between Israel and Hamas on an agreement that “secures the release of all hostages and alleviates the suffering of the Palestinian people,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Blinken also “underscored the importance of avoiding further escalation of the conflict and reaching a diplomatic resolution that allows both Israeli and Lebanese families to return to their homes,” Miller said in a statement.

Tensions have been rising with growing exchanges of fire between Israel and Lebanon’s Iranian-backed militant movement Hezbollah.

Netanyahu has said Israeli forces are winding up the most intense part of the Gaza war and will redeploy to the northern border, although he cast the move as defensive.

Gallant also met CIA chief Bill Burns, the key US pointman in negotiations to free hostages from Hamas.

“I would like to emphasize that it is Israel’s primary commitment to return the hostages, with no exception, to their families and homes,” Gallant said before starting his meetings.

“We will continue to make every possible effort to bring them home,” he said.

The minister made no further comment as he left the meeting with Blinken, as a few dozen protesters outside the State Department chanted to call him a “war criminal.”

– Arms shipment dispute –

President Joe Biden on May 31 laid out a plan for a ceasefire in Gaza and release of hostages.

Hamas, which launched the conflict with its October 7 attack on Israel, has come back with its own demands, and the United States hopes the gaps can be bridged.

Netanyahu, who has faced major protests calling for him to accept the deal, in recent days has annoyed the Biden administration by accusing Washington of cutting back arms and ammunition deliveries.

Gallant took a different tack, saying: “The alliance between Israel and the United States, led by the US over many years, is extremely important.”

Other than Israel’s own military, “our ties with the US are the most important element for our future from a security perspective,” he said.

Biden, who has faced criticism from parts of his own base over his support for Israel, held back a shipment that included heavy 2,000-pound bombs.

Netanyahu — who has close relations with Biden’s rivals in the Republican Party — told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that there was a “dramatic drop in the supply” of US weapons around four months ago.

Asked about his latest remark, Miller told reporters, “I don’t understand what that comment meant at all.”

“We have paused one shipment of high-payload munitions. That shipment remains on pause,” Miller told reporters.

“There are other weapons that we continue to provide Israel, as we have done going back years and years, because we are committed to Israel’s security. There has been no change in that,” Miller said.

Miller said the United States would also press Israel to work on longer-term arrangements after the end of the fighting.

“We don’t want to see in Rafah what we’ve seen in Gaza City and what we’ve seen in Khan Yunis, which is the end of major combat operations and then the beginning of Hamas reasserting control,” he said, referring to two other major cities targeted by Israel earlier in the war.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah speaks during a televised address at a memorial service for Taleb Abdallah, a senior field commander in the group who was killed on June 11 alongside three other Hezbollah fighters in an Israeli strike on the south Lebanon village of Jouaiyya, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon on June 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Lebanon’s Hezbollah has new weapons and intelligence capabilities that could help it target more critical positions deeper inside Israel in case of an all-out war, the militant group’s leader warned on June 20.

Hassan Nasrallah’s comments came as the monthslong cross-border conflict simmering between Hezbollah and Israel appears to be reaching a boiling point and a day after a top U.S. envoy met Lebanese officials in his latest attempt to ease tensions.

Also read: Hezbollah | The party of God

“We now have new weapons. But I won’t say what they are,” he said in a televised address commemorating a top Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon last week. “When the decision is made, they will be seen on the front lines.”

Hezbollah has used locally made explosive drones for the first time since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza last October, as well as surface-to-air missiles against Israeli jets.

Nasrallah said in 2021 that Hezbollah has 100,000 fighters but now he claimed the number is much higher, without elaborating. He also said he has rejected offers from allied countries and militias in the region that could add tens of thousands to his ranks.

A nearly 10-minute-long video allegedly filmed by a Hezbollah surveillance drone and released Tuesday shows parts of Haifa — a city far from the Israel-Lebanon border. Nasrallah in his speech Wednesday said Hezbollah has much more footage — an apparent threat it could reach sites deep in Israel.

Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, visited Israeli air-defense soldiers near the border with Lebanon on Wednesday, saying Israel was aware of Hezbollah’s capabilities demonstrated in the video and has solutions for these threats.

“The enemy only knows a small part of our capabilities and will see them at the needed time,” he said.

Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, has been exchanging strikes with Israel almost daily since the war in Gaza erupted on Oct. 7, with the aim to pull Israeli forces away from the embattled Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah’s attacks escalated after Israel expanded its offensive last month into the southern Gaza city of Rafah and spiked further last week after an Israeli strike killed high-ranking Hezbollah commander Taleb Sami Abdullah, the most senior militant killed so far during the Israel-Hamas war.

Also Tuesday, the Israeli army said it has “approved and validated” plans for an offensive in Lebanon, although the decision to actually launch such an operation would have to come from the country’s political leadership.

The warnings by both sides followed a visit by President Joe Biden’s senior adviser Amos Hochstein, who this week met with officials in Lebanon and Israel in his latest attempt to deescalate tensions. Hochstein told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday that it was a “very serious situation” and that a diplomatic solution to prevent a larger war was “urgent.”

Nasrallah said a wider war with Lebanon would have regional implications and that Hezbollah would attack any other country in the region backing Israel, citing Cyprus, which has hosted Israeli forces for training exercises.

Only a cease-fire in Gaza would halt the Lebanon-Israel border fighting or the attacks on Western and Israel-linked targets from Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Iraqi militias allied with Hezbollah.

Israel views Hezbollah as its most direct threat, and the two fought a 34-day war in 2006 that ended in a stalemate. Hebollah’s military capabilities have significantly grown since then, and the United States and Israel estimate the group, along with other Lebanese militant factions, has about 150,000 missiles and rockets. Hezbollah also has been working on precision-guided missiles.

Hezbollah said at least four of its fighters were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday as Hochstein returned to Israel for a new round of meetings there.

Lebanese state media reported the strikes along the border and near the coastal city of Tyre, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) away. The Israeli military said two Hezbollah launches damaged several vehicles in northern Israel.

Kamel Mohanna, the head of the Amel Association, an NGO providing health services in different areas of Lebanon, said the association health center in the town of Khiam was hit and damaged by the Israeli shelling.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 400 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah and other militants, but also over 80 civilians and non-combatants. In northern Israel, 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed by strikes launched from Lebanon.

Beirut:

Lebanon’s powerful armed group Hezbollah announced on Thursday it had used a drone capable of firing rockets at a military position in one of its latest attacks in northern Israel.

Israel and Hezbollah have been involved in near-daily exchanges of fire since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7.

– Drones, rockets –

Hezbollah announced it had used an “armed attack drone” equipped with two S-5 rockets on a military position in Metula in northern Israel.

The Iran-backed group published a video showing the drone heading towards the position, where tanks were stationed, with the footage showing the moment the two rockets were released followed by the drone exploding.

It was the first time they had announced the use of this type of weapon since the cross-border exchanges with Israel erupted in October.

The Israeli army said three soldiers were wounded in Thursday’s attack.

Hezbollah-affiliated media said that the drone’s warhead consisted of between 25 and 30 kilogrammes (55 and 66 pounds) of high explosive.

Military analyst Khalil Helou told AFP that the use of drones offers Hezbollah the ability to launch the attack from within Israeli territory, as they can fly at low altitudes, evading detection by radar.

Hezbollah also announced on Wednesday that it had launched a strike using “attack drones” on a base west of the northern Israeli town of Tiberias.

That attack was the group’s deepest into Israeli territory since fighting flared, analysts said.

In recent weeks, the Lebanese militant group has announced attacks that it has described as “complex”, using attack drones and missiles to hit military positions, as well as troops and vehicles.

It has also used guided and heavy missiles, such as Iran’s Burkan and Almas missiles, as well as the Jihad Mughniyeh missile, named after a Hezbollah leader killed by Israeli fire in Syria in 2015.

Helou, a retired general, said that depite its new weaponry, Hezbollah still relied primarily on Kornet anti-tank missiles with a range of just five to eight kilometres.

They also use the Konkurs anti-tank missile, which can penetrate Israel’s Iron Dome defence system.

– Sign of escalation? –

Hezbollah has a large arsenal of weapons, that it has expanded significantly in recent years.

The group has said repeatedly that it has advanced weapons capable of striking deep inside Israeli territory.

Analysts have described the skirmishes between Israel and Hamas as a war of “attrition”, in which each side is testing the other, as well as their own tactics.

Hezbollah has expanded the range of its attacks in response to strikes targeting its munitions and infrastructure, or its military commanders.

One such Israeli strike on Wednesday targeted the village of Brital in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, with the Israeli army later announcing it had hit a “terror target related to Hezbollah’s precision missile project”.

Helou said Hezbollah’s targeting of the base near Tiberias and its use of the rocket-equipped drone “can be interpreted as a response to the attack on Brital, but it remains a shy response compared to the group’s capabilities”.

He suggested that the Israeli strike likely hit a depot for Iranian missiles that had not yet been used by Hezbollah.

“Hezbollah does not wish to expand the circle of the conflict,” Helou said.

“What is happening is a war of attrition through which it is trying to distract the Israeli army” from Gaza and seeking to prevent it from “launching a wide-ranging attack on Lebanon”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)