The Israeli navy stated it had attacked a number of targets in neighbouring Lebanon linked to Hezbollah.
In a put up on X on Tuesday, the Israeli navy stated it had struck 10 targets linked to the Iran-aligned armed group in at the least seven totally different areas of southern Lebanon in in a single day raids. The assaults come amid rising issues in regards to the risk that the conflict in Gaza might spark a regional battle.
The strikes, which the navy stated killed a Hezbollah fighter, got here after Israeli officers vowed retaliation for a rocket assault that hit a youngsters’s playground within the Druze Arab city of Majdal Shams within the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Hezbollah has denied finishing up the assault.
The Israeli navy stated it additionally “struck a Hezbollah weapons storage facility, terrorist infrastructure websites, navy constructions and a launcher in southern Lebanon.”
Hezbollah confirmed that one in every of its fighters had been killed, Reuters information company reported.
‘We’ll reply’
Following the Majdal Shams assaults, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the town on Sunday and promised a “extreme response.”
The in a single day strikes introduced on Tuesday mark at the least three Israeli assaults on Lebanese territory since then.
A senior Hezbollah supply promised Al Jazeera that the armed group would reply to any Israeli aggression in Lebanon, together with a floor invasion.
It was the primary time Hezbollah commented on Israel’s threats of retaliation.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, quoted Hezbollah sources as saying that whatever the nature of an Israeli strike, “whether or not restricted or not,” the group “will reply.”
International intermediaries have reportedly referred to as on Hezbollah to point out restraint “in order that the battle could be contained and doesn’t spiral uncontrolled,” our correspondent stated.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah claimed its air protection models had repelled Israeli warplanes that broke the sound barrier over Lebanese airspace.
The group stated on Telegram that the planes had been pressured by the hearth “to retreat behind the borders inside occupied Palestine.”
Citing Israeli newspaper N12, Reuters reported {that a} rocket fired from Lebanon had killed an Israeli civilian.
Anxious to keep away from conflict
Urged on by his nationalist coalition companions, Netanyahu has employed hardline rhetoric over the Golan Heights assault.
Nonetheless, there’s a widespread view that Israel is raring to keep away from opening one other entrance because it continues to combat Hamas in Gaza and bomb the enclave.
Israeli officers informed Reuters on Monday that whereas Israel needed to harm Hezbollah, it didn’t need to drag the Center East into an all-out conflict.
Hezbollah has stated it’s prepared for conflict if vital, however the armed group can be believed to be cautious of a large-scale battle.
America has stated it’s working to attempt to forestall the specter of an escalation.
Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday expressed hope that conflict between the 2 nations might nonetheless be prevented.
“Whereas we now have seen lots of exercise on Israel’s northern border, we stay involved about the opportunity of this escalating right into a full-scale combat. And I don’t assume a combat is inevitable,” he stated.
The stakes proceed to rise, nevertheless, as each Israel and Hezbollah hearth throughout their shared border and accuse one another of atrocities.
Israel has stated the rocket that hit the Golan Heights, killing at the least a dozen youngsters, was an Iranian-made Falaq and was fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon.
Tehran’s ally has denied accountability, though it did say it carried out a number of launches towards Israel on Saturday.
Israeli forces and Hezbollah have been engaged in low-level hostilities throughout the Israel-Lebanon border because the begin of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
Since October, Israeli strikes have killed some 450 individuals in Lebanon, together with Hezbollah fighters and civilians.
Israel says 23 civilians and at the least 17 troopers have been killed in Hezbollah assaults since October.
