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Israel, Hezbollah Return to Escalation after Days of Limited Clashes

Smoke rises from Metula as a result of an attack carried out by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. (AFP)
Smoke rises from Metula as a result of an attack carried out by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. (AFP)
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Israel, Hezbollah Return to Escalation after Days of Limited Clashes

Smoke rises from Metula as a result of an attack carried out by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. (AFP)
Smoke rises from Metula as a result of an attack carried out by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. (AFP)

Hezbollah and the Israeli army resumed border clashes, hours after an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed a member of the Amal Movement. This ended days of smaller clashes that were limited to sporadic attacks by the party and usual Israeli responses.

The pace of military operations has escalated since Wednesday night, following Israeli strikes deep inside Lebanon that led to the killing of an Amal member in the town of Qantara, 7 kilometers away from the nearest border point.

Hezbollah said in successive statements that it had carried out four military operations, three of which targeted gatherings of Israeli soldiers, and were concentrated in the eastern sector.

The party announced on Thursday that it had “targeted a military intelligence force in Metula, killing and wounding its members, adding that the Al-Malikiyah site was also hit with artillery shells.

The Israeli army, in turn, said it attacked a party position in the town of Al-Dhahira, but Lebanese media reported that the raid targeted an uninhabited house, which led to its destruction and damage to the electricity network.

Civil defense teams rushed a number of citizens from the town to hospitals in Tyre after they suffered from suffocation.

Israel intensified the aerial bombardment, launching two missile raids targeting the town of Aita al-Shaab, and a third hitting the town of Yaroun. Two other raids destroyed homes in the town of Mays al-Jabal.

At around 10 pm on Wednesday, Israeli warplanes raided Aita al-Shaab and Marwahin, causing severe damage to property and crops, and attacked the outskirts of the town of Yarin.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli raids “caused air pollution, during and after the bombing, which led to skin rashes, shortness of breath and suffocation.”

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Israeli Minister Says Time Running out for Diplomatic Solution with Hezbollah in Lebanon

Israeli artillery shells an area of Al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Upper Galilee, northern Israel, 11 September 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli artillery shells an area of Al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Upper Galilee, northern Israel, 11 September 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Israeli Minister Says Time Running out for Diplomatic Solution with Hezbollah in Lebanon

Israeli artillery shells an area of Al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Upper Galilee, northern Israel, 11 September 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli artillery shells an area of Al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Upper Galilee, northern Israel, 11 September 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday that the window was closing for a diplomatic solution to the standoff with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon.

Gallant's remarks came as the White House Special envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel to discuss the crisis on the northern border where Israeli troops have been exchanging missile fire with Hezbollah forces for months.

"The possibility for an agreed framework in the northern arena is running out," Gallant told Austin in a phone call, according to a statement from his office, Reuters reported.

As long as Hezbollah continued to tie itself to Hamas in Gaza, where Israeli forces have been engaged for almost a year, "the trajectory is clear," he said.

The visit by Hochstein, who is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, comes amid efforts to find a diplomatic path out of the crisis, which has forced tens of thousands on both sides of the border to leave their homes.

On Monday, Israeli media reported that the head of the army's northern command had recommended a rapid border operation to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

While the war in Gaza has been Israel's main focus since the attack by Hamas-led gunmen on Oct. 7 last year, the precarious situation in the north has fuelled fears of a regional conflict that could drag in the United States and Iran.

A missile barrage by Hezbollah the day after Oct. 7 opened the latest phase of conflict and since then there have been daily exchanges of rockets, artillery fire and missiles, with Israeli jets striking deep into Lebanese territory.

Hezbollah has said it does not seek a wider war at present but would fight if Israel launched one.

Israeli officials have said for months that Israel cannot accept the clearance of its northern border areas indefinitely but while troops remain committed to Gaza, there have also been questions about the military's readiness for an invasion of southern Lebanon.

However, some of the hardline members of the Israeli government have been pressing for action and on Monday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a longtime foe of Gallant, called for him to be sacked.

"We need a decision in the north and Gallant is not the right person to lead it," he said in a statement on the social media platform X.

Hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed in the exchanges of fire, which have left communities on both sides of the border as virtual ghost towns.