Israel Says Readiness Advances for 'War' on Lebanon Border

Flares are fired from northern Israel over the southern Lebanese border village of Aita al-Shaab, on October 28,2023. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP)
Flares are fired from northern Israel over the southern Lebanese border village of Aita al-Shaab, on October 28,2023. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP)
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Israel Says Readiness Advances for 'War' on Lebanon Border

Flares are fired from northern Israel over the southern Lebanese border village of Aita al-Shaab, on October 28,2023. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP)
Flares are fired from northern Israel over the southern Lebanese border village of Aita al-Shaab, on October 28,2023. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP)

The Israeli army on Sunday said it had reached "another phase" of preparation for war on its northern border with Lebanon, where it has spent months exchanging fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Hezbollah generally targets Israeli positions close to the border, and says it is doing so in support of Hamas militants who have been at war with Israel in the Gaza Strip since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

Israel has increasingly carried out deeper strikes into Lebanese territory and has also targeted commanders from Lebanon's Hezbollah group.

It has also stepped up strikes against Hezbollah and other Iran-linked targets in Syria, including an air strike on April 1 against Iran's embassy consular section in Damascus, in what analysts fear could spiral into all-out war.

On Sunday the Israeli army said "another phase of the Northern Command's readiness for war" on the Lebanon front has been completed, AFP reported.

In a statement on its website, the military said commanders "are prepared to summon and equip all the required soldiers in just a few hours... to the front line for defensive and offensive missions."

The statement came after the military said its fighter jets struck a compound of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Forces "in the area of Khiam", several kilometres (miles) north of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as well as a command centre near Toura, northeast of the coastal city of Tyre.

Israel had earlier said it hit targets in Kawkaba, near Khiam, and Meiss El Jabal in southern Lebanon in response to rockets fired towards the Golan Heights.

Emmanuel Navon, a political science professor at Tel Aviv University, told AFP it is "unlikely a war in the north can be avoided".

But Israeli security expert Omer Dostri said a land war would not likely happen until the fighting on the ground in Gaza is over.

Hezbollah and Israel last went to war in 2006.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Friday that his movement had not yet used its "main" weapons, and reiterated that Hezbollah would cease its attacks only when the war in Gaza ends.

Also on Sunday a source close to Hezbollah told an AFP correspondent in eastern Lebanon's Baalbek region that other strikes targeted Janta and Sifri in the Bekaa Valley, around 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the closest Israeli frontier.

The Israeli military said on Telegram that fighter jets struck "a military complex" and three other infrastructure sites "belonging to Hezbollah's air defense network" in the region, after an army drone was shot down.

Iranian leaders have vowed retaliation for the embassy strike which killed seven of its Revolutionary Guards.

On Sunday Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the army had "finished all its preparations to react to any scenario that could arise regarding Iran."



Russia Calls Latest Attack on Hezbollah 'an Act of Hybrid War' Against Lebanon

People walk near an ambulance outside American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in Beirut, Lebanon September 17, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
People walk near an ambulance outside American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in Beirut, Lebanon September 17, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Russia Calls Latest Attack on Hezbollah 'an Act of Hybrid War' Against Lebanon

People walk near an ambulance outside American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in Beirut, Lebanon September 17, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
People walk near an ambulance outside American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in Beirut, Lebanon September 17, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Russia's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said an attack on Hezbollah and others using exploding pagers was an act of hybrid war against Lebanon in which thousands of innocent people had been hurt.
A senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters that Israel's Mossad spy agency planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday's detonations.
The attack saw thousands of pagers detonate across Lebanon, killing nine people and wounding nearly 3,000 others, including the group's fighters and Iran's envoy to Beirut.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in a statement:
"We regard what happened as yet another act of hybrid warfare against Lebanon, which has harmed thousands of innocent people.
"It appears that the organizers of this high-tech attack deliberately sought to foment a large-scale armed confrontation in order to provoke a major war in the Middle East."

The Kremlin warned on Wednesday that the attack could become a trigger for a wider regional conflict and that its perpetrators must be identified.
"The causes and circumstances of the incident must be established and those behind it must be identified," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.