Lebanon Says It Will Retaliate for Gunfire from Syria after Deadly Cross-Border Fighting

Lebanese army soldiers. Reuters file photo
Lebanese army soldiers. Reuters file photo
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Lebanon Says It Will Retaliate for Gunfire from Syria after Deadly Cross-Border Fighting

Lebanese army soldiers. Reuters file photo
Lebanese army soldiers. Reuters file photo

Lebanon's president on Monday ordered troops to retaliate for gunfire from the Syrian side of the border after more deadly fighting erupted overnight along the tense frontier.

The fighting occurred after Syria's interim government accused militants from Lebanon's Hezbollah group of crossing into Syria on Saturday, abducting three soldiers and killing them on Lebanese soil.

It was the most serious cross-border fighting since the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Syrian News Channel, citing an unnamed Defense Ministry official, said the Syrian army shelled "Hezbollah gatherings that killed Syrian soldiers" along the border. Hezbollah denied involvement in a statement on Sunday.

Information Minister Paul Morkos said Lebanon's defense minister told a Cabinet meeting that the three killed were smugglers. He added that one child was killed and six people were wounded on the Lebanese side.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said five Syrian soldiers were killed during Monday’s clashes. Footage circulated online and in local media showed families toward the Lebanese town of Hermel.

Lebanon's state news agency reported that fighting intensified Monday evening near Hermel.

"What is happening along the eastern and northeastern border cannot continue and we will not accept that it continues," Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun said on X. "I have given my orders to the Lebanese army to retaliate against the source of fire."

Aoun added that he asked Lebanon's foreign minister, who is currently in Brussels for a donors conference on Syria, to contact Syrian officials to resolve the problem "and prevent further escalation."

Violence recently spiked in the area between the Syrian military and armed Lebanese Shiite clans closely allied with the former government of Assad, based in Lebanon's Al-Qasr border village.

Lebanese media and the observatory say clans were involved in the abductions that sparked the latest clashes.

The Lebanese and Syrian armies said they have opened channels of communication to ease tensions. Lebanon's military also said it returned the bodies of the three killed Syrians. Large numbers of Lebanese troops have been deployed in the area.

Lebanese media reported low-level fighting at dawn after an attack on a Syrian military vehicle. The number of casualties was unclear.

Early Monday, four Syrian journalists embedded with the Syrian army were lightly wounded after an artillery shell fired from the Lebanese side of the border hit their position. They accused Hezbollah of the attack.

Meanwhile, senior Hezbollah legislator Hussein Haj Hassan in an interview with Lebanon’s Al Jadeed television accused fighters from the Syrian side of crossing into Lebanese territory and attacking border villages. His constituency is the northeastern Baalbek-Hermel province, which has borne the brunt of the clashes.

Lebanon has been seeking international support to boost funding for its military as it gradually deploys troops along its porous northern and eastern borders with Syria as well as its southern border with Israel.



Israel Says Not Committed to Hamas Ceasefire, Only to Safe Corridor for US Hostage Release

Houthi supporters gather around a large Palestinian flag during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sana'a, Yemen, 09 May 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
Houthi supporters gather around a large Palestinian flag during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sana'a, Yemen, 09 May 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
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Israel Says Not Committed to Hamas Ceasefire, Only to Safe Corridor for US Hostage Release

Houthi supporters gather around a large Palestinian flag during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sana'a, Yemen, 09 May 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
Houthi supporters gather around a large Palestinian flag during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sana'a, Yemen, 09 May 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB

Israel has not agreed to any ceasefire or release of prisoners with Hamas, but only to a safe corridor to allow the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

Israel was informed a day earlier of Hamas' decision to release Alexander, the last surviving US hostage, as a goodwill gesture towards President Donald Trump after four-way talks between Hamas, the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

The release, which could come as early as Monday, could open the way to freeing the rest of the 59 hostages still held in Gaza, but Netanyahu said Israeli forces would continue recently announced preparations to step up operations there, reported AFP.

"The negotiations will continue under fire, during preparations for an intensification of the fighting," his office said in a statement.

On Sunday, Hamas said it had been talking with the United States and had agreed to release Alexander, a move key Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt called an encouraging step towards a return to ceasefire talks in the war-torn enclave.

The talks came shortly before Trump is set to leave for a visit to the Gulf that will not include a stop in Israel.

US officials have tried to calm fears in Israel of a growing distance between Israel and Trump, who last week announced an end to a US campaign against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, who have continued to fire missiles at Israel.

Families of the hostages and their supporters in Israel have pressed the government to reach a deal to secure the release of those still held in Gaza but Netanyahu has faced heavy pressure from hardliners in his cabinet not to end the war.

Last week, he announced plans to step up the operation in Gaza, which officials said could be seized entirely by Israeli forces.