Concerns are growing that a war between Israel and Gaza could spark a regional conflagration as violence escalates across the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Israeli forces and Lebanon-based Hezbollah engaged in another cross-border firefight.
Iran-backed Hezbollah launched a drone attack on an Israeli command base on Tuesday. Israel retaliated with airstrikes, which also reportedly killed three Hezbollah members in targeted attacks. An increase in cross-border attacks between Israel and Lebanon has raised concerns that a war in Gaza could spark a regional conflagration.
In retaliation for Monday’s killing of Hezbollah field commander Wissam al-Tawil and attack on Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Tawil in Lebanon, Hezbollah said it had “several drones to attack enemy targets in the city of Safed. It was announced that the target was the Northern Command. -Alouri in Beirut last week.
Al-Tawil was the deputy commander of the elite Radwan unit and the highest-ranking Hezbollah fighter to die in combat since the Gaza war began on October 7.
Mr al-Arouri was killed on January 2 in Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold on the southern outskirts of Beirut, in a drone strike, possibly by Israel.
The Israeli Air Force said it intercepted a number of Hezbollah drones before they could reach their targets. Video shows at least one person passing through. The plane then attacked the location where the drone was launched.
Reporting from Israel’s northern border town of Shlomi, Al Jazeera’s Laura Khan said sirens sounded for several hours across the 120 km (75 miles) border between Lebanon and Israel.
“We could hear drones flying overhead for over an hour. We could also hear jets screaming,” she added.
Shlomi is now a “ghost town,” with thousands of people evacuated amid the fighting, Khan reported.
“The Israelis are talking about driving Hezbollah back from the border and bringing back tens of thousands of residents who fled the area. It’s a complete ghost town. This is truly bringing both countries to the brink of war,” she said. Told.
Three Hezbollah members killed in drone attack
Separately, three Hezbollah members were killed in a targeted attack on a vehicle in the town of Ghanduriyeh in southern Lebanon, a person familiar with the group’s activities told Reuters.
The vehicle was hit by “an apparent Israeli drone attack,” Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodor reported from the Lebanese border town of Tire. As of this writing, the identities of those killed were not clear.
“Ghandouryeh is located outside the battlefield, on the 120-kilometer (75-mile) border between Lebanon and Israel, 4 to 5 kilometers away.” [2.5 to 3 miles] on each side.This strike is 10km [6.2 miles] “It’s deep in Lebanon, not far from where Hezbollah commander al-Tawil was killed,” she said.
“Israel appears to have a new strategy targeting members and commanders of various groups that make up what Iran calls the ‘Axis of Resistance.'”
Hezbollah has lost more than 130 fighters in Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon, and the killings of al-Arouri and al-Tawil could cause the war in Gaza to spill over into Lebanon and elsewhere in the region. There are growing concerns about this.
Violence is escalating in the West Bank, Iraq, Syria and the Red Sea amid Israeli shelling of enclaves.
The escalation in violence in Lebanon comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting countries in the Middle East to try to calm what he calls a “moment of acute tension” in the region.
