STORY: Explosions thundered and massive plumes of smoke billowed after the Israeli military said it struck militant positions along the border with Lebanon on Sunday.
Israel's military said the strikes were retaliation after Lebanese-based fighters fired anti-tank missiles, injuring a number of Israeli civilians.
The conflict in Gaza has ignited renewed clashes along Israel's northern border with Lebanon, which has seen the worst fighting since 2006.
Israel's military on Sunday released footage of what it said were strikes on buildings it says were Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
Sunday's exchanges of fire come a day after Israel's defense minister, Yoav Gallant, warned Hezbollah against "dragging Lebanon into a war."
He said, "what we are doing in Gaza, we can do in Beirut."
Israeli forces have been battling Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip for the past month, after the Hamas Islamist group launched a surprise attack on Israeli communities that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Israel responded with devastating airstrikes on the Gaza Strip that the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says have killed more than 11,000 people, around 40% of them children.
The bloodshed has raised fears of a second front between Israel and Hezbollah.
In an address on Saturday, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah boasted about the groups weaponry, and pledged that the front in the south against its sworn enemy would remain active.
Jag- on November 12nd, 2023 at 23:34 UTC »
Hezbollah is going to drag Lebanon into another country destroying war.
SCZ- on November 12nd, 2023 at 22:57 UTC »
Today 21 people were injured from mortar attacks Hezbollah launched all over Northern Israel. This is a clear provocation and they are simply asking for a war but just like Hamas they couldn't care less about the civilians that would die in a potential all-out war between the countries.
Malthus1 on November 12nd, 2023 at 22:51 UTC »
I truly fear for the people of Beirut. They, and the government of Lebanon, have little influence over Hezbollah, which effectively acts as a state within the state of Lebanon. After all the crap the people of Lebanon have had to put up with (corrupt feckless government, Beirut explosion, loss of Ukrainian food imports, economic collapse … the list goes on), having Israel flatten their city for something Hezbollah does would be an unearned catastrophe of the highest order.
Though in my view, this situation is just more of Hezbollah attacks kept up in order to demonstrate they support Hamas, but kept deliberately limited so as to avoid triggering Israel into attempting to wipe them out.
Hezbollah lobs the occasional rocket or mortar shell; Israel attempts to play whack-a-mole with Hezbollah artillery or rocket squads. The purpose is so that Hezbollah can loudly proclaim they are supporting a “northern front” without actually risking very much.
Problem is, Hezbollah may well misjudge Israeli tolerance for allowing such attacks, only responding tit-for-tat. So far, that’s all Israel has done, but that is no guarantee that this is all they will do.