Conflicts & War

Israel strikes several targets in Lebanon amid escalating hostilities

Jerusalem, Jan 4 (EFE).- The Israeli military on Thursday attacked several positions in Lebanon as the cross-border hostilities escalated after the assassination of Hamas’s political leader near Beirut in an Israeli drone strike earlier this week.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said in a brief statement that several missile launches from Lebanese territory into Israeli territory were identified, to which they retaliated by targeting positions of the Lebanese Shiite militia group Hezbollah.

The military said that one of its fighter jets attacked “an observation post and terrorist infrastructure” of Hezbollah fighters in the town of Marun al-Ras in southern Lebanon.

“Shortly afterward, IDF forces attacked an anti-tank squad that they spotted in the same area,” the statement added.

Moreover, during the night, Israeli forces fired artillery shells to “eliminate a threat” in the Rab El Thalathine area along the Lebanese border.

Tensions between Israel and Lebanon have escalated significantly following the assassination of Hamas’s deputy political leader, Saleh al-Arouri, on the outskirts of Beirut in an Israeli drone strike on Tuesday.

The Lebanese government has condemned the attack as a “serious violation” of Lebanon’s sovereignty.

Concerns are rising that the situation between Israel and Lebanon could escalate into an open war following Arouri’s assassination.

In a televised address on Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that his group would fight “without limits” if Israel declared war on Lebanon.

“If the enemy thinks of waging a war on Lebanon, we will fight without restraint, without rules, without limits and without restrictions,” he said.

Nasrallah called the attack on al-Arouri a “major and dangerous crime” that “will not go unanswered and unpunished.”

On the same day, Israeli forces’ chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, stated during a visit to the northern border that the military was in a “very strong state of readiness” after repeated cross-border attacks by Hezbollah. EFE

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