This is one of the fears of the international community: the opening of a second front in northern Israel. A spillover of the war between Hamas and Israel and greater involvement in particular of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah cannot be ruled out. This Sunday, October 22, the Israeli army accused Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, of seeking military escalation at the risk of dragging Lebanon into a war, after new clashes at the border.
Since October 7 and the bloody attack by Hamas on Israeli soil, which triggered the war between the Jewish state and the Palestinian movement, the Israeli army has also been on alert on its northern border to ward off a possible Hezbollah offensive. .
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanese Hezbollah this Sunday that it would “make the mistake of its life” if it decided to go to war against Israel. “This will make them regret the second Lebanese war (Editor’s note: in 2006)… We will strike with a power that they cannot imagine and which will be devastating for the State of Lebanon,” declared Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to troops in the north of the country.
“Hezbollah is attacking and dragging Lebanon into a war from which it will not benefit, but in which it risks losing a lot,” Israeli army spokesperson Jonathan Conricus had already warned earlier in the day. , on the social network X (formerly Twitter). The last war between Israel and Hezbollah, in 2006, left 1,200 dead in Lebanon and 160 in Israel. Mostly soldiers.
Cross-border clashes caused the deaths of six Hezbollah fighters and a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Lebanon this weekend, while three Israeli soldiers were injured, one seriously. Two Thais were also injured by shrapnel near the agricultural village of Margaliot, according to Israeli emergency services.
Around thirty deaths on the Lebanese side
Since October 7, 29 people have died on the Lebanese side, the majority combatants, but also civilians, including a journalist from the Reuters agency. The Israeli army, for its part, reported four deaths, including three soldiers. “Is the Lebanese state really ready to jeopardize what remains of Lebanese prosperity and sovereignty? […] ? This is a question that the Lebanese authorities must answer,” Jonathan Conricus said this Sunday.
The Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, spoke of “diplomatic contacts at the international level and in the Arab world as well as local meetings in order to put an end to Israeli attacks against Lebanon”, and to prevent the conflict in Gaza from does not spill over into Lebanese territory. “Friends of Lebanon continue to make all necessary efforts to restore the situation to normal,” Najib Mikati said in a statement. However, as a “precautionary” measure, Lebanon is developing an emergency response plan.
In a telephone conversation Friday with Najib Mikati, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted “growing concern about rising tensions” at the border. He further “underscored the continued American support” for the Lebanese security forces, according to a press release.
A situation that risks becoming “uncontrollable”
On Saturday, Hezbollah’s number two, Sheikh Naïm Qassem, once again threatened an escalation. “Depending on events, if an event arises requiring increased intervention on our part, we will do so,” he warned during the funeral of a Hezbollah fighter. This Sunday, Iran for its part warned Israel and the United States that the situation risked becoming “uncontrollable”.
Lebanon’s official National Agency (NNA) reported that Israeli planes were flying over southern Lebanon on Sunday morning, adding that Israel was bombing various sites along the border areas. The agency had already reported Israeli strikes along the border on Saturday evening and indicated that an Israeli drone had fired a missile into Lebanese territory in the Jezzine region, more than 15 kilometers from the border.
This Sunday morning, the Israeli army said it had spotted “a terrorist cell attempting to fire anti-tank missiles” towards Avivim, a border farming village. The strike prevented the attack, according to the army.
Fourteen additional communities evacuated
Another cell fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli tank “in the Har Dov sector”, located in the disputed Shebaa Farms border area, the army said. “In response, the tank opened fire towards the cell,” she added, without reporting any casualties or damage on the Israeli side.
Israel announced on Friday the evacuation of Kiryat Shmona, a town bordering the Lebanese border which has around 25,000 inhabitants. The Israeli Ministry of Defense announced this Sunday the evacuation of fourteen additional communities in the border area, many of whose residents have already fled.
Several thousand Lebanese have also fled the border regions to take refuge further north in the southern city of Tyre. Fears of a conflagration are indeed strong in the border villages, occupied by the Israeli army for 22 years before its withdrawal in 2000.