Daily battles
Israel’s army chief: Danger of war on the border with Lebanon is growing
January 18, 2024, 2:17 a.m
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The Israeli army is currently deployed in the Gaza Strip. But there are also daily battles with Hezbollah on the border with Lebanon. Israel’s army chief therefore considers the outbreak of war there to be much more likely than in the past.
Israel’s army chief Herzi Halevi sees a growing threat of war in the north of the country on the border with Lebanon. “I do not know when the war will take place in the north,” said a statement from Halevi, distributed on Wednesday during his visit to northern Israel. “But I can tell you that the likelihood of it happening in the coming months is much greater than in the past.”
There are currently daily clashes on the Israeli-Lebanese border between the Israeli army and the Lebanon-based Shiite militia Hezbollah. This is supported by Iran and is allied with the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas.
Hamas’ armed wing said it fired 20 rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel. This is a response to the “massacres” in the Gaza Strip and the killing of Hamas’s deputy chief in Beirut earlier this month. The Israeli army, for its part, announced that it had carried out air strikes on targets in southern Lebanon and also attacked “terrorist infrastructure”.
The clashes on the Israeli-Lebanese border have increased massively since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th. Since then, according to a count by the AFP news agency, more than 190 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 140 Hezbollah fighters and more than 20 civilians, including 3 journalists. According to Israeli authorities, nine soldiers and six civilians were killed on the Israeli side.
Tens of thousands of people have to leave the area
It is the worst escalation since the second Lebanon war in 2006. Since the beginning of the fighting, more than 76,000 people have had to leave their homes in southern Lebanon, and on the Israeli side, more than 80,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their hometowns in the border area. Israel is demanding that the Hezbollah militia withdraw for the safety of its citizens in the north and has already threatened several times that it could use military means to achieve this.
“We want to achieve a clear goal in Lebanon, namely the return of residents to the north, of all communities in the north. We are clear that this is only possible through profound change,” Halevi continued. We are therefore in a time of increased readiness to fight in Lebanon.
Hamas fighters and allied terrorist groups advanced from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7th and committed massacres and atrocities against civilians there. Around 1200 people died. Israel then declared war on Hamas and launched a massive military campaign in the Gaza Strip.