“New phase” at the border
Israel prepares for possible “war” with Lebanon
April 8, 2024, 7:49 a.m
Almost daily, Israel fights with Hezbollah in the border area with Lebanon. Now the military is making further preparations for a possible “war” at the border. Israel is responding to a threat from the head of the Shiite militia allied with Hamas.
The Israeli army says it has made further preparations for a possible war on the border with Lebanon. “A new phase in the Northern Command’s preparation for war has been completed,” the military said on Sunday. The army is thus able to “call up and equip all the soldiers it needs within a few hours and bring them to the front for defensive and offensive missions.”
On Sunday, Israel carried out air strikes on eastern Lebanon, a stronghold of the Hezbollah militia. The attacks were a “retaliatory measure” for the shooting down of an Israeli drone, the Israeli army said in the online service Telegram. Israel’s morning attacks were also confirmed by Hezbollah circles.
Clashes on the Israeli-Lebanese border have killed at least 359 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters. But at least 70 civilians also died. Ten soldiers and eight civilians were killed in Israel.
The head of the Hezbollah militia, Hassan Nasrallah, threatened on Friday to expand the conflict with Israel. “We have not yet used our main weapons nor our main forces,” Nasrallah said in a televised address. Hezbollah does not fear war and is “fully prepared,” he added.
Preparation for future surgery
Israel said it had withdrawn all soldiers from the southern Gaza Strip at the weekend after months of bitter fighting. The armed forces did this “to recover and prepare for future operations,” an army official said.
Since the war between Israel and the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas began on October 7th, there have been almost daily clashes in the border area between Israel and Lebanon. The Israeli soldiers are fending off fighters from the Shiite Hezbollah militia, which is allied with Hamas and is said to have a large arsenal of short- and medium-range missiles.