New shots exchanged between Israel and Hezbollah overnight
Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah exchanged new cross-border fire during the night from Thursday to Friday, after an escalation in bellicose rhetoric between the two protagonists. The Israeli army said it had intercepted a “air target” launched from Lebanon and local media reported Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.
On Thursday, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for several attacks, including the shooting of “dozens of Katyusha rockets” on a military position in northern Israel after one of its fighters was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army confirmed that it “eliminated” a commander of the movement and hit “a surface-to-air missile launch site” Hezbollah, an armed group financed by Iran.
In Washington, Israeli National Security Advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, spoke with the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken.
The American Secretary of State stressed “the importance of avoiding a new escalation in Lebanon” through a “diplomatic solution allowing Israeli and Lebanese families”displaced by exchanges of fire at the border, “to return home”said its spokesperson Matthew Miller.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army announced that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon” had been “validated”and the head of diplomacy Israel Katz affirmed that, “In a total war, Hezbollah will be[it] destroy “. In an incendiary speech on Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that“no place” in Israel would not be spared by his movement’s missiles and drones in the event of an Israeli attack on Lebanon.
In the event of war, Mr. Nasrallah warned, Israel would have to “wait for us by land, by sea and by air”adding that his movement had received “new weapons” and had more than 100,000 combat-ready men.
“It is crucial that all parties stop shooting”launched the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.