Israel carried out rare airstrikes in Lebanon on Friday, which could lead to a wider conflict between the two countries. The Israeli army also continued to bombard the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon — which analysts have described as the most significant violent incident since Israel’s war in 2006 — threatened to push the confrontation between the two nations into an even more dangerous new phase.
Although the Israeli military was quick to point out that its warplanes had hit sites belonging only to Palestinian militant groups, the strike risks irritating Israel’s bitter enemy, Hezbollah, which dominates a much of southern Lebanon and who has previously presented himself as a defender of the Palestinians and the contested city of Jerusalem.
Even as Israel announced it was allowing southerners to leave bomb shelters and return home after an hour-long lull in hostilities, the Israeli military announced it was bolstering forces to infantry and artillery along the country’s borders with Lebanon and Gaza “to prepare for all eventualities”.
“The military forces are on high alert,” Brigadier General Daniel Hagari said bluntly.
A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said Egyptian security officials were working with Hamas and Israel to defuse the situation.
Avoid escalation of conflict
The Israeli airstrikes came in response to an unusually heavy barrage of rockets from Lebanon after Israeli police raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem sparked outrage across the Arab world.
The holy place is on a hill sacred to Muslims and Jews. In 2021, an escalation also triggered by clashes in the Al-Aqsa compound turned into an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas leaders.
On Friday, a conflict broke out again inside the mosque.
Before dawn prayers, Israeli police brandished batons to beat scores of Palestinian worshipers who were chanting slogans praising Hamas. An hour later, videos showed Palestinians leaving the scene raising their fists and shouting for Hamas rocket fire, again drawing the wrath of the Israeli police.
The Israeli army stressed that it is clear that both sides want to avoid a full-scale conflict. “We will respond to calm with calm,” army spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told reporters on Friday. But, he added, “all our eyes are now on Jerusalem.”
The Israeli military said Friday that Palestinian militants in Gaza have so far fired 44 rockets from Gaza, of which only 23 have crossed into Israeli territory.
Replica
The Israeli military therefore admitted pounding Gaza with fresh airstrikes on Friday, hitting 10 targets it described as underground tunnels, as well as weapons production and development sites largely belonging to the militant group Hamas.
No immediate casualties were reported in Gaza, but the Palestinian Health Ministry said one of the strikes caused damage to a children’s hospital in Gaza City.
“This is not the first time that health establishments have been targeted, and it is unacceptable,” the ministry insisted on the damage caused to the Al Dorra pediatric hospital.
However, hours later, during a brief lull in hostilities on Israel’s northern and southern borders, a suspected Palestinian shooting in the West Bank reportedly claimed the lives of two women in their twenties and seriously injured another. 45-year-old, Israeli doctors said.
The current round of violence began on Wednesday, after Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque twice. This led to rocket fire from Gaza on Thursday and, in a significant escalation, at the dam from Lebanon.