(Beirut) Tension is rising dangerously on the border between Lebanon and Israel, where deadly clashes are increasing between Lebanese Hezbollah and the Israeli army, fueling fears of a regional escalation of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Israel said on Sunday evening that it did not want war on its border with Lebanon.
“We are not interested in a war in the north, we do not want an escalation of the situation,” declared Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, specifying however that “if Hezbollah chooses the path of war , he will pay a very heavy price.”
Washington, for its part, says it fears an “escalation” and a “possible involvement of Iran”. Tehran, sponsor of Hezbollah, also warned on Sunday against a possible “widening of the conflict”.
On the ground, exchanges of fire on both sides of the border and attempts to infiltrate into Israel by Palestinian fighters allied with Hezbollah are increasing.
Sunday was marked by an intensification of operations. An Israeli civilian was killed and several others injured in Shtula, northern Israel, by a missile attack claimed by Hezbollah.
The Israeli army responded by targeting Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, and closed the border area to civilians within a four-kilometer radius of its territory.
In a statement Sunday afternoon, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a new attack in northern Israel, in the Hanita area, saying it had “killed and injured several enemy soldiers” and destroyed two Merkava tanks and a military vehicle.
Furthermore, Palestinian Hamas, which also has fighters in Lebanon, announced that it had fired several rockets into northern Israel.
Israeli fighter jets strike Hezbollah positions in Lebanon and exchanges of fire take place on the border, according to the Israeli army.
Fears of a new front
Since the start of the war triggered by the unprecedented attack by Hamas in Israel on October 7, clashes at the border have left around ten people dead on the Lebanese side, mostly combatants, but also a Reuters journalist and two civilians. On the Israeli side, at least two people were killed.
This rise in tension raises fears of the opening of a new front with the entry into the conflict of pro-Iranian Hezbollah, which could drag Lebanon into the war.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel exchanged deadly fire on the border on Sunday.
Sunday’s incident is “one more step on the escalation ladder.” A small degree, but in this kind of situation the small details have enormous importance,” warns International Crisis Group (ICG) specialist Heiko Wimmen on the X network.
Since October 7, more than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel during the attack by Hamas commandos, mainly civilians, including children, and 126 people kidnapped by Hamas.
The Israeli response killed 2,450 people, including more than 700 children, in the Gaza Strip.
Faced with the specter of a regional conflagration, calls are multiplying from everywhere to urge Lebanon, already battered by several wars with Israel and consumed by a major social and economic crisis, to stay away from the conflict.
Calls for restraint
France on Saturday called on Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsor to “restrain” in order to “avoid opening a new front in the region”. Washington also warned Hezbollah a few days ago not to make a “bad decision”.
And UNIFIL, the United Nations force present since 1978 to act as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon, still technically in a state of war, warned on Friday of a situation which could become “out of control”.
In the early days of the conflict in Israel, Hezbollah’s intervention remained quite limited.
But many analysts believe that Israel’s ground invasion of the northern Gaza Strip, which appears imminent, could be the trigger for Hezbollah intervention.
During a demonstration in support of the Palestinians on Friday in Beirut, Hezbollah’s number two, Sheikh Naïm Qassem, affirmed that the movement was ready to intervene “at the right time”, to the cries of his supporters calling to strike Israel.
PHOTO JOSEPH EID, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
People hold up placards and portraits of journalist Issam Abdallah, killed on October 13 by Israeli fire in Alma al-Shaab, a village on the border with Israel, while he was covering cross-border shooting, during a demonstration in front of the headquarters of the United Nations in central Beirut.
Many Lebanese, who have terrible memories of the last war with Israel in 2006, however fear a new conflict.
The war then left 1,200 dead on the Lebanese side, mostly civilians, and 160 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.
“We are exhausted, tired,” Kamleh Abu Khalil, a septuagenarian living in southern Lebanon, recently told AFP.