Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issues a statement at the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel with the Alternate PM and Defence Minister Benny Gantz July 27, 2020, following the high tensions with the Lebanese militant group of Hezbollah at the Israeli-Lebanon border. (REUTERS)

BEIRUT: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah was “playing with fire” after border clashes on Monday. The Lebanese Shiite group denied all involvement.

Netanyahu said that Hezbollah and the Lebanese government “bear responsibility” for the attempt by gunmen to infiltrate Israeli territory, which resulted in an exchange of gunfire but no reported casualties.

“Hezbollah is playing with fire and our response will be very strong,” the Israeli premier said.

His remarks came as the head of the UNIFIL mission, Maj. Gen. Stefano Del Cole, urged both the Lebanese and Israeli sides to exercise maximum restraint after the Hezbollah attack on Monday, which reportedly targeted an Israeli military patrol.

Hezbollah’s operation was in response to the Israeli airstrike south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, on July 20, killing Ali Kamel Mohsen Jawad, a member of Hezbollah.

Jawad was the first Hezbollah fighter to die in Syria since the group’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah warned in August 2019 that “the death of any Hezbollah fighter in Syria will cause a response from Lebanon.”

Lebanese reporters stationed along the southern border for days in an anticipation of a response from Hezbollah said that “a Kornet missile attack targeted an Israeli vehicle, while gunfire targeted an Israeli car in the Ruwaysat Al-Alam region in the Shebaa Farms.”

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Avichay Adraee, said: “The Israeli army thwarted a sabotage operation planned and carried out by a Hezbollah cell of 3 to 4 members who advanced a few meters into a sovereign Israeli area. No casualties were recorded among Israeli soldiers, while the health condition of the infiltrators remains unknown.”

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz had said on Sunday that “Israel does not seek escalation but will firmly respond to any attack targeting it.”

The Israeli artillery responded by shelling Lebanese border areas with the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) saying that “155-millimeter shells targeted the eastern heights of the town of Kafr Shuba and the Ruwaysat Al-Alam area for an hour, causing fires.”

Ruwaysat Al-Alam has a Lebanese Army base and a UNIFIL base.

Extensive overflights were carried out by Israeli fighters, reconnaissance aircraft, and helicopters at a low altitude in the region.

“An artillery shell fell on the house of citizen Fawzi Abu Alwan in the town of Habariyeh as a result of the Israeli shelling of Lebanese villages in Al-Arqoub area,” the NNA reported.

Israeli reconnaissance aircraft were continuously present in the Lebanese airspace throughout the weekend, while an Israeli drone was shot down inside the Lebanese territory.

Netanyahu said that he was following up on what is happening on the northern borders, stressing that “the army is ready to deal with all scenarios.”

“Our policy is clear. We will not allow Iran to have a military foothold along our borders with Syria” Netanyahu said on social media. “We set this policy years ago and we are committed to it. Lebanon and Syria bear the responsibility for any attack launched from their territories against us.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab spoke to President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Lebanese army commander Joseph Aoun to follow up on the latest developments.

Lebanese Foreign Minister, Nassif Hitti, told Sky News that “Lebanon has the right to defend itself against any Israeli aggression on its territory,” noting that “Israel’s history in the region is an aggressive one.”

Hezbollah denied any involvement in the fighting: “Everything the enemy’s media has claimed about thwarting an infiltration operation from Lebanon into occupied Palestine and the death and injury of Hezbollah members in the shelling that targeted the area surrounding sites controlled by the occupying army in the Shebaa Farms area is completely false. It is an attempt to create imaginary and fake victories,” it said.

“The Islamic Resistance did not clash or shoot during today’s events. It was rather a one-sided incident carried out by the fearful, anxious, and tense enemy.

“Our response to the killing of Ali Kamel Mohsen, who died in an attack in the vicinity of Damascus International Airport is coming. Zionists can only wait to receive the punishment for their crimes. The shelling of Habariyeh today, which hit a civilian home, will not be tolerated.”

Source: https://www.arabnews.com/node/1711101/middle-east

[Disclaimer]

Why the Lebanese Hezbollah is escalating against Israel

Tom Rogan — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 02:15:14 +0000

On Monday, Israeli forces fired on Lebanese Hezbollah fighters who had infiltrated Israel from Lebanon. The incident reflects Hezbollah’s increased interest in carrying out lethal attacks.

Hezbollah media said it suffered no casualties and that the incident was one simply born of Israeli paranoia. The Jerusalem Post reported that there were three to five fighters in the Hezbollah group. Whatever the outcome, the key issue here is why Hezbollah did this in the first place. The group’s leaders knew that there was a very significant risk that their fighters would be engaged and killed. Considering that Israeli forces are not engaged in a military campaign against Hezbollah, the group’s risk-reward calculation here would seem to skew toward not attacking.

But there are two other factors.

First, Hezbollah has been significantly undermined by recent losses inflicted on it by Israel and the United States. The death, in January, of Hezbollah’s primary Iranian interlocutor, Qassem Soleimani, was a serious setback for the group’s work with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. That work centers on establishing a missile launching capability in southern Lebanon and southern Syria to enable Hezbollah’s targeting of major Israeli population centers. Hezbollah suffered another loss last week when one of its fighters was killed while guarding such a missile stockpile in Damascus. Hezbollah again referenced this loss on Monday, warning Israel, “Our response to the martyrdom of the Mujahid brother Ali Kamel Mohsen… is definitely coming, and the Zionists only have to wait for the punishment for their crimes.”

Were Hezbollah in a stronger position, it might fear an escalation in the form of punitive Israeli strikes. Yet the group’s increasingly precarious domestic situation likely alters that assessment. Lebanon’s economy is collapsing under the weight of decades of artificial currency manipulation and sanctions that have isolated Syrian investors from the Lebanese banking system. An international bailout is desperately needed. Hezbollah, however, is refusing to agree to the necessary economic and political reforms being demanded by the European Union and the U.S. in return for any bailout. The group knows these reforms would undermine the sectarian cronyism in which its power is rooted. But with populist anger growing over its intransigence and the crisis no closer to being resolved, Hezbollah risks its erstwhile political allies forming new alliances without it. And if that happens, the group will truly be in trouble.

It’s in this context that Hezbollah might view an exchange of violence with Israel as serving its short-term interests. Lebanese civil society tends to unify around Hezbollah during the conflict with Israel. Even for those who oppose Hezbollah, populist antipathy toward Israel offers a rare opportunity for a pretense of nationalist unity. So if, for example, Hezbollah kills a few Israeli soldiers, it will hope that any ensuing Israeli retaliation only strengthens its Lebanese nationalist credibility.

Iran’s hard-line leadership is also likely to favor short-term escalation. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is deeply upset at being caught between his own collapsing economy, a coronavirus catastrophe, and restored American deterrence against his escalation. If Hezbollah can give Israel a black eye, even if Israel strikes back far harder, Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards will see it as boosting their own credibility. Iran will also regard this as delivering a veiled “We’re still powerful” threat to Iraq’s new prime minister, Mustafa al Kadhimi, who is adopting an agenda to mitigate Iran’s influence.

In short, expect new Hezbollah attacks in the days ahead.

Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/why-the-lebanese-hezbollah-is-escalating-against-israel

[Disclaimer]

The post Why the Lebanese Hezbollah is escalating against Israel first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Israel foreign Policy - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Hezbollah playing with fire: Netanyahu

Why the Lebanese Hezbollah is escalating against Israel