Israel attacked Hezbollah targets this morning in the Bekaa Valley, in northern Lebanon, for the second time since hostilities began on the border between the two countries in October, to which the Shiite group responded by launching a hundreds of rockets, one of its largest attacks since then, the Israeli Army confirmed.
«Israeli fighter jets attacked two sites of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in the Bekaa Valley area (in northern Lebanon), which belong to its air force and where they planned and carried out several attacks against the State of Israel» said a military spokesman.
In response, this Tuesday, the Lebanese group launched two rounds of rockets towards Israel, one of about 70 rockets and another of about 30, which triggered anti-aircraft alarms in several communities in the north of the country, without any injuries or injuries being reported. extensive damage, confirmed the Israeli military spokesman.
The Lebanese pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah also confirmed, in a statement, that it launched “more than a hundred Katiusha rockets” against Israeli military positions, “in response to Israel’s attacks against our people and our cities, the most recent near the city of Baalbeck, where a citizen died.
Israel responds to Hezbollah attacks on Golan Heights
The Israeli bombing in northern Lebanon – in which Arab media report that a civilian was killed – is the second since hostilities broke out between the Israeli Army and Hezbollah. The previous one took place on February 26 in that same valley, in the area of the city of Baalbek, near the border with Syria, where the Shiite militia has its anti-aircraft defense system.
The Israeli offensive in the Bekaa Valley is a “response to the drone attacks launched by Hezbollah towards the Golan Heights in recent days,” the Israeli Army clarified.
The Shiite group claimed responsibility this Monday for eight attacks against Israeli military targets, including an operation with four drones that simultaneously attacked an Israeli air defense barracks in the Golan Heights, which belonged to Syria and which Israel occupied in 1967 and annexed in 1981.
Hezbollah claimed several actions against military posts, an artillery position, a drone and some groups of Israeli soldiers, including one who was installing “new” surveillance systems in a barracks in the north of the country.
Fear of another imminent war
The clashes, the worst since the war fought by Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, have been gaining intensity over the months and have intensified with particular force in recent weeks, raising fears of the outbreak of an open war.
The parties have been engaged in intense crossfire since last October 8, a day after the Gaza war, which has claimed the lives of at least 338 people, most on the Lebanese side and in the ranks of Hezbollah, with 233 militia casualties, some in Syria.
In Israel, 17 people have died in the north (10 soldiers and 7 civilians); while on the other side of the border at least 321 people have died, including 40 members of Palestinian militias, a Lebanese soldier and 47 civilians, including ten minors and three journalists, in addition to Hezbollah fighters.
Last week, American mediator Amos Hochstein met with senior Lebanese and Israeli officials on a trip to the region with stops in Beirut and Tel Aviv, to try to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis; and amid US fears that Israel will launch a ground offensive in Lebanon in late spring, when it has more control over the war in Gaza.
Hezbollah, which began hostilities in solidarity with the Islamist militias in the Strip, has reiterated that it will not negotiate a political solution until the violence in the enclave stops, where the international community is working to mediate a truce during Ramadan.
But Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant recently warned that even a Gaza truce would not undermine Israel’s “goal” of expelling Hezbollah from its northern border, by force if necessary.
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