The tension on the border between Israel and Lebanon increases. For nine months, Israeli forces and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah have attacked each other daily. Today, Hezbollah itself said that it sent over 200 rockets against military targets in the north of Israel and on the Syrian Golan Heights, which Israel occupies. It is one of the biggest attacks to date. – We send 200 missiles and 20 drones against Israel, said a spokesperson for Hezbollah to Al Jazeera. The attack was a response to the loss of senior officer Muhammad Nimah Nasser, known as Hajj Abu Nimah. He was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon. Funeral for Muhammad Nimah Nasser today. Hezbollah fighters pray for the coffin of the officer, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit his car yesterday. Photo: Bilal Hussein / AP The Israeli military believed that Nasser controlled the Aziz unit, the part of Hezbollah that sends rockets from southwest Lebanon. He also blamed them for being behind several terrorist attacks. Hezbollah sent 100 rockets at Israeli military targets the same evening. Fears regional war Hezbollah is among the region’s strongest fighting forces when it comes to weapons and resources, according to estimates from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. When the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in the Gaza Strip in October last year, it simultaneously marked the end of a 17-year-long relatively peaceful period on the border between Israel and Lebanon. The two parties were at full-scale war for four days in the summer of 2006. The war broke out after Hezbollah crossed the border, kidnapped two IDF soldiers and took them into Lebanon. The war sent several hundred thousand Lebanese and Israelis fleeing. Cloud of smoke after Israeli bomb attacks in the Lebanese city of Dayra today. Photo: KAWNAT HAJU / AFP Since then it has been relatively calm between the two forces, but the conflict flared up again when the war in Gaza started. Hezbollah supports Hamas. If it develops into a war, it could have disastrous consequences, and could draw in Iran and other allied groups, warns the UN. Arab, European and American mediators are now pushing to prevent the border conflict from spreading into a regional war. Today, four people in the city of Haifa in the north of Israel were arrested by Israeli police when they participated in a demonstration against war. It was the sixth time Israeli police broke up an anti-war demonstration in the city, and they used force when they did it, writes the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Who is Hezbollah? The Shia Muslim movement was formed in 1982 as a response to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. Hosted by Hassan Nasrallah. Launch attacks against Israel after the IDF entered Gaza in October 2023. Support Hamas. Hosted by Iran, which also helped to found Rørsla. Has a military and a political branch. The party and the organization are legal in Lebanon, are represented in the national assembly and have been part of the government. Is considered an important power factor in the Middle East and has a large stockpile of short- and medium-range missiles. Is on the USA’s terror list. The military branch is listed on the EU’s terror list. Source: NTB Hezbollah says itself that it can and will fight against Israel until a cease-fire agreement is in place. It may look a little brighter now than it has done in recent months, after Israel today decided to send a delegation to negotiations with Hamas, which on Wednesday presented a new proposal for a ceasefire: Fire on both sides of the border A visible sign that the conflict between Hezbollah and Israeli forces has flared up again, are the forest fires raging on both sides of the border. The daily attacks in both directions have set fire to forests and fields. On Thursday evening, at least 40 firefighting teams and ten firefighting aircraft are in place at the Golan Heights to put out the flames that spread after today’s attack by Hezbollah. Firefighters are working to extinguish the flames in northern Israel and in Israeli-occupied territory today. Photo: Gil Eliyahu / AP In Israel, the image of the flames in the north is provoking. The government’s far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir declared in June that “it is time for the whole of Lebanon to burn”. And although the majority of Israelis want an international, diplomatic solution to the tension in the north, they are also convinced that a war is inevitable, several studies from the Israeli Institute for Security Research show. Several hundred thousand displaced So far, Israeli attacks have driven almost 100,000 people from their homes near the border in southern Lebanon, writes CNN. On the Israeli side, around 53,000 people have been evacuated from the northern area. Reuters reports the killing of around 80 Lebanese civilians as a result of Israeli attacks. The IDF says it has killed around 300 Hezbollah fighters. They also say that ten Israeli civilians and 18 soldiers have been killed on the border. Published 04/07/2024, at 21.47
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Hezbollah sends hundreds of rockets into Israel – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
