Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah trade fire in third day of violence

BEIRUT – Lebanon’s Hezbollah fired a guided missile at an Israeli military vehicle on Tuesday, sources in Lebanon said, and Israel said it responded by striking an observation post belonging to the Iran-backed group, in a third day of violence at the border.

The violence, triggered by the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, marks the most serious escalation along the Lebanese-Israeli frontier since the 2006 conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

The Israeli army said no injuries were reported in Tuesday’s attack by Hezbollah, three of whose fighters were killed on Monday in Israeli shelling into Lebanon.

A salvo of rockets was also fired from Lebanon into Israel on Tuesday, in an attack a security source in Lebanon said was carried out by Palestinian factions. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The Israeli military said it responded with artillery fire to launches coming from Lebanese territory. It said some 15 rockets were launched from Lebanon, of which four were intercepted and 10 fell in open spaces.

A total of six combatants were killed in Monday’s violence, the deadliest day at the frontier since the 2006 war. The clashes began when the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group mounted a cross-border attack into Israel, where Israeli forces killed two of its gunmen. An Israeli officer also died.

The United Nations interim peacekeeping force in the south, known as UNIFIL, said it detected a rocket launch south of Tyre at around 5:30 p.m. local time, urging restraint on all sides.

Its spokesperson said UNIFIL units were sent into underground shelters in the area from where the rockets were launched.

The U.N.’s special coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka said she met on Tuesday with Lebanon’s caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib, the head of its army Joseph Aoun and the acting head of General Security Elias Bayssari.

“During this difficult time of uncertainty for the country, more than ever, the people of Lebanon need security and stability,” she wrote on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Hezbollah, founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982, has close ties to the Palestinian groups fighting Israel.

Hezbollah has voiced support for the Palestinians, saying its “guns and rockets” are with them. On Sunday, Hezbollah fired at three Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms along the border and two more military posts in Israel on Monday.

But the heavily armed, Shi’ite faction has so far not opened a major second front against Israel.

U.S. warns Iran “Not to get involved.”

The United States’ top general on Monday warned Iran not to get involved in the crisis in Israel and said he did not want the conflict to the broaden.

The White House earlier on Monday said that Iran was complicit even though the United States has no intelligence or evidence that points to Iran’s direct participation in attacks in Israel by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

(Reuters)