Israel-Hezbollah escalation ‘may become inevitable if no Gaza ceasefire’ • FRANCE 24 English

Israel-Hezbollah escalation ‘may become inevitable if no Gaza ceasefire’ • FRANCE 24 English

well Israel and lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah have exchanged near daily fire since the war in Gaza began nearly 9 months ago and again Fresh crossborder Fire reported this week saw fewer missiles fired but an increase of threats from both sides raising fears once more that the war could turn into a broader regional conflict hbal threatened to invade Northern Israel if a fullscale war did break out Israel’s military said it has operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon that have already been approved and validated for more let’s speak to our correspondent in Beirut Raad Taha hello to you Raad what can you report for us in terms of what’s been going on on the border between uh Lebanon and Israel the past few hours so for the past few hours uh the Border has been relatively calmer than usual we’ve seen the usual exchange of fires uh most not notably in the area that is directly adjacent to the border from both sides so we’ve seen attacks from hisbah on uh on the Israeli localities which are adjacent to the Border we’ve also seen air strikes and Israeli bombardment to the Lebanese Villages located also adjacent to the Border in southern Lebanon but we haven’t seen any deep air strikes by Israel up until now today into Southern Lebanon unlike the past few days and we haven’t seen any deep attacks into Israeli territory by Hezbollah as well uh today uh however yesterday on Thursday we’ve seen Israel claim responsibility for assassinating at least one hisbah commander in a Precision air strike and this has been the case for the past the past month Israel has assassinated uh using Precision uh air strikes a number of hasbalah uh either operatives or commanders the numbers of those lost for Hezbollah in this war are more than 370 Fighters uh including a number of top ranking Commanders on the other hand we’ve seen hasbalah launching uh deeper attacks into Northern Israel shortly after such assassinations occur yeah a lot of world leaders uh urging restraint here concerned that this could spill over into a broader conflict what’s the likelihood of escalation now we know for a fact that Hezbollah has made it very clear over the past few days that it is not seeking a fullscale war with Israel and that the current confront a between the two parties is directly linked to what’s going on in in Gaza the Israeli War in Gaza after the start of the confrontation in October 7th when Hamas invaded Israel so we’re looking at a very tense situation where hisbah is saying we are not ready to stop firing unless there is a ceasefire in Gaza however hisbah and its Chief have also said that they don’t not do not seek a fullscale war now what is becoming very evident by the day is that um if there is no ceas fire achieved in Gaza within the next few weeks it seems that an escalation or some sort of a uh some sort of a larger confrontation between the two parties may become uh inevitable however when we compare uh Southern Lebanon uh to to to Gaza we’re talking about Hezbollah and not Hamas we’re talking about a much larger number of Fighters a much Lar a much larger accessibility to to hundreds of thousands of rockets and also drones so this may potentially turn into a much larger conflict if uh there is no diplomatic solution uh within the next few weeks despite the fact that the Americans have been working with the two parties and in particular through uh a special Envoy to to this conflict am Haw who previously brokered a maritime border agreement between Lebanon and Israel uh onto limiting this confrontation unsuccessful until today

Following fresh exchanges of fire and increasingly bellicose rhetoric between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah, an escalation of the conflict could become inevitable without a ceasefire in the war in Gaza within the next few weeks, says France 24’s correspondent in Lebanon Rawad Taha.
#Israel #Hezbollah #Lebanon

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