Drone war marks 170th day of confrontation in southern Lebanon
Drone and airstrikes have marked the hostilities between Hezbollah and the Israeli Army that have been ongoing for 170 days along the southern Lebanese front. Sirens sounded on Monday in several settlements in the Upper Galilee amid suspicions of drone infiltration from Lebanon after an Israeli drone fired a missile at the border town of Mays Al-Jabal. Israeli media reported that several rockets were fired from southern Lebanon toward the Yiftah area in Upper Galilee.
Early on Monday morning, Hezbollah announced targeting a gathering of Israeli soldiers in Al-Tayhat Hill with rocket weapons and artillery shells, causing direct hits.
The town of Mays Al-Jabal was subjected to Israeli airstrikes on Sunday night, resulting in the deaths of two Hezbollah members, named as Hussein Ali Arslan, from the southern Lebanese town of Taybeh, and Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Zain from Chehour.
Israeli Army spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on his X account: “Warplanes carried out the airstrikes on a Hezbollah military building in the Mays Al-Jabal area, where (Hezbollah) members were present.”
Adraee added: “Around 15 rockets were fired at an Israeli Army site near Manara (an Israeli military site) on Sunday night. The rockets landed in open areas without causing any casualties.” More than 250 Hezbollah members have been killed so far since there outbreak of hostilities, surpassing the number of casualties suffered in the 2006 war, despite there being no direct confrontation between the two sides so far.
Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, a member of Hezbollah’s Central Council, said that the party had successfully “established, through the (Lebanon) front to support the Gaza Strip, new dynamics along the Lebanese border and expose the Israeli inability” to protect its sites and settlements.
Qaouk said Israel was unable to protect the settlers, so it resorted to destroying homes.
“A defeated Israel cannot impose its conditions or implement its threats against Lebanon. When the enemy begins to expand its attacks on civilians and in the Lebanese interior, Hezbollah responds strongly and quickly.”
Hezbollah and Lebanese authorities have voiced concerns about the escalation of attacks in the southern region, however, which have now extended to the northern and western Bekaa, potentially leading to a full-blown war.
Diplomatic efforts are underway to prevent further deterioration, but Hezbollah remains committed to “supporting operations in Gaza,” as stated by its deputy in parliament, Hussein Al-Haj Hassan. On Monday, Sheikh Abdul Salam Al-Harash, the coordinator of the Arab Resistance Movement, made a significant statement from Akkar, urging Hezbollah to “leave Syria now that the Syrian army has shown its national commitment to its people.”
Al-Harash said: “It’s time for things to return to how they were before the Syrian war.”
He added that “the request for Hezbollah to leave Syria is to protect Lebanon’s resistance and regain Hezbollah’s lost moral standing, and because Syria needs everyone to depart and leave it alone to complete national reconciliation.”