Tensions flare between Israel and Hezbollah over disputed gas fields
DOVEV, Israel — From a sunbaked ridge, the small outpost is clearly visible: a trailer that appeared one morning in April, quickly followed by a two-story observation tower, just feet from the hotly contested Blue Line that separates Lebanon and Israel.
Lebanon says the structures are used by an environmental group. But Israeli officials say the tower belongs to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia group, and is one of 22 outposts that have appeared along the U.N.-monitored Blue Line in the past three months.
“This is a major change in what we’ve seen in the last few years,” said a senior Israeli military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss security issues. “Hezbollah is becoming very, very blatant.”
The group’s activities — which officials say include a doubling of the number and size of patrols near the border, a series of drone incursions and a drumbeat of threats from Hezbollah leaders — come as American mediators race to settle a dispute between the two countries over suddenly lucrative natural gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel is already developing one drilling site, the Karish Field, in what Lebanon claims are disputed territorial waters. Time is running out to reach a settlement by September, when Israel is expected to begin extracting gas from the first rig.
Negotiators have indicated a deal may be close, after recent visits to both Lebanon and Israel by Amos Hochstein, the U.S. senior adviser for energy security. But the stakes are rising.
Hezbollah has threatened to attack Israel if an acceptable deal isn’t reached and has dispatched drones toward the gas field at least twice in recent weeks, including three unmanned aircraft that were shot down by Israel in early July.
The drones appeared to be unarmed and caused no damage. But they hinted at Hezbollah’s ability to strike the offshore facility at a time when Lebanon’s economy is cratering.
“We will reach Karish and everything beyond Karish and everything beyond that,” Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah said in a televised speech. “War is much more honorable than the situation Lebanon is heading to now — collapse and starvation.”
This month, the head of Israel’s military advised the security cabinet the situation was at risk of turning into a military escalation with Hezbollah, according to Israeli media reports. The Israel Defense Forces reportedly warned Hezbollah that any attack will provoke fierce retaliation.
“If the deal is not accepted by Lebanon or Israel, we are heading into a confrontation,” said Jacques Neria, who was an adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the 1990s and is now with the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. “Any war that starts on the maritime battlefield will spill out onto other arenas. If they hit our rigs, we’ll hit them on land.”
The spike in tensions comes as Israel eyes international efforts to restore an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program. Israel says a new deal risks further empowering Tehran and its proxies, including Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, with which the IDF fought a three-day battle this month that killed 45 people in Gaza.