Hezbollah would deliver a “real slap” to Israel if it extended its “aggression” at its northern border, threatened the deputy secretary-general of the pro-Iranian militia, Naim Kassem, on Friday.
Restoring stability to the southern Lebanese border and “the region” relied on ending aggression in Gaza, insisted Kassem, in response to the threats made earlier on Friday by Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant. “The fighting on Israel’s northern border will continue as long as the war in Gaza continues,” Gallant said, adding, “but we will not accept this for long.”
In this respect, Gallant had asserted that “Israel would restore security at its border with Lebanon through military means if diplomatic options failed.”
For its part, Mohamed Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, remarked that “the Israeli enemy is not prepared for what the Islamic resistance in Lebanon has in store.”
On the ground, artillery exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel continued on Friday. The Israeli Army reported conducting airstrikes as well as artillery and tank fire against Hezbollah observation posts and “terrorist infrastructure” in the Hula and Kfar Kila sectors. In Kfar Kila, four houses were targeted by Israeli airstrikes, with a fifth hit by artillery fire.
The Israeli military also carried out a raid on the village of Aitaroun and bombed the Hamames hill, the outskirts of Chihine, Mays al-Jabal, Ramya, and Bayt Lif, in addition to the Marjayoun plain and the Ramyeh valley, as well as Dhayra and Marwahin.
Israeli reconnaissance planes flew at low altitudes over the city of Tyre and its surroundings, as well as the western sector. The Israeli Army highlighted the interception of a drone from Lebanon in the Acre region.
Hezbollah, on its part, claimed three attacks, including two against Israeli soldier gatherings at the border, using Burkan-type missiles.
