Hezbollah says it is 'vigilant' as Israel-Palestine fighting resumes

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said, on Friday, it was vigilant and ready as a resumption of fighting between its Palestinian ally, Hamas, and Israel fuelled concern that clashes across the Lebanese-Israeli border could also restart, Reuters reports.

The Israeli army said it intercepted an “aerial target” that crossed from Lebanon into Israel, after sirens warning of possible incoming rockets went off in several towns in northern Israel and sent residents running for shelter.

Hezbollah and Israel traded fire for weeks across the border after the Israel-Palestine war erupted on 7 October  – hostilities which ceased a week ago when Hamas and Israel agreed a truce that expired on Friday.

“In Lebanon, we are concerned in facing this challenge, being vigilant, and always ready to confront any possibility and any danger that may arise in our country,” Hassan Fadlallah, a senior Hezbollah politician, said in broadcast remarks.

“No one thinks that Lebanon has been spared from this Zionist targeting or that what is happening in Gaza cannot affect the situation in Lebanon,” he said.

Hezbollah mounted near daily rocket attacks on Israeli positions at the frontier, while Israel waged air and artillery strikes in south Lebanon during the hostilities that began on 8 October.

Lebanon-based militants from Hamas and the Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad, have also mounted attacks from Lebanese territory.

About 100 people in Lebanon have been killed during the hostilities, 80 of them Hezbollah fighters. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes on both sides of the border.

It has been the worst fighting since a 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.

“I am worried about the resumption of confrontations here in Lebanon. Hezbollah has linked what happens at the border with what happens in Gaza,” said Nabil Boumonsef, deputy Editor-in-Chief of Lebanon’s Annahar newspaper.

“All the while the war in Gaza continues, Lebanon will remain threatened by the danger of a major escalation.”

READ: UN peacekeepers try to stay safe amid Lebanon-Israel border flare-ups