Amid recent developments in the Gaza Strip amidst intensified Israeli airstrikes, Lebanon was not spared. The Israeli army announced Thursday that its aircraft had targeted a Hezbollah military compound in Ayta ash Shab, and infrastructure belonging to it in the Labouneh area in southern Lebanon.
It stated that airstrikes had hit 4,000 Hezbollah targets, including weapon depots, operational headquarters, and infrastructure since the hostilities began between the two sides.
In return, Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets towards the western Galilee in the past hours, targeting the headquarters of the Israeli army’s 146th Division.
This barrage triggered alarm sirens in towns that had not been attacked since October.
Hezbollah stated that it launched the rocket barrage towards the Upper Galilee, targeting the Israeli army base in Maroun.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese army announced finding an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) carrying leaflets in the Labouneh area in southern Lebanon.
In a statement, it said that on February 29, 2024, during a joint patrol between the army and UNIFIL in the Labouneh area, the patrol members found an Israeli UAV carrying leaflets.
It added that army units, including specialized units, worked on dismantling the UAV and transporting it without disclosing the contents of the leaflets.
Amid the ongoing daily confrontations since last October between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, fears are escalating within the US administration of a potential Israeli ground incursion in the coming weeks or months into Lebanese territories, especially as senior officials in the US administration and others familiar with intelligence information revealed that President Joe Biden’s administration and intelligence officials are concerned about Israeli plans for a ground incursion into Lebanon that could begin in the coming months if diplomatic efforts fail to push Hezbollah to retreat from Israel’s northern borders.
A knowledgeable US official stated that the potential Israeli incursion might happen in early summer.
He also indicated that “the administration assumes that an Israeli military operation in the coming months” might not necessarily happen in the coming weeks but perhaps later in the spring.”
Meanwhile, the possibility of an Israeli military operation has made its way into the intelligence briefings of senior officials in the administration, according to a source familiar with CNN, Thursday.
Hezbollah has repeatedly affirmed that what it termed as the “resistance axis,” referring to Iran-backed groups and factions in the region, would continue to support Hamas, in line with what is known as the unification of arenas or fronts.
Israeli officials, especially Defense Minister Yuval Galant, have vowed to continue striking and pursuing Hezbollah, even if a ceasefire agreement is reached in Gaza.
Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7 following the attack launched by Hamas on Israeli settlements and military bases in the Gaza Strip, the escalation on the Israeli-Lebanese border has led to the death of at least 286 people, including 197 Hezbollah fighters, 44 civilians, and 24 Palestinian fighters, 10 of whom are from Hamas.
Approximately 80,000 Israelis and about 75,000 Lebanese were forced to evacuate their homes from border areas on both sides.