Upcoming escalation or one-off incident? The IDF claimed responsibility for night airstrikes on Hezbollah positions near the Lebanese-Israel border on August 26. She says she responded to shots from the Shiite movement towards her soldiers.

“There was fire from Lebanon at Israeli soldiers […]. The soldiers responded with flares and gunfire. Then, during the night, helicopter gunships and planes struck Hezbollah posts, "said the Israeli army, which did not report any casualties in its ranks.

Earlier in the night, the Israeli army announced a "security incident" near the kibbutz of Manara, along the "Blue Line", the de facto border separating the two theoretically warring countries. Israeli sources had reported shooting from Lebanon into Israel. The Lebanese national news agency had, for its part, mentioned the launching of "flares" from Israel towards the Meiss El Jabal sector, located opposite Manara, as well as Israeli fire "with an automatic weapon".

The Israeli army said it took this event "very seriously" and claimed "to hold the Lebanese government responsible for what is happening on its territory".

Multiplication of Israeli raids in Lebanon 

The new border incident comes as Lebanese Hezbollah announced over the weekend that it had shot down an Israeli drone that had crossed the border into Lebanon, with Israel simply saying that one of its drones had "fallen into Lebanese territory."

Israel notably accuses Iran and its ally Hezbollah of seeking to transform rockets in Lebanon into precision missiles capable of thwarting the Israeli anti-missile shield "Iron Dome" and thus causing significant damage to Israeli strategic positions.

The Hebrew state also claimed at the end of July that it had repelled an attempt to infiltrate Hezbollah fighters on Israeli soil. The Lebanese Shiite movement had denied any involvement in the incident, which took place after alleged Israeli missiles fired at positions of the Syrian army and their allies south of Damascus.

Since the start of the war in Syria, Israel has carried out numerous raids in that country, notably against elements of Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian forces which support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against various rebellions.

Critique of UNIFIL

Some 10,500 peacekeepers from the UN Interim Force (UNIFIL) monitor the Lebanese-Israeli border and ensure the implementation of Security Council resolution 1,701 adopted after the war between Israel and Hezbollah to prevent a new conflict.

However, Israel called last week, with the approach of the renewal of the UNIFIL mandate, for a reform of this UN mission which it accused of "partiality" and "ineffectiveness" because not having, according to the Hebrew state, no access to all areas of southern Lebanon.

With AFP

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