BEIRUT/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: 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.
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.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel traded fire for weeks across the border after the Hamas-Israel war erupted on Oct. 7 - 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, part of an Iran-backed alliance including Hamas, 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 Oct. 8.
Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes on both sides of the border.
Israel resumes Gaza attacks as truce expires, heavy fighting reported
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.”
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