The UN has warned that a full-scale war in Lebanon, threatened by Israel, would be a ‘catastrophe’
Fighters from Hezbollah on a training exercise in the Jezzine district of southern Lebanon in May 2023. AP Photo
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Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah exchanged drone attacks and air strikes on Sunday, after warnings from the Lebanese militia that they were ready to attack Israeli oil infrastructure.
Hezbollah claimed a drone attack on Beit Hillel, northern Israel, while Israeli air strikes hit Kafr Kila and Taybeh, two villages in southern Lebanon. Neither side announced casualties.
It was unclear whether the attacks were retaliatory or planned, but the latest violence comes after Israeli strikes deep inside Lebanon and warnings from Israel that a wider war is imminent.
On Saturday, there was an air strike on a vehicle in Beqaa valley in northern Lebanon, with the Israelis claiming to have killed a Hamas commander in the attack.
Last week, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said his country was “very close to the moment of decision to change the rules against Hezbollah and Lebanon. In an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely hit.”
Mr Katz was repeating a long-standing Israeli policy, which threatens that civilian infrastructure across Lebanon will be hit in the event of war.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah returned the threat on Friday, warning Israel that “everything you see we can see and everything we can strike – we are not sparing in this battlefront.”
The group released a video on Saturday night titled, To Whom It May Concern, which featured satellite imagery of critical infrastructure in Israel including energy storage at the ports of Haifa and Ashdod.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire since October 8, when the Lebanese armed group opened what it calls a pressure front against Israel, in support of Hamas following the Gaza war which erupted the previous day.
But analysts said that the daily air strikes in Lebanon and rocket and drone attacks by the armed group are small compared to what a full-scale conflict would look like.
About 350 Hezbollah fighters and more than 90 Lebanese civilians have been killed in the conflict so far, while in Israel, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed.
In the last full scale war in Lebanon, in 2006, about 1,200 Lebanese were killed, including around 250 fighters. Forty-four Israeli civilians and 121 Israeli soldiers also lost their lives.
Amid fears of a wider war, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that, “one rash move – one miscalculation – could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border, and frankly, beyond imagination.”
“Let’s be clear: The people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.”
Updated: June 23, 2024, 6:55 AM