Cross-border raids continue as Israel and Hezbollah increasingly use war rhetoric

Cross-border air, missile and drone attacks between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah continued on Monday, with both sides threatening an even larger conflict.

Rising tensions between the two sides have raised fears that a full-scale, destructive war could erupt, involving thousands of attacks a day – compared to the dozens or sometimes dozens of attacks that occur daily today.

Yet many residents of southern Lebanon say the situation already feels like a full-scale war is taking place.

Israeli air strikes hit the southern Lebanese border towns of Rab al Talatine, Kafr Kela and Blida on Monday night.

The night of heavy attacks followed the injury of 18 Israeli soldiers – one of them seriously – in a drone strike claimed by Hezbollah on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday.

As hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza fade, so do hopes for one in Lebanon. Hezbollah and its allies have repeatedly made a ceasefire contingent on a ceasefire in Gaza. The powerful Iran-aligned group opened the southern Lebanese front on October 8 in support of its ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The cross-border conflict – a war that has so far remained largely confined to the border area – has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border. Israeli officials have expressed concern that Israeli citizens will feel uncomfortable returning to northern communities as long as Hezbollah maintains a presence in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli War Cabinet has approved an operational plan for a military offensive against Lebanon. The aim is to push back Hezbollah north of the Litani River.

Hezbollah, for its part, has pledged to use all of its military capabilities in the event of such an offensive. Its leader Hassan Nasrallah promised that there would be “no restraint, no rules and no limits.”

Over the weekend, Iran, an ally and supporter of Hezbollah, warned that “all resistance fronts” – a coalition of Iran and its regional allies, including Syria, the Houthis in Yemen and Iraqi militias – would join the confrontation in a “devastating war” against Israel if it launched an offensive against Lebanon.

Iran has dismissed Israeli threats of a major offensive as “psychological warfare.”

While both sides have ramped up their war rhetoric, they have relatively scaled back their attacks over the past week. While daily cross-border attacks between Israel and Hezbollah continue, they have remained largely under control.

According to AFP, around 485 people have been killed in the fighting in Lebanon so far – the vast majority of them Hezbollah fighters.

In Israel, at least 15 soldiers and eleven civilians were killed.

Updated: July 1, 2024, 9:56 a.m.