From Ian:
IDF: Hezbollah fires anti-tank missiles at army base, ambulance; no injuries
Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq watching Israel-Hezbollah crisis closely
IDF: Hezbollah fires anti-tank missiles at army base, ambulance; no injuries
The Hezbollah terror group fired several anti-tank guided missiles at an army base and a military ambulance in northern Israel Sunday afternoon, causing no injuries, the Israel Defense Forces said.Report: Israel launches artillery shells into disputed land on Lebanese border
Miiltary sources said that the ambulance was empty when it was struck, but that soldiers had been inside half-an-hour earlier.
In response, the Israeli military said its artillery cannons and attack helicopters fired approximately 100 shells and bombs at Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said the IDF considered the “tactical event on the ground” to be over as of Sunday evening, but that the larger strategic threat posed by Hezbollah on the border remained.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said no Israelis were so much as “scratched” by the Hezbollah attack. “There were no Israeli injuries, not even a scratch,” Netanyahu said, smiling, at the opening of a Honduras diplomatic office in Jerusalem.
The military said Hezbollah operatives fired two to three missiles at a battalion headquarters outside of the Israeli community of Avivim and at military vehicles nearby shortly after 4:15 p.m. Sunday. Several of the projectiles struck their targets but did not cause any casualties, despite claims to the contrary by Hezbollah, the IDF said.
The Iran-backed terror group took responsibility for the missile strikes, saying in a statement that its fighters “destroyed an ‘Israeli’ military vehicle on the Avivim barracks road [in northern Israel]… and injured those in it.” Hezbollah later said it targeted an armored personnel carrier.
The Israeli military fired artillery shells into a disputed portion of land on the Lebanese border on Sunday, amid soaring tensions along the frontier, a Hezbollah-affiliated news outlet reported.Israel and Hezbollah Exchange Fire on Border — What's Next?
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed conducting “activities” in northern Israel, which sparked a fire near the border, but refused to comment on the nature of those actions.
According to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar news outlet, the IDF fired the shells into the hills outside of the village of Kfar Chouba, next to a contested area along the border, known in Israel as Mount Dov and in Lebanon as Shebaa Farms.
The Lebanese Armed Forces said in a statement that an Israeli drone also dropped an incendiary device nearby, sparking a small fire that was extinguished by residents of the area.
Al-Manar also shared photographs of artillery shells it said were fired by the IDF into the area.
Residents of northern Israel reported seeing increased military activity in the area on Sunday morning, with soldiers establishing roadblocks along local highways and large numbers of aircraft flying overhead.
Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire on the Israel-Lebanon border. Will it escalate to an all-out conflict? What's behind these types of incidents? Our Adi Koplewitz and Owen Alterman analyze.
Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq watching Israel-Hezbollah crisis closely
From the moment Hezbollah’s members fired their anti-tank missiles at Israel the entire Middle East was glued to what might happen next. This is because what is happening in northern Israel pits Iran’s ally against Israel, a key ally of the US. It has regional implications because Iran’s allies and proxies, from Syria to Iraq and Yemen, are all impacted by how Hezbollah performs and how Israel responds.
For instance, in the last month Iraqi Shi’ite paramilitaries linked to Iran have blamed Israel for a series of explosions at their munitions warehouses. In addition, the Houthi rebels in Yemen have been using Iranian technology to increase their drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia. They also say they have new air defense systems and that they shot down a US drone recently. It would be the second US drone downed since June.
In January, Israel’s former Chief of Staff said that Israel carried out more than 1,000 airstrikes against Iranian targets in Syria over the last years. That was a major declaration that built on two years in which Israeli officials had hinted at a widening campaign against Iran in Syria. Israel has only admitted several of these strikes directly as they happened or after. In September an air strike in Latakia led Syrian air defense to shoot down a Russian plane by mistake, causing a crises and ending with Moscow sending S-300 air defense to Syria’s regime.
That means that Syria’s regime and other forces in Syria are watching closely. For instance, the August 24 airstrike Israel carried out against an IRGC “killer drone” force in southern Syria killed two Hezbollah operatives. For the IRGC and for other Iranian-backed groups in Syria, the escalation in Lebanon is important. They wonder if it could spill over to Syria. Iran’s bases in Syria have been used to fly a drone into Israeli airspace in February 2018 and also to launch missiles at Israel in May 2018 and January 2019. Iran’s IRGC is entrenched in Syria and Iran has benefited from the weakness of the Syrian regime to spread influence and move forces and munitions. This has included the deployment of Iraqi-based Shi’ite militias such as Kata’aib Hezbollah. A Kata’ib Hezbollah base in Albukamal was mysteriously hit with an airstrike in June 2018. No one claimed responsibility for that but Kataib Hezbollah has blamed both Israel and the US for attacks on it. It is led by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis who has worked with the IRGC since the 1980s.






























