Israeli General says army conducting 'very significant strikes' against Hezbollah
A series of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed 16 people and a barrage of rockets fired by the militant group Hezbollah killed one Israeli man, making Wednesday the deadliest day in more than five months of fighting along the border.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, concerns have grown about further escalation along the Israel-Lebanon frontier. Tens of thousands of people on both sides have been displaced by the violence.
Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, the head of the Israeli army's Northern Command, said Wednesday that Israel was operating against the Islamic Group and had struck a "large number of operatives" and was also conducting "very significant strikes" against Hezbollah.
"We are at war. We have been at war for almost half a year now, and it doesn't end with Hezbollah," he told a gathering of commanders.
The near-daily violence has mostly been confined to the area along the border, and international mediators are scrambling to prevent an all-out war. The fighting has killed nine civilians and 11 soldiers in Israel. Nearly 240 Hezbollah fighters and about 40 civilians have died in Lebanon.
Hezbollah began launching rockets toward Israel on Oct. 8, the day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack that sparked the crushing war in Gaza.
Source: Associated Press, Naharnet
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