GENEVA/BEIRUT:  Israel has sent an indirect message to Lebanon that it would strike Lebanon ​hard, targeting civilian infrastructure including the airport, in the event that Hezbollah gets involved in any US-Iran war, two senior Lebanese officials said on Tuesday.

The Lebanese army ​command issued orders to reinforce a post which it said came ‌under ‌fire from ​the ‌Israeli ⁠side ​and to ⁠respond to the source of fire, the military wrote ⁠on X ‌on ‌Tuesday.
The ​army ‌said in ‌the post that the vicinity of a ‌new observation post at the southern ⁠border ⁠in Marjayoun area came under fire from the Israeli side. 

The office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Lebanese presidency did not ‌immediately respond ‌to requests for comment.
Iran ​and ‌the ⁠US will ​hold a ⁠third round of nuclear talks on Thursday in Geneva, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said on Sunday, amid growing concerns about the risk of military conflict between the adversaries.
Israel dealt heavy blows to ⁠the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah during ‌a war ‌in 2024, killing its leader ​Hassan Nasrallah along with ‌thousands of its fighters and destroying much ‌of its arsenal.
Shiite Muslim Hezbollah was established by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982. Hezbollah’s new leader Naim Qassem said in a televised address last ‌month that the group was “not neutral” in the standoff between ⁠Washington and ⁠Tehran, and that it was “targeted by the potential aggression.”
“We are determined to defend ourselves. We will choose in due course how to act, whether to intervene or not,” Qassem said. The US State Department is pulling out non-essential government personnel and their eligible family members from the US embassy in Beirut, a senior State ​Department official ​said on Monday.