BEIRUT: The situation between Israel and Hezbollah is very concerning, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Monday, on the eve of her tour of Lebanon, Tel Aviv, and the West Bank.
Baerbock is scheduled to travel to Lebanon to engage in discussions with officials in Beirut in light of Israeli threats of an expanded conflict with Hezbollah.
Her remarks came as the Israeli media said the country’s army has enough ammunition to strike Hezbollah, but that its leadership is exercising caution.
The media reported on Monday that the Israeli military carried out a series of attacks on the Lebanese border area.
Warplanes repeatedly raided the towns of Taybeh, Aitaroun, Kfarkela, and Khiam. Artillery and phosphorus shelling were reported on the outskirts of the towns of Tayr Harfa, Rab El-Thalathine, and Odaisseh, causing fires.
Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Organization reported that the Israeli military “targeted a civil defense team in the town of Taybeh with an artillery shell while they were extinguishing a fire, resulting in one member being injured by shrapnel in his chest and transported to the hospital.”
Hezbollah carried out an ambush on Sunday night in the Metula settlement, targeting a troop transport vehicle, injuring six soldiers, including an officer.
The operation prompted intensified Israeli night raids on southern villages and towns.
A sonic boom caused by an Israeli warplane disrupted students taking exams in Nabatieh.
On the first day of the students’ official regular and vocational exams, the sound barrier was breached, and its echoes were heard in the coastal town of Ghazieh near Sidon.
Despite the unsettling experience, the 1,107 students continued their exams.
Israeli warplanes also broke the sound barrier in two waves over Nabatieh, causing another sonic boom.
The Ministry of Education had facilitated students displaced from the border region to take their exams at centers nearer to their temporary residences.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, targeted the Zebdine site and Zarit Barracks.
It was also reported that a fire broke out at the Margaliot military site following the launching of an anti-tank missile from Lebanon.
Clashes on Sunday culminated after Hezbollah said it carried out “an aerial attack with a squadron of assault drones on the headquarters of the 91st Division in ‘Ayelet Hashahar’ — northeast of Safed — targeting the positions and settlements of officers and soldiers, hitting them directly, killing and wounding them.”
Hezbollah also targeted the Metula site after observing a military vehicle moving in the vicinity of the site with guided missiles, “hitting it and leaving them dead or wounded.”
On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the Middle East was close to the conflict expanding into Lebanon.
“The risk of this war affecting the south of Lebanon and spilling over is every day bigger,” Borrell said ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg.
“We are on the eve of the war expanding,” Borrell said in a Reuters report.
He spoke as MP Mohammed Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, reiterated the party’s position on how to achieve a ceasefire in southern Lebanon.
He said the fate of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu depended on ongoing aggression in Gaza.
“Those seeking a way to stop the aggression are coming to Lebanon.
“The war in Lebanon has only been in solidarity and support for the oppressed in Gaza, so let the Israeli enemy stop its aggression on Gaza, and there is no need to discuss the matter with the Lebanese,” said Raad.
