BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib reiterated Lebanon’s support for the extension of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon mandate for an additional year without any modifications to the existing resolution.

The UN Security Council is expected to renew the peacekeeping mission’s mandate at the end of this month, as it has annually since Resolution 1701 was adopted in 2006 after a 33-day war between Lebanon and Israel. 

Bou Habib met on Monday with the ambassadors of France, China, Spain and Italy, as well as the charge d’affaires of the embassies of Russia and the UK.

The meetings were part of Lebanon’s efforts to secure an extension for UNIFIL forces, whose mandate expires at the end of this month.

Bou Habib discussed the developments regarding the extension during a telephone conversation with Lisa Johnson, the US ambassador to Lebanon.

The government intensified its diplomatic drive on the UNIFIL extension as Israeli and Hezbollah strikes and counter strikes on the border resumed on Monday. 

Israel and Hezbollah pulled back after an exchange of heavy fire on Sunday that briefly raised fears of an all-out war.

Iran praised Hezbollah’s drone and missile assault in a statement by the foreign ministry: “The strategic balances have shifted to the detriment of the Zionist regime, as the terrorist Israeli army has lost its deterrence and offensive capabilities, and it needs to defend itself against strategic strikes.”

The press release claimed that “the strategic equation has changed, and the myth of the invincible army has become an empty slogan.”

On Monday, an Israeli attempt to kill a Hamas official in a residential neighbourhood of Sidon failed.

An Israeli combat drone targeted a car in the city as Hamas leader Nidal Hleihel was approaching the vehicle. The car was later seen on fire, while Hleihel narrowly avoided the strike. Other reports claimed that Hleihel and his family members suffered injuries.

Cautious calm prevailed in the Lebanon-Israel border area on Monday morning, a day after Hezbollah’s retaliation operation for the assassination of senior military commander Fouad Shukr, and what Israel called “a pre-emptive action” to paralyze Hezbollah’s launchers from firing rockets toward army positions.

Israeli aircraft struck Lebanese border towns on Monday. Warplanes and combat drones targeted an area between Taybeh and Odaisseh, and the towns of Kfarkela, Alma Al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa and Hanine.

Israeli incursions into southern Lebanon airspace continued over southern Lebanon, reaching the Bekaa and Beirut’s suburbs.

“The two measured and controlled military responses on Sunday — one by Hezbollah and the other by Israel,” a political observer in Lebanon said, prevented an all-out war.

Residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs, who had left in recent days fearing repercussions after Hezbollah’s response, returned to their homes. 

In a speech on Sunday evening, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah sought to reassure his supporters, leading hundreds of young people to take to the streets of the southern suburbs on their motorcycles and carrying Hezbollah flags in celebration of what they perceived as “the retaliation against Israel.”

Hezbollah and Israel returned the following day to operate under the framework of avoiding a full-scale war while adhering to flexible yet carefully considered rules of engagement.

Sirens sounded in several settlements in Western Galilee as a warning of potential attacks from Hezbollah.

Israeli media reported that the alarms were heard in Arab Al-Aramshe, Adamit and Hanita in western Galilee.

Israel’s military released a video to confirm “Israeli strikes on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon.”

The footage displayed a segment of a drone being intercepted by a combat helicopter, as well as aerial refueling operations in Lebanese airspace.

Nasrallah said that Hezbollah had “attacked the Glilot base of the Israeli military intelligence directorate ‘Aman’ located near Tel Aviv, as well as the Ein Shemer base in Hadera.”

To achieve this, Hezbollah launched 340 Katyusha rockets at northern Israel to distract attention from the trajectory of its suicide drones aimed at Tel Aviv.

It attacked 11 locations during the operation, including barracks and military command centers.