BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army on Wednesday found a rocket launcher in Qlaileh plain, south of Tyre, believed to have been used in an attack on Israeli targets the previous day.
Army Command said the launch platform was discovered during “a border inspection and was found to be armed with a rocket, which the specialized unit dismantled.”
On Tuesday, Ezz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for “firing rockets from southern Lebanon toward the Western Galilee region in northern Israel” and said that they would “continue (their) resistance duty until the occupation is defeated.”
As the war between Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Israel entered its fifth day on Wednesday, there was an escalation of violence along Lebanon’s southern border.
Hezbollah said it had targeted “the Zionist site of Al-Jardah, opposite Al-Dhahira region” with missiles in response to the killing of three of its members who died in Israeli bombing on Monday. The attack led to “a large number of confirmed casualties among the occupation forces, including dead and wounded,” the group added.
The Israeli Walla news website reported that “there were casualties among the ranks of the Israeli army as a result of the firing of an anti-tank missile in Arab Al-Aramshe on the border with Lebanon.”
Israeli armed forces said they responded by launching warplane raids on “Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, and barraging the source of the fire.” Armed Israeli drones were also deployed and an area close to the town of Marwahin was reportedly hit with phosphorus bombs, the use of which is heavily restricted under international law. Using them in heavily populated civilian areas is prohibited and is considered a war crime.
The Israeli bombing caused significant damage to property and farmland, and three people were injured in Marwahin.
A political observer said that what has been happening so far in Lebanon is “skirmishes confined within the framework of controlled tension, not widespread escalation, meaning that the rules of engagement are still preserved.”
Still, the streets of villages and cities in the south of the country were mostly empty. War correspondents reporting from the region described them as “ghost towns.”
Andrea Tenenti, a spokesperson for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, said: “UNIFIL is maintaining its presence and carrying on with its operational tasks. Our essential work continues and UNIFIL leadership is in constant contact with the authorities on both sides of the Blue Line and urges restraint.”
The Blue Line is a demarcation line established by the UN in June 2000 to determine whether Israeli forces had fully withdrawn from Lebanon.
Dorothy Shea, the US ambassador to Lebanon, met the speaker of the country’s parliament, Nabih Berri, and its caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, on Tuesday, and warned them: “It is not enough for Lebanon to pledge Hezbollah’s non-participation in the war; it should rather prevent any Palestinian faction affiliated with Iran from using the south against Israel, because the response will be harsh on Lebanon.”
The Lebanese Cabinet is due to meet on Thursday to discuss “the necessity of preserving the stability of the south to avoid the repercussions of any slip into the confrontation in the Gaza Strip.”
A Hamas call for “unity of the squares,” referring to a unified resistance to Israel, continues to be opposed by Lebanese authorities who do not want Palestinian factions to drag the country into an all-out conflict.
Khaldoun Al-Sharif, a former head of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, told Arab News: “Lebanon, by objective calculations, has no interest in being a party to any war. The economic and social situation is bad and there is no cohesive internal front. Lebanon is not fortified, neither from an Arab nor a regional aspect.”
Nor does he believe that “Hezbollah wants to engage in the war, especially since it lost three of its members on the second day of the confrontations.”
Still, the future remains uncertain, Al-Sharif said, adding: “Might Lebanon be lured into war? I do not know, nor do I know who might lure us. The announced statements say that there is no decision for Lebanon to enter the war, but whoever decides the war does not say it. Wars are not a rational topic.”
