The Israeli air force says it struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in response to cross-border rocket fire in the most significant flare-up of tensions since a ceasefire brought uneasy calm to the region. <\/p>\n
Israel and Hezbollah exchanged cross-border attacks for 13 months in the wake of the Gaza conflict before Israel launched an intense ground and aerial campaign in September last year, decimating the Iran-backed militant group\u2019s leadership. <\/p>\n
The Israeli strikes followed artillery and tank shelling of positions inside Lebanon, and it came after sirens echoed across northern Israel, as the military detected five projectiles had been fired at the country. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), three were intercepted by the country\u2019s air force and two fell inside Lebanon. <\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the IDF to take \u201crobust action against dozens of terror targets.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael will not allow any harm to its citizens or its sovereignty,\u201d Netanyahu said. <\/p>\n
The Lebanese military said it had found and dismantled \u201cthree primitive rocket launchers in the area north of the Litani River,\u201d as it carried out investigations following the incident. It was not immediately clear who was behind the rocket fire into Israel. <\/p>\n
The UN\u2019s peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said it was \u201calarmed\u201d by the Saturday morning escalation in violence, calling on all sides to \u201cuphold their commitments. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe strongly urge all parties to avoid jeopardizing the progress made, especially when civilian lives and the fragile stability observed in recent months are at risk,\u201d it said in a statement. \u201cAny further escalation of this volatile situation could have serious consequences for the region.\u201d <\/p>\n
Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz, blamed the Lebanese government for cross-border attacks and vowed to retaliate. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe promised security to the Galilee communities – and that is exactly what will happen,\u201d Katz said in a statement Saturday, referring to inhabitants of northern Israel. <\/p>\n
The Lebanese presidency condemned \u201cattempts to drag once again into a cycle of violence,\u201d saying President Joseph Aoun had instructed the army to protect the country\u2019s citizens, as well as investigate the Saturday morning incident. <\/p>\n
Israel continues to maintain a military presence at five locations in the south of Lebanon, despite agreeing to withdraw as part of a ceasefire deal, struck in November last year. <\/p>\n
The deal brought a significant reduction in more than a year of cross-border strikes and put an end to months of a full-scale war. <\/p>\n
The last time Israel accused the Lebanese armed group of firing projectiles across the border was in early December. <\/p>\n
Escalation in the north comes after Israel restarted military operations in Gaza earlier in the week, putting an end to a fragile truce that had largely held since January. <\/p>\n
This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/i> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Israeli air force says it struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in response to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}