Smoke and flames rise after Hezbollah launched a missile attack on the northern Israeli city of Safed on June 12, 2024.
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A senior US adviser will travel to Israel in an effort to ease tensions on the Lebanese border, where a recent barrage of missiles has raised the risk of a wider conflict between the Jewish nation and Iran-backed militias.
Over the past week, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has ramped up hostilities and cross-border missile attacks against targets in northern Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces and the Hezbollah-aligned al-Manar news outlet.
It comes amid Hezbollah attacks in recent weeks after repeated attacks on its neighbor since October.
The group is aligned with the Iranian-backed Palestinian militant organization Hamas, although Tehran denies it directly rules it. Hezbollah claims solidarity with the plight of Palestinians amid Israel’s war campaign in the Gaza Strip.
Tensions have been rising along the border since the Israel Defense Forces reported on June 12 that an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese village of Jouaiyya killed a senior Hezbollah commander, Sami Taleb Abdullah, along with three other groups.
A photo taken from the southern Lebanese border town of Marjayoun on June 14, 2024 shows smoke billowing from Metullah on the Israeli side after it was targeted by a rocket from Lebanon.
Rabih Daher AFP Getty Images
The IDF claimed that Taleb Abdullah had “planned, promoted and carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians,” which CNBC could not confirm.
Israel has responded to subsequent fire, with the latest fighter jets mobilizing against targets in four locations in southern Lebanon, according to the IDF – which warned that more battles could be afoot.
“The Hezbollah terror organization in Lebanon has increased its attacks on Israel,” IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a video address on Sunday, noting that the Lebanese militant group had fired more than 5,000 rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosives. drones in Israel began to join the conflict.
“Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a further escalation, which could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region,” Hagari added. “Israel will take the necessary measures to protect civilians, until security along the border with Lebanon is restored. Either way, we will guarantee the safety and security of Israel to its homes in the north of Israel. This is not for negotiation.”
HoweverHezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said last week that any Israeli expansion of the conflict in Lebanon will be met with “destruction, destruction and displacement” in the Jewish state, according to a Google-translated report from al-Manar.
He warned that Hezbollah has so far only used “a small part of its capabilities in proportion to the nature of the war.”
Since last year, tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese have been forced to flee settlements that face the border as it quickly becomes a battlefield.
The latest tit-for-tat retaliation will be in Washington, which is seeking to ratchet up tensions as it sets off a chain reaction of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
Amos Hochstein, a senior diplomatic adviser to the administration of US President Joe Biden, is expected in Israel on Monday, an Israeli official told NBC News.
The White House views the tensions between Lebanon and Israel and the ceasefire talks in the Gaza Strip as interlinked, and the Biden administration is trying to reach a peace plan for the enclave.
Israeli army soldiers line a road near the site where a rocket fired from southern Lebanon landed near Kfar Szold in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel on June 14, 2024.
Jalaa Marey | AFP Getty Images
An increase in Israel-Hezbollah hostility will also raise questions for market watchers who have seen the Gaza war ripple into international trade. Claiming solidarity with the Palestinian cause, Yemen’s Houthis – also backed by Iran – have launched several naval strikes in the Red Sea, disrupting or halting transit through key trade routes and effectively taking waterways hostage.
On Sunday, the Yemeni group said it targeted three ships in the Red Sea, including a US destroyer, according to a Google-translated update from Houthi spokesman Yahya Sare’e – although it was unclear whether any missiles had hit them.
