Israel has raised the alert level on its northern border with Lebanon, fearing the possibility of Palestinian factions launching rockets from southern Lebanon amid the tensions with Gaza. Israeli military sources warned of the potential transformation of the front with Lebanon, which has experienced relative calm for 15 years, into an active military front similar to that of Gaza.
Israeli security sources noted that the unmonitored passage of Iranian oil vessels to Lebanon poses a serious challenge, especially given Hezbollah's threats to respond to any Israeli targeting of those vessels. On the sixth of this month, Hezbollah launched 19 rockets toward the Shebaa farms and the occupied Golan Heights for the first time since 2006, following Israeli airstrikes inside Lebanon in response to Palestinian rocket launches.
The Hezbollah rockets targeting northern Israel came after Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon. These Israeli airstrikes, the first in years, were a response to mysterious rockets launched from Lebanon toward Israel. Israel estimates that Hezbollah possesses over 130,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking any location in Israel. Recently, Israel has expressed concerns over the group's efforts to import or develop a stockpile of precision-guided missiles.
In this context, Israel carried out airstrikes on Gaza on Saturday and reinforced its forces along the border. The Israeli army stated that the troop reinforcements followed a situation assessment, while Hebrew media reported that Israeli warplanes targeted Palestinian faction sites in central Gaza with three missiles. It was noted that the Israeli Air Force attacked various sites in the Gaza Strip in response to earlier incidents at the barrier, where dozens of Palestinians were injured, along with an Israeli soldier who sustained serious injuries.
