Israel: Israel began evacuating residents in the north on Monday amid escalating conflict with Lebanon’s Hezbollah military group in the border area.
The Israeli-Lebanese border has seen an escalation of tensions since last week as Hezbollah fired tens of rockets at Israeli military sites on Oct. 8 in support of an onslaught by the Gaza-ruling Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Israel on Oct. 7.
Hezbollah on Monday announced that it targeted five Israeli sites with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns and inflicted Israeli injuries, to which Israel responded by firing seven missiles toward Hezbollah positions in the border town of Rmeish and shelling several Lebanese areas.
In a statement, the Israeli Defense Ministry told residents of 28 towns living within 2 kilometers of the Israeli-Lebanese border to evacuate, adding that the residents would stay in guesthouses subsidized by the state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran and its backed Hezbollah not to launch a war against Israel. “We have a message for Iran and Hezbollah: Do not test us in the north. Do not repeat your previous mistake because the price you need to pay will be much higher,” Netanyahu said at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday warned that opening a war front in southern Lebanon is “of no one’s interest.”
On the same day, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called on Arab and Islamic countries to cancel or freeze their normalization agreements with Israel in response to its continuous bombing in Gaza.
He made the remarks at an online emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to discuss the repercussions of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
Berri also warned against the plan to “move Palestinian people from the Gaza Strip to the Sinai Peninsula,” saying that “if this plan is implemented, it will not only eliminate the Palestinians but also cause the fall of Arab.”
With no sign of abating in sight in the conflict with Israel, militants in Gaza continued to fire rockets at southern Israel throughout the day. In the afternoon, sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The rocket attack disrupted the opening of the winter session of the Knesset. Broadcast video showed lawmakers and other attendees rushing to shelters.
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