The Israeli military was informed of an air attack on Hezbollah posts in the regions of Maroun al-Ras and Rab El Thalathine along the border in southern Lebanon on Thursday, January 4, 2024. The army claimed that its fighter jets had struck the Hezbollah positions and their working sites along with their rocket launchers. The attack, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), was in response to the Lebanese attack on Israeli territory.

According to the IDF, several launches towards Israel were identified to be done by Lebanon. In order “to eliminate threats” in the region of Rab El Thalathine near the southern border, according to the Israeli army, a number of mortar and artillery shells were fired by Israel. No further details were given by the IDF.

According to The Times of Israel report, a number of attacks were made in the regions of Arab al-Aramshe, Manara and a few other regions in northern Israel. The IDF claims those attacks to be made by Hezbollah. No casualties have been reported in this cross-border tussle yet.

A fighter jet launched by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck southern Lebanon in the region of Maroun al-Ras. It destroyed some infrastructure and observation post of Hezbollah in the area, according to a statement by Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The statement further said that soon after the fighter jet struck the post, IDF soldiers found a “terrorist” cell in that region.

Earlier, at the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri, who was the Deputy Chief as well as one of the founders of Al-Qassam Brigades, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, vowed to punish those involved in the air strike. The tension between the two countries, Lebanon and Israel, has escalated due to this cross-border fire exchange. The clash is considered to be the deadliest one since the 2006 war between the two states.

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been tongue-tied since the killing of Arouri and has silenced his ministers from commenting on the topic too. Mossad Chief, David Barnea, however, commented that every Arab mother of a son involved in the 7 October incident should consider her son a walking dead. The statements of this sort are aggravating Hamas as well as Hezbollah. Their reaction to these comments may not be immediate, but they do not stay quiet for long.

The clash between Lebanon and Israel is taking place at a time when the Israeli military is busy killing innocent people in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Till now, at least 22,313 people have lost their lives after an attack by Hamas on 7th October 2023.