For weeks, Hezbollah and Israel have threatened to go to war.
On Sunday, the Israeli military claims it killed four militants who were attempting to cross Israel’s northern border from Lebanon.
The incident occurs as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group operating in Lebanon, remain high. IDF soldiers patrolling the border came across the insurgent group, which instantly opened fire on the Israelis.
“During the exchanges of fire, IDF forces conducted artillery and mortar fire toward the area,” the military said in a statement.
The exchange resulted in the deaths of all four insurgents.
For months, Hezbollah terrorists have shot missiles and rockets into Israel, demonstrating their support for Hamas in the midst of Israel’s campaign in Gaza. These attacks have not often featured personnel infiltration across Israel’s border.
The action comes as Israel and Hezbollah have both vowed to launch an all-out war. Following Israeli raids on its terror cells, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that his government will not hesitate to protect Israel, while Hezbollah officials have made similar statements.
Senior Biden adviser Amos Hochstein traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday to meet with authorities in an effort to defuse Israeli-Hezbollah tensions.
Although strikes on Israeli targets have continued, a senior Hezbollah commander stated last week that the terrorist group does not wish to escalate its conflict with Israel.
“Hezbollah is repeating a grave error that it made toward us in 2006. While visiting soldiers near the northern border, Netanyahu remarked, “It thinks that we are weak as a spiderweb and now sees what kind of spider we are.” “It sees here enormous power, national unity, and determination to do whatever is necessary to bring security back to the north, and I tell you that this is my policy.”
“We naturally prefer that there be no large scale conflict, but that will not stop us,” he stated. “We’ve shown Hezbollah what happened to its allies in the south, and it’s what’s going to happen up north. We’ll stop at nothing to restore security.”
