JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) -Israel’s military said it killed four people who had tried to cross the fence bordering Lebanon and plant an explosive device on Tuesday, as the Lebanese government warned Israeli attacks into southern Lebanon threatened to open a front at the border.
In the most serious escalation at the Lebanese-Israeli frontier in 17 years, Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been trading fire on an almost daily basis since Oct. 7, when Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel and Israeli forces launched a counteroffensive on Gaza.
An Israeli army statement did not say where the attempted infiltration on the border with Lebanon took place.
The Israeli military also said it had received a report of shooting towards the Israeli town of Metula at the frontier, without providing further details.
A security source in Lebanon reported an exchange of fire across the border near Metula.
Lebanon’s al-Manar television, a channel run by Hezbollah which fought a war with Israel in 2006, reported “fierce Israeli shelling” on Lebanese territory across the border from Metula.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, speaking in Beirut alongside his visiting Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, said Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon were “pouring oil on the fire”.
He said they were “generating tension that could lead to the front igniting in a way that is hard to contain”.
Israel has said it has no interest in waging a war with Hezbollah and if the group restrains itself then Israel will keep the situation along the border as it is. But the army has also said it is fully prepared and deployed at the border.
“Lebanon should be asking themselves if they want to risk their future for Hamas,” Israeli Lt Colonel Richard Hecht said. “There’s still a certain threshold but if this escalates, Lebanon have to ask themselves that very, very hard question.”
“And again, our rules of engagement right now on the border are crystal clear. Anyone who will come near the fence or try to deal with the fence in the north will be stopped, they’ll be shot,” he told a briefing.
(Reporting by Henriette Chacar in Jerusalem and Beirut bureau; Editing by Christina Fincher and Edmund Blair)
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