Israel and Hezbollah trade blows while waiting for negotiations

While awaiting the results of the new round of negotiations to be held this week in Cairo with a view to reaching a cease-fire in Gaza, the front between Hezbollah and Israel is flaring up.

This weekend witnessed a flare-up on both sides of the border. The surge in violence comes against a backdrop of contradictory signals regarding the results of the first round of talks held at the end of last week in Doha.

First, an Israeli strike targeted an alleged Hezbollah arms depot in Nabatieh, resulting in the massacre of 10 Syrian civilians, including children. Then, the response from Hezbollah, which launched a salvo of Katyusha rockets on Ayelet HaShahar, an Israeli site targeted for the first time since the beginning of this war.

Another escalation came after the revelation, on Friday, by the party of its "underground city" in a video that showed "Imad 4," what appeared to be underground tunnels containing large missile launchers. These developments, as well as the drone attack targeting a member presented by Tel Aviv as a commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan Unit in the Sour region, reflect the desire of the two belligerents to continue exchanging incendiary messages at a time when the entire region is flirting with total war and diplomacy is struggling to find its way.

It would seem that Israel is seeking to mark, by fire, its deterrent force at a time when Hezbollah – which has once again resorted to deterrence through psychological warfare – is still threatening a firm response to the assassination of its military leader, Fouad Shukur, in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

'100 percent civilian'

After two relatively calm days, tensions rose again during the night from Friday to Saturday. Ten people were killed by an Israeli strike on a building inhabited by Syrian families, a few kilometers west of Nabatieh.

The strike caused the most casualties, in a single attack, since the beginning of the conflict. The strike targeted a building in an industrial zone between the towns of Kfour and Toul, which was completely destroyed. The explosion that followed the bombing damaged neighboring houses, according to L'Orient-Le Jour's correspondent in South Lebanon. The Israeli army claimed to have targeted "a Hezbollah weapons warehouse" in this strike.

At the Sheikh Ragheb hospital in Nabatieh on Saturday, dismay and anger mingled with the tears of the victims' relatives, many of them inconsolable women dressed in black.

“Two of my sister’s children were killed, another is in intensive care and my other nephew is also there,” Hussein al-Hussein told AFP, listing the family members killed or injured while “they were sleeping.” In a nearby room, relatives mourned a family of four: The janitor, his wife and their two children, a relative told AFP. Their bodies were wrapped in red sheets decorated with flowers. The remains of six of the 10 victims were repatriated to Syria on Sunday.

At the site of the strike, only concrete debris, pieces of metal and a few children's clothes and shoes remained. Standing in front of the factory was its owner, Hussein

Tahmaz, says the site was "100 percent civilian."

"This is where we used to load our goods," he said, pointing to the wreckage of a truck. The building was an annex of a two-story warehouse where the janitor, his family and workers lived, Mayor Khodr Saad told AFP: "What did these children do to deserve this? They fled their country to escape death, and this is where they find it."

Hezbollah's response

In response to the strike, Hezbollah struck a new site in Israel. In a statement, it said it had "fired salvos of Katyusha rockets on Ayelet HaShahar in response to the aggressions of the Israeli enemy, including the one that cost the lives of Syrian civilians" in Nabatiyeh. The party also fired salvos of Katyusha rockets on a town in northern Israel on Saturday and claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Israeli sites. Rocket sirens sounded in Ayelet HaShahar and "approximately 55 projectiles were identified coming from Lebanon, some of which fell in open areas," according to the Israeli army. No casualties were reported, but fires broke out in the area.

A Hezbollah member was also killed on Saturday in an Israeli drone strike on a motorcycle in Qadmous, north of Sour. Hezbollah announced in a statement the death of Hussein Ibrahim Kassab, born in 1989 and originally from Tayr Debba in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army confirmed having eliminated this man, saying that he was a commander in the Radwan Force.

Earlier in the day, two Israeli soldiers were injured, one seriously, when a rocket fired from Lebanon fell on the Misgav Am region, on the northern border of the Jewish state, according to the Israeli army.

UNIFIL not spared

On Sunday, three peacekeepers were slightly injured by an Israeli strike near Yarine. The U.N. peacekeepers were traveling nearby in a "clearly marked" vehicle, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said, contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour. The soldiers on patrol returned "safe and sound to their base," the same source said, adding: "We firmly remind all parties and actors that it is their responsibility to avoid harming peacekeepers and civilians." A UNIFIL source told AFP that the explosion was probably caused by a nearby airstrike that did not directly target the peacekeepers.

In addition, an Israeli drone strike targeted a moped in Shebaa (Hasbaya), killing its driver and injuring a second person, according to medical sources and the Lebanese Ministry of Health. At the end of the day, the Resistance Brigades announced the death of one of their members, Fadi Qassem Kanaan, born in 1985 and originally from the town of Shebaa. According to information obtained by L'Orient-Le Jour's correspondent in the South, he was the victim of the drone strike.

The Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, posted on X that the strike on Shebaa had targeted "saboteurs" from Hezbollah. The injured man, who is in a "stable condition" according to the ministry, is the brother of the fighter killed. After this strike, another drone targeted a building in the same town, according to a security source. This bombing left two people injured, two Lebanese who were hospitalized.

'Reducing travel' in northern Israel

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for ten strikes on Sunday, including against the Beit Hillel barracks, opposite Khiam (Marjeyoun), with "a salvo of Katyusha rockets", as well as against a group of Israeli infantry in the Israeli town of Shtoula, against the positions of Zar'it, "surveillance equipment on the site of Roueissat al-Alam," on the disputed heights of Kfar Shouba, the position of Malikiyah, the site of Jal al-Alam and two positions located in the disputed Shebaa farms: That of "Zebdine," targeted with rockets, and that of "Roueissat al-Qarn", with "missiles." According to Haaretz, residents still in northern Israel were called upon to "reduce their movements and stay near protected areas."

This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.