‘No one thinks Lebanon spared’: Hezbollah as Hamas-Israel fighting resumes

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Friday it was vigilant and ready as a resumption of fighting between its Palestinian ally Hamas and Israel fuelled concern that clashes across.

The Lebanese-Israeli border could also restart. Rocket sirens went off in several towns in northern Israel near the Lebanese border, sending residents in the area running for shelter. The Israeli military did not immediately give details of what set them off.

In their worst hostilities since a 2006 war, the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel traded fire for weeks across the border after the Hamas-Israel war erupted on Oct. 7. Mirroring the situation in the Gaza Strip, the hostilities ceased last week when Hamas and Israel agreed a truce that expired on Friday.

“In Lebanon, we are concerned in facing this challenge, being vigilant, and always ready to confront any possibility and any danger that may arise in our country,” Hassan Fadlallah, a senior Hezbollah politician, said in broadcast remarks.

“No one thinks that Lebanon has been spared from this Zionist targeting or that what is happening in Gaza cannot affect the situation in Lebanon,” he said.

Hezbollah, part of an Iran-backed alliance including Hamas, mounted near daily rocket attacks on Israeli positions at the frontier while Israel waged air and artillery strikes in south Lebanon during the hostilities that began on Oct. 8.

Lebanon-based militants from Hamas and the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad have also mounted attacks from Lebanese territory.

About 100 people in Lebanon have been killed during the hostilities, 80 of them Hezbollah fighters. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes on both sides of the border.

“I am worried about the resumption of confrontations here in Lebanon. Hezbollah has linked what happens at the border with what happens in Gaza,” said Nabil Boumonsef, deputy editor-in-chief of Lebanon’s Annahar newspaper.

“All the while the war in Gaza continues Lebanon will remain threatened by the danger of a major escalation.”