Lebanon has warned Israel against launching a military offensive against the country, stressing that any such measure would “not be a walk in the park” for the Tel Aviv regime and would spill over into a regional conflict.
“Any Israeli attack on our territories will not be a walk in the park and will lead to a regional war,” Lebanon’s caretaker Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib said in a Friday interview with Doha-based Al Jazeera television news network.
Bou Habib emphasized that Lebanon “is ready for a war with Israel,” noting that the caretaker government is “consulting with Hezbollah [resistance movement] and with other key players in Lebanon” on the matter “as Lebanon is a diverse country.”
“We have to consult with all actors in the country, and this consultation does not imply a final decision.
“Foreign envoys have conveyed to us Israel’s threat and our response was that they (the Israelis) must withdraw from our territories,” the top Lebanese diplomat explained.
Israeli strikes kill 5 Hezbollah fighters
Meanwhile, an Israeli drone strike on a car in the southern coastal border town of Naqoura killed three Hezbollah fighters on Saturday, shortly after the resistance group said it had conducted a drone strike against an Israeli command base in Liman, around seven kilometers (4.3 miles) from Lebanon’s border.
Hezbollah also mourned two more fighters and claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on Israeli troops near the Jal al-Allam outpost.
Israeli artillery units, on the other hand, targeted Aita al-Shaab, Majdal Zoun, Tayr Harfa, al-Jibbayn, Tallet al-Hamames, al-Wazzani, Alma al-Shaab, Dhayra, Naqoura al-Labbouneh villages in southern Lebanon, as an Israeli airstrike targeted the border town of al-Labbouneh.
The Israeli regime has been attacking southern Lebanon off and on since October 7, when it launched the devastating campaign of death and destruction in Gaza.
In retaliation, Hezbollah has mounted near-daily rocket attacks on Israeli positions.
At least 280 people have been killed on the Lebanese border, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 44 civilians.
Israel says at least ten of its troopers and six settlers have been killed in the area.
The fighting has forced the evacuation of tens of thousands from the northern part of the occupied territories, which have been pummeled by rocket fire and shelling carried out by Hezbollah and allied Palestinian groups.
Hezbollah has urged residents in southern Lebanon to take their CCTV camera systems offline to prevent Israel from hacking into those devices installed outside homes and shops in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah has already fought off two Israeli wars against Lebanon in 2000 and 2006. The resistance forced the regime to retreat in both conflicts.
