JERUSALEM – The Israeli army said on Monday it had thwarted a raid by a Hezbollah “terrorist squad” in a contested area along its northern border with Lebanon, resulting in an exchange of fire that capped days of mounting tension there.
An Israeli army spokesman said a small squadron armed with assault rifles had crossed an unfenced section of the border into Israel by a few meters.
Israeli forces responded, firing small arms, tank guns and then artillery, said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus. The squad fled back to Lebanon, he said, and then fired at Israel.
Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant organization, denied that there had been an exchange of fire and said that the only shot had been from the Israeli side.
“Everything the enemy media claims in terms of thwarting an infiltration operation” is “absolutely false,” Hezbollah said in a statement. “It is an attempt to invent false and mythical victories.”
No victims were reported by either party.
Israel had been preparing for Hezbollah retaliation since the murder of one of its operatives in an attack in Syria last week that was blamed on Israel.
Hezbollah said Monday that retaliation was still coming, as well as retaliation for Monday’s bombing. Lebanese television reported bombings near the Lebanese village of Kafr Shuba.
“Zionists need only continue to await punishment for their crimes,” the Hezbollah statement said.
On Monday afternoon, amid preliminary reports of explosions, smoke and cross-border fire, the Israeli army instructed residents of northern Israel to stay indoors and to close roads in the area. But the restrictions were lifted less than two hours later, a sign that calm had been restored and an apparent indication that Israel had no intention of prolonging the confrontation.
The events took place in the vicinity of Shebaa Farms, known in Israel as Mount Dov, a strip claimed by Israel, Lebanon, and sometimes Syria, near the intersection of the three nations and adjacent to the Golan Heights.
Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited the northern border on Sunday as anticipation of a retaliatory attack by Hezbollah grew.
The Syrian state news agency SANA reported that the Israeli plane had fired rockets south of Damascus on Monday July 20 at night. Although Israel rarely takes public responsibility for specific attacks, it has acknowledged carrying out dozens of targeted attacks, it says, preventing the transfer of sophisticated weapons from Iran to Hezbollah through Syria.
After last week’s attack on a munitions depot near the Damascus airport, Hezbollah said that one of its agents, Ali Kamel Mohsen, died in an act of “Zionist aggression”.
The killing appeared to violate the informal rules of engagement between Israel and Hezbollah.
In recent years, Hezbollah has refrained from killing Israelis, while Israel largely avoided killing Hezbollah fighters in Syria. Both sides want to press their points while avoiding a war that could devastate Lebanon and Israel.
In a television interview on Sunday, Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general, described the Hezbollah fighter killed in Syria as a martyr and said the group would maintain the rules of engagement.
“The deterrence equation with Israel is up,” said Al Mayadeen on the Arab news channel. “Amending or changing the rules of engagement or the deterrence equation is not on our agenda.”
Israel maintains that Hezbollah, with the help of Iran, is trying to build a fleet of precisely guided missiles, which Israel considers a red line. Last August, an Israeli drone hit a building near Beirut that Israeli officials said contained machinery to make those missiles.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that officials were closely monitoring the situation in the north.
“Hezbollah needs to know that it is playing with fire,” he said. “Every attack on us will be answered with great power.”
He said Israel “will not allow Iran to militarily entrench itself on our border with Syria” and warned that “Lebanon and Hezbollah will be responsible for any attack” that comes from Lebanese territory.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating month-long war in 2006. There have been only sporadic clashes on the Israel-Lebanon border in recent years.
Monday’s events occurred when many Israelis, largely excluded from traveling abroad due to an increase in coronavirus infections, were on vacation in the north.
Adam Rasgon contributed reports from Jerusalem and Vivian Yee from Beirut.
