As part of a diplomatic settlement with Hezbollah, Israel has asked the group to withdraw its forces north of Lebanon’s Litani River in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war between the two sides. The resolution stipulates that only United Nations troops and the Lebanese army are allowed to enter the area, but both sides have accused the other of violating this provision.
Analysts say Hezbollah is unlikely to withdraw its troops from the border. Instead, French mediators proposed creating a smaller buffer zone that would extend about six miles beyond Lebanon’s border with Israel and increasing the number of Lebanese troops stationed in the border area.
With no agreement to halt the attacks, both sides opted for limited escalation, with Hezbollah firing hundreds of rockets and Israel launching attacks deep inside Lebanon. While neither Israel nor Hezbollah seems to want an all-out war, a miscalculation could plunge the two sides into one, analysts and officials said.
Israeli forces killed a senior Hezbollah commander in an attack in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, prompting Hezbollah to respond with its heaviest rocket fire into Israel during the current conflict.
Hezbollah fired 70 more rockets on Friday, sounding the alarm across northern Israel, but the rockets caused little damage, according to the Israeli military, which said it had responded with artillery fire.
The rockets were in response to an Israeli nighttime attack on a three-story building in southern Lebanon that killed two people, according to Lebanese security officials. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was no indication that a Hezbollah commander was killed in the attack. The Israeli military declined to comment on the attack.
A Hezbollah attack wounded four Israelis on Thursday, including two soldiers. Falling rockets, Israeli interceptors and shrapnel have also sparked wildfires that have burned more than 11,000 acres in Israel in the past two weeks, according to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.
