BEIRUT/ABBASIEH, Lebanon: As the guns fell silent and calm returned to both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border Thursday, a day after a Hezbollah attack killed at least two Israeli soldiers in the Shebaa Farms, Israel and the party exchanged indirect messages that averted a full-scale military confrontation for now.
Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers patrolled the border with Israel in the wake of the Hezbollah attack which came in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that killed six party fighters and a top Iranian general in Syria’s Golan Heights on Jan. 18.
Israeli drones were seen flying over the area where Hezbollah fighters ambushed the Israeli convoy Wednesday, sparking several hours of artillery exchanges in south Lebanon.
Despite the calm along the tense border, Israel remained on high alert with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blaming Iran for the attack.
“It is Iran that is responsible for yesterday’s [Wednesday’s] attack against us from Lebanon,” Netanyahu said. “We will continue to defend ourselves against all threats, near and far alike.”
However, Israel said it had received a message from UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, that Hezbollah was not interested in further escalation.
A Lebanese source briefed on the situation told Reuters that Israel informed Hezbollah via UNIFIL “that it will make do with what happened yesterday and it does not want the battle to expand.”
Asked on Israel’s Army Radio whether Hezbollah had sought to de-escalate, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon replied: “There are lines of coordination between us and Lebanon via UNIFIL and such a message was indeed received from Lebanon.”
A Hezbollah official, contacted by The Daily Star, declined to comment.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam has also received assurances that the latest wave of violence won’t lead to war. Sources close to the premier told The Daily Star that the assurances came after Salam conveyed urgent calls to Lebanon’s allies in the West and the Middle East and spoke by phone with local officials.
UNIFIL officials neither confirmed nor denied passing messages between Israel and Hezbollah.
UNIFIL says it has no contacts with Hezbollah but its head of mission was in close contact with Israel and the Lebanese government throughout the day. The channel of communication “is still open now and it is always open in order to ask the parties to exercise maximum restraint,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said.
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official arrived in Beirut to attend a Hezbollah ceremony to honor its six fighters killed in the Israeli strike in the Syrian town of Qunaitra.
“We are proud of our martyrs who fell in the Qunaitra attack, and we offer both our congratulations and condolences for [Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan] Nasrallah and the families of the martyrs,” Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of the Iranian parliamentary committee for national security and foreign policy, told reporters at Beirut’s airport.
Nasrallah is expected to deliver a speech at Friday’s ceremony outlining Hezbollah’s position following the attack in the Shebaa Farms.
“There is no doubt that the path that the Islamic resistance has chosen to fight the enemy is the sacred one, and we are committed to supporting it,” Boroujerdi said, praising Hezbollah’s retaliatory attack.
He had warned in a speech responding to the Israeli strike that Hezbollah’s retaliation to the “Zionist air attack will be severe.”
The U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag reiterated the U.N.’s deep concern over the military escalation on the Lebanese-Israeli border and violation of U.N. Resolution 1701 that ended Israel’s 34-day war on Lebanon in 2006.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Salam at the Grand Serail to discuss the situation along the Lebanon-Israel border, Kaag expressed appreciation for Salam’s “clearly expressed commitment to Security Council Resolution 1701 and the importance of safeguarding Lebanon’s security and stability.”
“I reiterated the U.N. secretary-general’s deep concern over the security situation and the violations of Resolution 1701,” she said in a statement released by her office. “The U.N. continues to provide its good offices and calls on all parties to continue to exercise caution and restraint to avoid any action which could destabilize the situation.”
The Lebanese government, in which Hezbollah is represented, condemned the Israeli artillery shelling of some villages in the south, while reiterating “Lebanon’s firm commitment to Resolution 1701.”
“The Cabinet called on the U.N. organization with all its various institutions to shoulder their responsibility in preventing Israel from jeopardizing peace and security in this region,” Information Minister Ramzi Joreige said in a statement after the Cabinet weekly meeting.
“The Cabinet stressed its keenness on security and stability in the south and all Lebanese areas and the need to deny the Israeli enemy the chance to drag Lebanon into a wider confrontation that would threaten the region’s states and peoples and the entire regional peace,” he added.
The Cabinet also underscored the importance of Lebanese unity and solidarity to confront any Israeli attack, Joreige said.
In discussing items on the agenda, the Cabinet approved a decree calling for raising the number of policemen in the Internal Security Forces from 29,495 to 35,000.
