Israel and Hezbollah signaled on Thursday their rare flare-up in fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border was over, after the Lebanese armed group killed two Israeli troops in retaliation for a deadly air strike in Syria last week. Israel said it had received a message from UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, that Hezbollah was not interested in further escalation. In Beirut, 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, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said: "There are lines of coordination between us and Lebanon via UNIFIL and such a message was indeed received from Lebanon." This as cautious calm prevailed over the southern border region, mainly in the vicinity of the Shebaa farms following the attack carried out by Hezbollah on Wednesday. Israeli reconnaissance drones intensified their flights over the towns of Hasbaya, al-Arkoub, Marjeyoun and Bent Jbeil at a low altitude. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an anti-tank missile attack that hit an Israeli military vehicle near the Israeli-Lebanese border on Wednesday, a statement issued by the group said. The convoy was comprised of several military vehicles that had a number of Israeli soldiers and officers on board, killing two and causing casualties, a statement issued by the Shiite party read. Lebanese security officials said Israel later fired at least 35 artillery shells into Lebanon in retaliation. Schools in some southern Lebanese villages were also evacuated as a result. The incident came several hours after Israel launched an air strike in Syria amid tensions that have escalated in the frontier area over the past 10 days. An Israeli air strike on a Hezbollah convoy near the Golan on Jan. 18, killed a commander of the armed group, the son of its late military leader, Imad Moughniyeh, and Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Mohammed Allahdadi. Wednesday's clash was one of the most serious on that border since 2006, when Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war. Both sides appear to share an interest in avoiding further escalation. Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which fought Israel to a standstill in 2006, is busy backing Damascus in Syria's civil war. It may also be mindful of the ruin Israel has threatened to wreak on Lebanon should they again enter a full-on conflict. Israel is gearing up for a March 17 general election and gauging the costs of its offensive on the Gaza Strip last year against Palestinian armed groups, whose arsenal is dwarfed by Hezbollah's powerful long-range rockets.
LBCI/REUTERS