For the first time since the outbreak of clashes on the southern border last October 8th, Thursday afternoon witnessed an Israeli strike targeting two Hezbollah leaders in the center of the city of Nabatieh.
This article was originally published in and translated from the Lebanese newspaper Nidaa Al-Watan.
The scene of the targeted car appeared reminiscent of the vehicle hit by a US strike two days ago in central Baghdad, resulting in the death of a prominent leader of the Iran-backed armed group in Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah, Abu Baqir Al-Saadi.
With the Nabatieh strike, Israel once again crossed the red line that marked the southern confrontations four months ago, as it previously crossed this line by assassinating Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in the southern suburbs of Beirut at the beginning of the year.
What are the details of the Nabatieh strike outside the Litani region?
Hezbollah did not mention who the strike targeted, only announcing the injury of two individuals, one of them critically.
Agence France-Presse, citing a security source, reported that a military official in Hezbollah was seriously injured in an Israeli strike targeting his car in Nabatieh, along with another person.
In response to its inquiry about the strike, an Israeli army spokesperson merely said, "We are looking into these reports."
The car was targeted as Hezbollah intensified its shelling of Israeli positions, including the Ma'ale Golan and Branit barracks and a command headquarters in Qiryat Shemona, according to several statements.
In Israel, the online newspaper, The Times of Israel, reported what Arab media outlets mentioned, that one of the injured is Abbas Al-Debs.
The Israeli army radio stated that Al-Debs was the commander of the area from which rockets were fired at Qiryat Shemona in northern Israel on Thursday.
It said that the strike on Nabatieh was carried out in response to the firing of shells at an Israeli army base nearby, resulting in one soldier being critically wounded.
Simultaneously, the commander of the Israeli Air Force stated, "Dozens of our aircraft are active in the skies of southern Lebanon, and when needed, they will turn into hundreds."
In parallel, foreign diplomats proposed solutions to restore calm on the turbulent Lebanese-Israeli border alongside the ongoing truce negotiations in Gaza, according to officials.
This includes Hezbollah's withdrawal from the borders and the deployment of thousands of additional Lebanese army forces.
The proposal presented by European diplomats would rely on the "partial implementation" of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, according to two Lebanese political officials and a Lebanese diplomat residing in Europe who spoke to the Associated Press.
It is worth mentioning that French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne proposed easing tensions in Beirut last Tuesday and warned that the border situation is "extremely alarming" and that Israel is serious in its threats to Lebanon, as stated by one Lebanese official.
Sejourne stated, "There must be a Lebanese voice speaking for Lebanon's interests. Constitutional institutions must complete the president's election because the absence of a Lebanese voice allows other countries to speak on behalf of Lebanon."
He announced that "there are concrete proposals for post-ceasefire, but we are not discussing them publicly."