TEHRAN (Iran News) – Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Tuesday Israel had violated his country’s sovereignty with a “dangerous military escalation” along the frontier on Monday and urged caution after a rise in tensions.
“I call for caution in the coming days because I fear the situation will deteriorate in light of heightened tensions on our border,” Diab said on Twitter.
Israel was trying to “change the rules of engagement,” he said.
The Israeli military fired dozens of shells at the Shebaa Farms area on Monday in response to what it claimed an infiltration effort by Hezbollah fighters through the Shebaa Farms area along Lebanon’s southern border.
Israeli forces have been on alert in anticipation of retaliation by Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement for the killing of one of its members a week ago in an Israeli attack on the edge of the Syrian capital Damascus.
After two Hezbollah members were killed in Damascus last August, it leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, vowed to respond if Israel killed any of its fighters in Syria. But Hezbollah’s deputy leader said on Sunday all-out war with Israel was unlikely.
Hezbollah, which has a large presence in the area, said in a statement on Monday that “it did not take part in any clash and did not open fire”.
The resistance movement said the Israeli claims are aimed at boosting the morale of Israeli forces by fabricating fictitious victories.
“All that the enemy’s media is claiming about thwarting an infiltration operation from Lebanon into occupied Palestine… is completely false,” it added.
The movement added that Tel Aviv’s claims about having killed or injured a number of Hezbollah fighters in air raids were also false and totally incorrect.
“The occupiers’ claims are all aimed at fabricating spurious and fictitious victories for them,” Hezbollah said, adding, “Up to this moment, there has been no conflict or opening of fire started by the resistance [forces] during what happened today.”
The statement noted that all firings came from only one side, which was the coward and anxious enemy.
Hezbollah added that it reserves the right to give a proper answer to Israel’s killing of its member Ali Kamel Mohsen during the latest Israeli attack on Syria from the occupied Golan Heights last week.
AFP, Reuters, and Press TV contributed to this story.
- source : Iran Daily, Irannews
