TEHRAN (Iran News) –Lebanon has witnessed a number of incidents over the past week that have made the headlines.

Armed clashes broke out at Ain al-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, between the Fatah faction and extremist militants, which Prime Minister Najib Mikati blamed on outside forces and their “repeated attempts to use Lebanon as a battleground for the settling of scores.”

Between 29 July and 2 August, explosions and gunshots shook the camp, resulting in at least 12 deaths, dozens of injuries, and the displacement of around 2,000 people.

There are different narratives about how the fighting started, but it made international headlines. It is unlike the killing of Palestinians by Israelis in the occupied West Bank or the besieged Gaza Strip.

At the same time, the Saudi Arabian embassy in Beirut issued a call on its citizens to leave Lebanon and not to travel to areas where there are armed clashes. The embassy did not specify which areas to avoid.

A statement stressed “the importance of adhering to the Saudi travel ban to Lebanon”. A few other Persian Gulf states also updated their travel advice for Lebanon.

Some analysts also went on regional media predicting things to turn ugly in light of the Saudi warning.

However, several days have passed, and nothing has happened, with the exception of damage incurred to the Lebanese tourism industry.

Sources have told news outlets close to Hezbollah that the statements of the Persian Gulf embassies were merely political and related to the presidential election.

A ceasefire is in place at the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp and appears to be holding.

It’s not the first time that fighting has erupted at the camp or other Palestinian refugee camps in Southern Lebanon.

The Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, condemned the fighting during a speech delivered on the Day of Ashura, saying it only undermines the resistance against the Israeli enemy.

During the speech, Sayyed Nasrallah also warned Israel against its occupation of Lebanese territory along the border with the occupied Palestinian territories.

On Tuesday, the Lebanese army organized a field tour along the Blue Line for representatives of member states of the UN Security Council accredited to Lebanon in the presence of local, regional, and international media.

The tour included a presentation of the Blue Line (a border line between Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories published by the United Nations on 7 June 2000 for the purposes of determining whether Israel had fully withdrawn from Lebanon) with detailed information about the points of contention.

Upon arrival, two Israeli gunboats violated Lebanese territorial waters in full view of the international delegation.

The delegation also moved to a Lebanese army station at Ras al-Naqouras adjacent to an Israeli watchtower, where surveillance cameras, jamming and listening devices, other espionage equipment as well as troops are holed up in it.

Some army officers in the Fifth Brigade explained to the international diplomats the extent of the Israeli violations on Lebanese territory.

Then Brigadier General Mounir Shehadeh delivered a speech in which he affirmed that “Lebanon has reservations about these violations, including 13 border positions still occupied by the Zionist enemy,” stressing that the border demarcation was completed in 1923 and that Lebanon will never accept any amendments.

“These areas at the southern border have been recorded since the adoption of the Blue Line, and therefore they are a line of withdrawal (for Israeli occupation) and not a demarcation of the borders,” General Shehadeh stated.

The demarcation of Lebanon’s border with Palestine took place in 1923. It was then enshrined in an armistice agreement in 1949.
Shehadeh stressed that “Lebanon does not care about what is said about a land demarcation, and that this word is not present in our dictionary as a Lebanese army and as a Lebanese government. We are talking about fixing the borders and showing the Lebanese borders, not demarcating the borders.”

“When the Blue Line was drawn up in the year 2000 by the United Nations, it came in more than one place that does not coincide with international borders, and we called it a line of withdrawal, not a border line, and therefore we seek that the Blue Line becomes identical with what is identified in internationally.”

He concluded by stressing that “we will preserve Lebanon’s right to every grain of soil from its land, and this is what we are doing.”

Israel has called on Lebanon via international mediators to remove two tents set up by Hezbollah in the Sheba’a Farm area. Beirut’s response was that the two tents are located on Lebanese territory.

Tensions have escalated further recently after Israel re-occupied northern Ghajar village, southeast Lebanon.

Israeli media reports have said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet his top military commanders to study the situation.

During his Ashura speech, Nasrallah issued a warning to Israeli political and military leaders saying, “Be careful of any stupidity. The resistance in Lebanon will not step back from its duty. It is ready for any option, danger, or stupidity.”

He pointed out that “Israel speaks of Hezbollah threats on the border when the regime has the nerve to occupy our territory.”

In the last Israeli war against Lebanon in July 2006, the regime acknowledged its defeat, as it was taken aback by the strength of Hezbollah’s power.

Today, according to experts, the Lebanese resistance has between 100,000 to 150,000 soldiers along with a wide array of powerful missiles and other sophisticated weapons it has kept secret.

Experts believe that if Israel were to wage a war against Lebanon today, Hezbollah is capable of capturing the entire Galilee region and perhaps more (northern occupied Palestinian territories) within the first two to three days of the war.

That is one-third of the entire occupied Palestinian territories.

Many things have changed since July 2006.

Not only has Hezbollah become more powerful, but the region has changed.

There is a possibility that any Israeli war on Lebanon would draw in Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi, Yemen’s Ansarullah as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip and the newly formed resistance in the occupied West Bank. Syria would also find a good opportunity to liberate the Golan Heights and attack from that direction.

Israel can assassinate resistance figures from the air. But with the introduction of drones on the battlefield, the regime’s air superiority is no longer efficient, according to experts.

When it comes to land combat, the regime has proven its cowardness, experts say.

So Israel can launch a war against Lebanon’s Hezbollah, but as Sayyed Nasrallah noted, it would be “stupid” to do so.