Israeli Air Force Squadron 190 AH-64A Peten, 27 June 2013, Taken by Oren Rozen, Via Wikimedia.
Hezbollah has held Israel responsible for a strike that targeted a group of journalists in southern Lebanon on October 13, vowing that the attack will not go without “an appropriate punishment and response.”
The journalists were covering clashes on the separation line in southern Lebanon, which broke out after an attack by Hezbollah that targeted four sites of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the occupied Shebaa Farms, when their vehicle was hit by a strike. Later, a Lebanese defense official said that the vehicle was targeted by an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.
The attack claimed the life of Issam Abdallah, a Lebanese videographer of the Reuters news agency, and left six other journalists, including two from Al-Jazeera and two from the France-Press Agency wounded.
Hezbollah said in an initial statement that its fighters targeted the Israeli sites of al-Abad, Misqafam, Ramya and Jal al-Alam in response to Israeli shelling on southern Lebanon.
In a later statement, the group’s Public Relations held Israel responsible for the deadly attack on the journalists, vowing that it will respond.
“This heinous crime of killing Lebanese citizens and residents of Lebanese territory, and any attack on the security of our people and the safety of our country will not pass without an appropriate response and punishment,” the statement reads.
Following the release of the statement, the IDF said that one of its drones carried out strikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
The situation escalated further in the early morning hours of October 14. The IDF launched another drone strike against Hezbollah in response to three apparent drones that were shot down over the northern Israeli city of Shefa-‘Amr, The IDF said that it also intercepted a missile that was fired toward one of its drones amid the engagement.
In a separate morning incident, the IDF announced that one of its drones had killed a number of Palestinian fighters who attempted to infiltrate into Israel from Lebanon. At least three were reportedly killed in the strike.
Several clashes were reported on the Lebanon front in the days following the October 7 surprise attack by the Hamas Movement and other Palestinian armed factions from the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah targeted several IDF posts with anti-tank missiles killing an IDF soldier, Hamas fired rockets at nearby settlements and two fighters from Palestinian Islamic Jihad were killed after carrying out a raid that claimed the lives of three Israeli troops. The IDF responded with air and artillery strikes, killing three fighters of Hezbollah and wounding several Lebanese civilians.
The last wave of Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon will likely provoke a very serious response from Hezbollah, a response that could lead to a full-blown military confrontation.
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