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The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced late on February 20 that it had launched another series of strikes on the Syrian-Lebanese border.
In a brief statement, the military said that its fighter jets targeted border crossings used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons. It also noted that the attempts by Hezbollah to bring weapons into Lebanon from Syria “constitute a blatant violation of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
The Lebanese al-Mayadeen news channel, which is close to Hezbollah, said that the strikes took place near the Syrian city of Homs and in the Aakar district of northern Lebanon, close to the border with Syria. No casualties were reported.
Under the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which was brokered by the United States last November, IDF troops were granted 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon. Within the same period, Hezbollah was to pull out its forces from the region and Lebanese troops were to deploy in the area.
The original withdrawal deadline was January 26, but was extended until February 18 after complaints from Israel. Still, the IDF announced just before the February deadline that it would temporarily keep troops in “five strategic points” in southern Lebanon.
The strikes on the Syrian-Lebanese border were not the the first attack by the IDF after the ceasefire deadline. On February 19, an Israeli drone strike killed a fighter of Hezbollah close to the town of Ayta ash-Shab in southern Lebanon.
In addition to its strikes on Lebanon, Israel continues to launch strikes against targets in Syria. On February 18, a series of strikes hit armored vehicles belonging to the forces of the new transitional government close to the town of Sasa right to the south of the capital, Damascus.
So far, neither Hezbollah nor Syrian government forces have responded to Israel’s repeated attacks. While the two remain at odds over Hezbollah’s strong support for the regime of the former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the threat posed by Israel could force the two to cooperate in the future.
