All Quiet On Lebanon's Border: Hezbollah Halts Attacks As Gaza Truce Holds
A cautious calm overtook the Lebanese border on Friday as Gaza entered its first day of ceasefire. "A precarious calm reigned on the southern border, with the humanitarian truce in Gaza coming into effect at 7:00 in the morning (0500 GMT)," Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported on Friday.
An AFP journalist said gunfire could be heard from the southern village of Marjayoun just ten minutes before the ceasefire went into effect at 7:00 AM, but that silence prevailed soon afterward.
A resident of the southern Lebanese village of Alma al-Shaab, which Israel has heavily bombarded since the war began last month, reported that the situation was calm and that he could no longer hear the sound of drones and aircraft.
The day before the truce took effect, Hezbollah launched numerous successive attacks against Israeli settlements and military sites, carrying out 16 operations throughout the morning and afternoon of Thursday.
In a single attack, 48 Katusha missiles were launched on the Ein Zeitim base near the city of Safed.
In another, Hezbollah struck and destroyed a building "above the heads" of four Israeli soldiers, as one of its statements read on Thursday.
Israel pounded several southern villages with airstrikes and illegal white phosphorus attacks in response. The Hezbollah attacks against Israeli forces on the border have been daily since October 8.
Hezbollah release video of ATGM attack destroying building in which 4 "Israeli" soldiers were present#فلسطين_الان #Hezbollah pic.twitter.com/fT5UzHOgkT
— Hamdan News (@HamdanWahe57839) November 24, 2023
A Hezbollah official was cited by Al-Jazeera on 22 November as saying that the Lebanese resistance "was not part of the negotiations related to the truce agreement and prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel."
The source added that "any Israeli escalation in southern Lebanon or Gaza during the truce would be met with a response from Hezbollah," suggesting that the group is planning on scaling back its activity.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said in recent speeches that the situation on Lebanon’s border would depend on whether or not things were escalating in Gaza, confirming that the group’s operations aim to relieve pressure on the resistance in the besieged strip.
📹 Hezbollah released footage of their attack on Metat military base on the Lebanese border. pic.twitter.com/wpw1Exu0Re
— War Watch (@WarWatchs) November 24, 2023
Israel has not made any public statement regarding whether or not it will attack Lebanon during the four-day truce.