00:00Well, Israel and Lebanon's militant group, Hezbollah, have exchanged near daily fires
00:04since a war in Gaza began nearly nine months ago.
00:06And again, fresh cross-border fire reported.
00:09This week saw fewer missiles fired, but an increase of threats from both sides, raising
00:14fears once more that the war could turn into a broader regional conflict.
00:19Hezbollah threatened to invade northern Israel if a full-scale war did break out.
00:23Israel's military said it has operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon that have
00:27already been approved and validated.
00:30For more, let's speak to our correspondent in Beirut, Rawad Taha.
00:33Hello to you, Rawad.
00:35What can you report for us in terms of what's been going on on the border between Lebanon
00:40and Israel the past few hours?
00:44So for the past few hours, the border has been relatively calmer than usual.
00:49We've seen the usual exchange of fires, most notably in the area that is directly adjacent
00:55to the border from both sides.
00:57So we've seen attacks from Hezbollah on the Israeli localities, which are adjacent to
01:02the border.
01:03We've also seen airstrikes and Israeli bombardment to the Lebanese villages located also adjacent
01:09to the border in southern Lebanon.
01:11But we haven't seen any deep airstrikes by Israel up until now today into southern Lebanon,
01:16unlike the past few days.
01:18And we haven't seen any deep attacks into Israeli territory by Hezbollah as well today.
01:25However, yesterday, on Thursday, we've seen Israel claim responsibility for assassinating
01:31at least one Hezbollah commander in a precision airstrike.
01:36And this has been the case for the past, the past month.
01:40Israel has assassinated, using precision airstrikes, a number of Hezbollah, either operatives
01:49or commanders.
01:50The numbers of those lost for Hezbollah in this war are more than 370 fighters, including
01:57a number of top-ranking commanders.
02:00On the other hand, we've seen Hezbollah launching deeper attacks into northern Israel shortly
02:06after such assassinations occur.
02:08A lot of world leaders urging restraint here, concerned that this could spill over into
02:13a broader conflict.
02:15What's the likelihood of escalation?
02:19Now we know for a fact that Hezbollah has made it very clear over the past few days
02:24that it is not seeking a full-scale war with Israel and that the current confrontation
02:30between the two parties is directly linked to what's going on in Gaza, the Israeli war
02:37in Gaza after the start of the confrontation in October 7th when Hamas invaded Israel.
02:47So we're looking at a very tense situation where Hezbollah is saying we are not ready
02:51to stop firing unless there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
02:56However, Hezbollah and its chief have also said that they do not seek a full-scale war.
03:02Now, what is becoming very evident by the day is that if there is no ceasefire achieved
03:08in Gaza within the next few weeks, it seems that an escalation or some sort of a larger
03:15confrontation between the two parties may become inevitable.
03:19However, when we compare southern Lebanon to Gaza, we're talking about Hezbollah and
03:25not Hamas.
03:26We're talking about a much larger number of fighters, a much larger, a much larger accessibility
03:32to hundreds of thousands of rockets and also drones.
03:37So this may potentially turn into a much larger conflict if there is no diplomatic solution
03:44within the next few weeks, despite the fact that the Americans have been working with
03:49the two parties, and in particular through a special envoy to this conflict, Amos Hochstein,
03:55who previously brokered a maritime border agreement between Lebanon and Israel onto
04:01limiting this confrontation, unsuccessful until today.
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