Israel and Hezbollah of Lebanon claimed to have exchanged cross-border fire on Sunday as Israel engaged Hamas, a Shiite organisation, on its southern flank, a day after terrorists from the Palestinian organization seized Israel’s Gaza border.
Israel and its supporters view the Iranian-backed Islamist organizations Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations. Both have engaged in several conflicts with Israel over the last few decades.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the incident on Sunday, saying it was carried out “in solidarity” with Hamas’ massive air, sea, and land assault on Israel the day before, which marked a dramatic escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The Islamic resistance… attacked three positions of the Zionist enemy (Israel) in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa farms… with large numbers of artillery shells and guided missiles,” the Shiite movement said in a statement.
Witnesses living on the Lebanese side of the border said a dozen rockets were fired towards Israel in the morning.
Israeli drones were seen overflying the frontier region by an AFP photographer.
The Israeli army said it launched artillery into southern Lebanon on Sunday in response to fire from the area.
“Israeli artillery is in the process of striking the area of Lebanon from which a shot was fired,” the army said in a statement, without giving further details.
The Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas had urged “Arab and Islamic nations” to take part in the conflict before it launched its surprise attack on Israel early on Saturday morning.
