Israel threatens war with Hezbollah will continue even with Gaza truce

The militant group announced the death of one of its fighters on Monday

An Israeli fighter jet fires flares as it intercepts a projectile launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon. AFP

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Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the army will not stop fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon if a ceasefire is reached in the Gaza Strip with Hamas, and that a separate deal with the Lebanese militant group is needed.

His threat came after Hezbollah on Sunday said it had launched its largest aerial operation yet, attacking an Israeli surveillance centre on Mount Hermon in the annexed Golan Heights.

“My instructions to the forces in the north and the south are clear: even if we reach a settlement in the south, we will continue to fight in the north until we bring Hezbollah to a settlement and restore the residents with security,” Mr Gallant said in a video on Sunday during a visit to the Mount Hermon area.

“Things can happen. We do not aspire to it. We are ready for anything, but we are prepared for the fact that if they come to attack us, or if they try to harm us, or if they do not allow us to return our citizens safely to their homes – we will act.”

Hezbollah opened a pressure front at the Lebanon-Israel border on October 8, in support of its ally Hamas, to divert Israel's military focus from the Gaza Strip.

Since then, Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire on a daily basis.

There has been an escalation on the Lebanon-Israel front in recent weeks, leading to fears of all-out war.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said that the group would stop its attacks on Israel only if it stops bombing the Gaza Strip, where about 38,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its war in response to a Hamas attack that killed more than 1,200 people. Hamas also took 240 hostages.

Israel has also repeatedly threatened full-scale war if Hezbollah does not withdraw from the border area and allow Israeli residents to return there in safety.

The Israeli military said it has approved operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon.

Hezbollah last fought a war with Israel in 2006.

A softened stance by Hamas with regards to a ceasefire proposal in Gaza has rekindled hope that a resolution to the Israeli-Lebanese border conflict could also be within reach.

But the bellicose rhetoric between Hezbollah and Israel continues.

Smoke billows from a site targeted by Israeli shelling in the southern Lebanese village of Dhayra on July 4. AFP

Hezbollah said in a statement on Sunday that its fighters sent “multiple, successive squadrons of drones to target the reconnaissance centre” on Mount Hermon.

The Israeli forces said an explosive drone “fell in an open area in the Mount Hermon area” but there were no injuries.

The attack came after a member of the group was killed on Saturday in an attack on Lebanon's Beqaa Vallery, 100km north of the border with Israel.

The Israeli strike killed “a key operative in Hezbollah’s aerial defence unit,” the military claimed.

Hezbollah named Maytham Al Attar as the official killed on Saturday.

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On Monday, the Iran-backed group announced the death of one of its fighters after the Israeli military said it launched multiple air and artillery strikes overnight in Lebanon.

More than 700 sheep in Jabal Toura were killed in the strikes, Lebanese state media reported.

Speaking at the commemoration of Ashoura on Sunday, Mr Nasrallah said: “We are in the heart of major and very important events in the region … a continuing battle open to all possibilities.”

“This battle is different from all the battles we have fought since 1982, including the 2006 war.”

Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, after a war that coincided with the creation of Hezbollah.

Nearly 400 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 8, about 90 of them civilians, while 18 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed in Israel.