The Israeli military said Wednesday that Hezbollah had launched an explosive drone at one of its vehicles on a strategic ridge in southern Lebanon, raising fears of a renewed escalation on one of the most volatile front lines in the Middle East.
The attack threatened to undermine a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group that dominates Lebanon. The truce has barely held as Israel and Lebanon have worked to implement a separate framework agreement aimed at ending months of fighting. Hezbollah has rejected the agreement between Israel and Lebanon.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military said Hezbollah had launched the drone toward an engineering vehicle operating on the Ali al-Taher ridge, a commanding hilltop about six miles from the Israeli border. The Israeli military said there were no injuries from the incident.
A Hezbollah spokesman said the group did not claim responsibility for an operation on the ridge area, and accused Israel of using “false pretexts” to continue its attacks in Lebanon.
The latest conflict between Hezbollah and Israel erupted on March 2, after the group attacked Israel in solidarity with Iran following the U.S.-Israeli strikes that began the war. The fighting has killed more than 4,300 people in Lebanon, displaced more than one million residents and Israel now occupies large areas of southern Lebanon. Israeli officials say at least four Israeli civilians and more than 30 soldiers have been killed.
In recent months, the ridge has become one of the most strategically significant areas in the conflict. Lebanese and Israeli officials believe Hezbollah has established one of its largest underground installations beneath the ridge. Israel says the complex has for years served as a command center for planning and launching attacks against its territory. The ridge overlooks much of southeastern Lebanon, including the city of Nabatieh.
As recently as May, the ridge was beyond the area that Israel had occupied several miles inside southern Lebanon. Israel marks the boundary of this zone with a yellow line on its maps and says it regards any armed individual operating south of that line as a security threat and a legitimate military target. In June, however, Israel redrew those boundaries, extending the yellow line to include the ridge.
Fighting has flared in the area since.
In mid-June, Hezbollah said in a statement that it had targeted Israeli troops attempting to advance into the area. Later that month, the Israeli military said thousands of its troops had surrounded a vast underground Hezbollah fortress beneath the ridge, trapping dozens of the group’s fighters inside.
The latest episode occurred as Israel and Lebanon seek to implement a framework agreement intended to wind down the conflict that was negotiated during months of talks in Washington and Rome. It calls for Israel to gradually withdraw from territory it holds in southern Lebanon while the Lebanese Armed Forces move in to secure those areas and facilitate the return of displaced residents.
The first areas slated for implementation, described as “pilot zones,” are intended to test the broader agreement reached last month. Three villages have been designated in the first phase of the withdrawal plan.
But the framework has been criticized in Lebanon because it sets no fixed timetable for Israel’s withdrawal, and is tied to the Lebanese government’s tentative efforts to disarm Hezbollah — a process that has proved difficult.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.
