Israeli army ‘will enter battle very soon’ on Lebanese border, defense minister warns

Will the conflict in the Middle East expand? The Israeli army “will enter the battle very soon” in the north of the country, on the border with Lebanon, where there are daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah, Israel’s defense minister said on Monday. Yoav Gallant told soldiers stationed near the Gaza Strip border that they would leave the area and reach the north of the country. “They will soon go into battle (…) to strengthen forces in the north,” the minister said, adding that reservists would leave their positions to prepare for these future operations.

Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi recently said that the likelihood of war “in the coming months” in the north of the country is “much higher today than it was in the past.” Since the October 7 attacks by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas inside Israel that sparked the Gaza War, there have been constant exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, a Lebanese Islamist movement allied with Iran and Hamas.

200 people died in Lebanon

More than 200 people have been killed in Lebanon in more than three months, according to AFP. According to the Israeli army, fifteen people were killed on the Israeli side, including nine soldiers and six civilians. Yoav Gallant also said Monday that Hamas militants are short of supplies and ammunition, but the war will last several months.

The unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 killed some 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on official Israeli data. In response, Israel vowed to “destroy” the Islamist movement in power in Gaza and launched a massive military operation in the Gaza Strip that killed 26,637 people, the vast majority of them women, children and teenagers, according to an updated Defense Ministry report. Hamas health.