Israeli Strikes Impact Presence Of Hezbollah At Border

Israel has completed a series of extensive strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, attacks which have impacted the Iran-backed group's positioning near the border.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement on Friday, "We continue intensive strikes to hit Hezbollah's deployment close to the northern border."

"It no longer looks as it did on October sixth, nor will it," he said about the situation on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah is entrenched.

Hagari said the targets of the recent synchronized air, tank and artillery strikes included launch pads, military compounds and militant squads.

Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel at the border since its Palestinian ally Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, igniting a conflict that has drawn in the heavily armed group and other Iran-aligned factions across the Middle East.

Iran supports Hamas but says it did not play any role in the Islamist militants' terror attack that triggered the current crisis. Tehran also denies involvement in the recent attacks on vessels in the Red Sea by Houthis, another group backed by Iran.

But the violence has largely been contained to areas at the border, shaped by what observers have called unwritten rules of engagement between adversaries that have long threatened each other with catastrophic damage in the event of war.

Israel has said it is not seeking to open a front in the north. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Beirut would be turned "into Gaza" if Hezbollah started an all-out war.

(With reporting by Reuters)