The recent escalation in Lebanon don t break the rules of the game between Israel and Hezbollah

Israeli warplanes launched raids on the positions of the Palestinian Resistance in Lebanon and Gaza, hours after bombing “Iranian targets” in the vicinity of Damascus and Hashd al-Shabi in Iraq. 

In this regard, an Israeli military source told North-Press that despite the Israeli bombardment of a target on the Syrian-Lebanese borders following a “mysterious operation” of two Israeli scouting planes, prior to their fall over the southern district of Beirut, the Jewish state is aware that the action in the Lebanese territories is a red line, though.  

The source added that there are unwritten rules of a game between Israel and Hezbollah, where Israel has refrained from hitting targets in Lebanon, contrary to the situation in Syria and Iraq. However, the last two Israeli operations don’t mean that the rules of the game have been changed completely, but that there is a possibility that “we are in a new phase of a maneuver”.   

The source pointed out that Hezbollah won’t go through any change to the equation which takes place in Lebanon, and that some warnings were issued by its Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah last night, which are taken into account by Israel when it takes any such a step in the coming period.  

Therefore, the source confirmed that the recent Israeli strike on a position of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) doesn’t signify a fundamental change of Israel’s policy in Lebanon, the source also stressed that there are question marks surrounding the two planes which were crashed in the southern district of Beirut, where it’s not known whether it was a planned operation or something went wrong. 

Concerning the fears of the outbreak of a comprehensive war, the Israeli military source believes that “we aren’t on the threshold of the outbreak of a war, although this danger exists and it is included in the assessments of the Israeli intelligence. What we have witnessed in the region in the recent hours, assures the sensitivity of the situation, as any incident could lead to a comprehensive and multi-front battle”. 

However, the source believes that “there are other factors which prevent dragging into such a battle, and we assume that the parties aren’t interested in being dragged into a comprehensive battle, whether on the northern front with Lebanon and Syria, or on the southern one with Gaza Strip”.  

In the midst of the widening confrontation between Israel and Iran, where a symbolic expression of the recent events and bombings in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere have been seen, the source assumes that “we will see increased collisions between Israel and Iran, and possibly other rounds of escalation, but despite its danger, there are factors that will prevent it from going farther and developing to a war”.