Lebanon Map

Israel-Hezbollah Clash in Lebanon-Golan Area July 27, 2020

Israel-Hezbollah Clash in Lebanon-Golan Area July 27, 2020

Israel claimed that four militants, armed with assault rifles, crossed over the border from Lebanon on July 27 into Israeli-Occupied Golan Heights. Israeli troops fired on the intruders, who then fled back into Lebanon.

 

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Israeli military officials said the infiltration occurred near the Mount Dov area of the Golan Heights. Israel offered no proof that the militants were Hezbollah fighters, but Israel has engaged with Hezbollah forces in Syria lately, and the Lebanese Shiite militia has vowed revenge for the casualties they suffered in Syria. In response to the aborted attack on an Israeli outpost near Mount Dov, Israeli forces fired artillery rounds into Lebanon. Also, Israel reported that one of their military drones crashed inside Lebanon, as it was scouting out Hezbollah forces. Israel has been in an official state of war with both Syria and Lebanon since 1948.

Hezbollah, though, denies that the four infiltrators were theirs, or that this was part of their planned response to the Israeli attacks in Syria. Hezbollah’s troops have been in Syria for years now, aiding the Assad regime in its war on anti-Assad rebels.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a war in 2006, and it is expected that at some point, another major war between the two bitter enemies will break out. The Hezbollah group maintains a powerful armed force, and is also a political party/faction in Lebanon, and is a part of the current Lebanese government. As the defender and proponent of Lebanon’s Shiite minority, the group enjoys the patronage of Shiite power Iran, which is also a sworn enemy of Israel.

Information on this latest clash (if that is truly what happened, since one side is denying it), is all over Twitter, with advocates on both sides.

Video from Twitter showing explosions in Lebanese hills from H24 News, and claiming that there is an exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Video of explosions in Lebanon from a Twitter user @afshinrattansi who is anti-Israel, and makes a point that the Israeli artillery response comes during the Coronovirus pandemic.

Video showing Israeli armor moving toward the Israel-Lebanon border, from Voice of America