Israel threatens to ‘go deeper’ into Lebanon as strikes strain ceasefire

By Mick Krever and Dana Karni, CNN

(CNN) — As tit-for-tat strikes strain a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah less than a week since it went into effect, Israel’s defense minister on Tuesday threatened to directly target the Lebanese state should the agreement fall apart.

Monday was the deadliest day since that agreement came into force last Wednesday, with Israeli strikes killing nine in southern Lebanon after Hezbollah fired at Israeli-occupied territory, citing Israeli truce violations.

“If we return to war, we will act with strength, go deeper,” Israel Katz said during a visit on Tuesday to the 146th Division of the Israel Defense Forces, near the Lebanese border.

Were the ceasefire to collapse, he said, “there will no longer be any exemptions for the State of Lebanon. If until now we separated the State of Lebanon from Hezbollah – and the entirety of Beirut from Dahiyeh, which took very hard hits – this will no longer be the case.”

It comes a day after Israel conducted airstrikes across southern Lebanon. The attacks were retaliation for Hezbollah firing two rockets at Israeli-occupied territory – themselves a response to near-daily Israeli attacks on Lebanon beginning the day after a truce began last Wednesday.

The exchange of fire casts doubt on the longevity of the ceasefire brokered by the United States – though State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller insisted on Monday that “we have not seen the ceasefire break down.”

Both the American and French governments have privately told Israel that they believe it is violating the agreement, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a position in the defense ministry, said in an interview with Israel’s Kan radio. The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said Israel had breached the ceasefire agreement “approximately 100” times since the truce went into effect.

“Both the French and the Americans didn’t really like it,” Smotrich said, referring to Israeli strikes on Lebanon since the truce. “But the IDF, in the days since the ceasefire, is enforcing it in a very determined way, both against Hezbollah and against civilians who are trying to return to villages in the border area without permission.”

Except for Tuesday, Israel has launched daily airstrikes in Lebanon since the day after a ceasefire went into effect last week. The military has said that it acted “in response to several acts by Hezbollah in Lebanon that posed a threat to Israeli civilians, in violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”

Those strikes led Hezbollah to target Israeli-occupied territory, at Shebaa Farms, on Monday. In a statement, the group said that Israel was guilty of “firing on civilians and airstrikes in different parts of Lebanon, resulting in the martyrdom of citizens and injuries to others, in addition to the continued violation of Lebanese airspace by hostile Israeli aircraft reaching the capital, Beirut.”

Hezbollah’s rockets fell in an open area and injured no one. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it “a serious violation of the ceasefire,” and Israel launched airstrikes across southern Lebanon, killing nine, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Smotrich said the IDF had struck 29 targets in Monday’s attack.

Israeli officials contend that far from violating the ceasefire, they are acting to enforce it.

“Yesterday was the first test – firing toward Mount Dov as if it were outside the usual conflict or open to interpretation,” Katz said on Tuesday, using the Israeli term for Shebaa Farms, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and has occupied ever since. “For us, it is not open to any interpretation. We responded with strength, and we will continue to do so.”

On Tuesday, the IDF said it also launched an airstrike on a car near Damascus, Syria, where it claimed to have killed a senior Hezbollah figure, Salman Nemer Jamaa, whom it accused of involvement in weapons smuggling. Hezbollah has not confirmed the alleged killing.

Israel rarely acknowledges its attacks in Syria; in a rare announcement last month, it said it struck Hezbollah intelligence assets near Damascus.

The ceasefire deal stipulates a 60-day cessation of hostilities, which negotiators have described as the foundation of a lasting truce. During that time, Hezbollah fighters are expected to retreat some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Israel-Lebanon border, while Israeli ground forces withdraw from Lebanese territory. Under the agreement, Lebanon would implement a more rigorous supervision of Hezbollah’s movements south of the country’s Litani River, to prevent militants from regrouping there.

“We will act with full force to enforce all the understandings of the ceasefire agreement, and we will respond with maximum response and zero tolerance,” Katz said.

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