Hezbollah will adhere to the four-day ceasefire struck between Israel and Hamas, but only if the Israel Defense Forces refrains from striking in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, a source inside the Iran-backed terrorist group told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.
Hezbollah was not a party to the negotiations leading up to the ceasefire, which will reportedly come into effect at 10 a.m. on Thursday. The Shi’ite terrorist organization will respond to “any Israeli escalation” in Gaza or in Southern Lebanon, added the source.
Lebanon’s Nidaa Al-Watan daily reported that Hezbollah’s decision to temporarily cease hostilities was reached following talks between Hamas, Hezbollah and the Lebanese Armed Forces, with an eye towards allowing Lebanese civilians in the border region to harvest their crops.
IDF units attacked several Hezbollah structures in Southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, in response to incessant enemy anti-tank-missile, rocket and mortar attacks.
Air raid sirens were activated in the Israeli border communities of Rosh HaNikra, Metula, Kibbutz Malkiya, Kibbutz Yiron, Moshav Netu’a and Arab al-Aramshe, according to the military. No casualties were reported in Israel.
“IDF fighter jets attacked several terrorist targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanese territory. Among the targets that were attacked [were] terrorist infrastructures and a military site where the organization’s terrorists operated,” the IDF said.
In addition to airstrikes, the IDF Artillery Corps attacked terror squads in Southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah claimed on Wednesday afternoon that it carried out six attacks on Israeli military outposts, including two attacks with Burkan rockets, which have the ability to carry an explosive payload of more than 1,000 pounds each.
לפני זמן קצר מטוסי קרב של צה"ל תקפו מספר מטרות טרור של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בשטח לבנון.
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 22, 2023
בין המטרות שנתקפו, תשתיות טרור ואתר צבאי בו פעלו מחבלי הארגון pic.twitter.com/Gez1xp8QaO
Also on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian touched down in Beirut for meetings with leaders of his country’s terror proxies.
“Without a doubt, the past six weeks of heroic resistance have proven that time is not on the side of the artificial Israeli entity,” Iran’s top diplomat stated at a press conference at Beirut’s international airport.
“We heard from the resistance leaders in the region that their fingers will be on the trigger until the full rights of the Palestinian people are fulfilled and until the struggle in the region reaches a result,” Amir-Abdollahian added.
Since Oct. 7, three Israeli civilians and six IDF soldiers have been killed in attacks on the northern border. Many more have been wounded.
On Tuesday, an Israeli strike in the Land of the Cedars killed four Hamas terrorists, Lebanese security officials told the Associated Press. According to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jareeda, one of the slain terrorists was Khalil Haraz, Hamas’s deputy commander in Lebanon.
