Lebanon
“We should feel that we are in a battle, and we should fight this battle,” said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a recent speech.
Syrian state media reports that the country’s air defenses “successfully confronted” missiles fired at targets in the center and south over Lebanon and the Golan Heights.
“Hezbollah profits from the sale of goods vital to the Lebanese peoples’ health and economy, such as pharmaceuticals and gasoline,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Jonathan Spyer, an expert on the region at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, says a mutual deterrence system applies between Israel and Lebanon that could “be broken in the event of a conflagration involving Israel and Iran.”
The move comes one year after the Israeli military discovered and destroyed six large tunnels under the Israel-Lebanon border, believed to have been constructed by Hezbollah.
The Israeli military sees an opportunity for strategic change in Syria following the death of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, while instability in Lebanon and Judea and Samaria pose the greatest risk to the Jewish state in the new year.
Hassan Nasrallah, who runs the terror organization rooted in Lebanon, and Iran are continuing plans to produce weapons, though Israel is determined to prevent that from happening.
The Central American country joins its neighbor, Guatemala, in officially designating the Lebanese Shi’te organization as an international terrorist organization.
New Lebanese premier Hassan Diab reportedly has the support of a majority of lawmakers, including those affiliated with Hezbollah and its allies, but still needs the support of key Sunni figures.
“This administration will continue to take action against Hezbollah financiers ... who have used money-laundering and tax-evasion schemes to fund terrorist plots and finance their own lavish lifestyles as the Lebanese people suffer,” according to the U.S. Treasury Secretary.
Israeli forces will “100 percent” face tunnel warfare in future armed conflicts on its borders, and the military is sparing no effort to meet the challenge, says IDF Maj. Gen. Mickey Edelstein.
Protesters set fire to ruling parties’ offices in northern Lebanon
Approximately 130 people were reportedly wounded in Beirut during violent clashes between protesters and Lebanese security forces.
