The Hezbollah factor

Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amirabdollahian said Thursday that if Israel's bombardment of Gaza continues, the war may open on “other fronts,” an apparent reference to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Israel is nervously watching Hezbollah on Israel's northern border and has sent troop reinforcements to the area.

Qassim Qassir, a Lebanese analyst close to Hezbollah, said the group “will not allow Hamas' destruction and won't leave Gaza alone to face a ground incursion.” “When the situation requires further escalation, then Hezbollah will do so,” he told AP.

An official with a Lebanese group familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Hezbollah fighters have been placed on full alert.

Hezbollah sent a drone over Israel on Thursday, according to an official with a Lebanese group familiar with the situation along the Lebanon-Israel border. The drone was shot down over Israel, the official said, without elaborating further. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to comment to the news media.

An Israeli military spokesman wrote on X (Twitter) Thursday afternoon that an air-defence missile was fired in northern Israel but it turned out there was no target in the air.

With an eye toward Hezbollah, U.S. President Joe Biden has warned other players in the Middle East not to join the conflict.

Israel is anxious that opening a new front could change the tide of the war, with Hezbollah's military calibre far superior to that of Hamas. But the fighting could be equally devastating for Hezbollah and Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Israel were engaged in a vicious monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a stalemate and a tense detente between the two sides. Lebanon is in the fourth year of a crippling economic crisis and is bitterly divided between Hezbollah and its allies and opponents, paralyzing the political system.

Meanwhile, in Syria on Thursday, state media reported that Israeli airstrikes hit the international airports of the capital, Damascus, and the northern city of Aleppo, damaging their runways and putting them out of service. (AP)