Hezbollah, Israel opt for de-escalation
Both the Lebanese Hezbollah movement and Israel seemed to be avoiding confrontation despite the latest round of violence.
The latest escalation between the Lebanese Hezbollah movement and Israel appears to have come to an end after fear that the two sides were headed for war.
A week after an Israeli airstrike in Syria killed two of its members on Aug. 24, Hezbollah retaliated. The movement targeted an Israeli military vehicle in the northern Israeli settlement of Avivim. Israel responded by shelling uninhabited Lebanese border areas. Calm was restored within hours and both sides claimed success.
Though Hezbollah’s retaliation operation resulted in no casualties, leader Hassan Nasrallah made it clear that he was satisfied.
In a Sept. 2 speech, Nasrallah noted that Hezbollah’s retaliatory operation was different from the one it carried out back in early 2015 after Israeli airstrikes killed six Hezbollah members in the Golan Heights district of Quneitra. Hezbollah retaliated by hitting an Israeli convoy and killing two Israeli soldiers in the Shebaa Farms area, which Lebanon considers Lebanese territory under Israeli occupation.
