Rewards for Justice<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Whatever the fate of Shukr, Wednesday\u2019s strike is the most serious Israeli escalation since confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel began on October 8. <\/p>\n
Israel said it served as retaliation for a deadly strike in the Israeli-occupied town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights on Saturday, which Israel blamed on Hezbollah. Hezbollah denied the claim. <\/p>\n
The developments have raised the specter of an all-out war between Lebanon and Israel that could extend beyond the borders of both countries. <\/p>\n
Nasrallah has repeatedly threatened to hit Tel Aviv in response to any Israeli strike on Beirut, a move that would thrust the two countries, and the region, into uncharted waters. <\/p>\n
Unlike Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah has an arsenal of precision guided rockets and bombs with payloads of up to 500 kg. <\/p>\n
They are also supported by a region-wide axis of Iran-backed fighters including the Houthis in Yemen and the Popular Mobilization Units in Iraq. <\/p>\n
Tehran has indicated that it may act to defend Hezbollah, considered the crown jewel of its network of non-state fighters, warning of \u201csevere consequences\u201d in case of an Israeli escalation in Lebanon. <\/p>\n
Neither Hezbollah nor Israel wants an all-out war. Hezbollah may seek to retaliate forcefully, falling short of igniting a larger conflict. Israel will likely also retaliate in kind. <\/p>\n
How long this highly calibrated tit-for-tat can go on for before the region spirals into an unprecedented war is anyone\u2019s guess. <\/p>\n
The US is trying desperately to prevent this and to clinch a diplomatic solution. Hezbollah has vowed to keep fighting in confrontations until a ceasefire in Gaza, which remains elusive. <\/p>\n
Until then, Lebanon, Israel and the wider region remains on the precipice. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel says it has killed Hezbollah\u2019s most senior military official, Fu\u2019ad Shukr, in a drone strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a populous neighborhood that is also the Iran-backed group\u2019s stronghold. If true, Shukr would be the most high-ranking Hezbollah official to have been assassinated since 2016 when Mustafa Badreddine, the group\u2019s top commander <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}