Lebanese media is reporting on Monday that Israeli shells were fired at the Sheba Farms region near the intersection of the Syrian, Israeli, and Lebanese frontiers.
The news reports north of the border are consistent with eyewitness accounts of Israelis on the Golan Heights who told The Jerusalem Post’s Hebrew-language sister publication Ma’ariv that they heard the roar of artillery fire over the weekend.
According to Lebanese news outlets, the IDF fired 20 shells toward the vicinity of Sheba Farms, which is also known as Har Dov.
An Israeli military official told Ma’ariv on Sunday that the purpose of the artillery fire was to deter Hezbollah from planting explosives along the border in an effort to avenge the death of Samir Kuntar, the commander who was killed in an airstrike in Damascus. Israel is believed to be behind the killing, though Jerusalem did not confirm this.
“I cleared up this issue with the army after I received numerous complaints from residents,” a security guard in one of the Israeli towns along the border said. “A senior officer in the IDF Northern Command told me that there is a real concern that Hezbollah will plant a bomb along the border under the cover of fog, so whenever we spot suspicious activity we fire an artillery shell in that direction for the sake of deterrence.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday sent an apparent message to Nasrallah in response, warning, "Our enemies should know that we will aggressively retaliate to any attack against us."
Netanyahu made the comments at an awards ceremony for outstanding Mossad employees just two days after Nasrallah vowed retaliation.
Editor's note: This article has been edited from the source material
