A man carries a child rescued from rubble after Syrian regime and Russian air strikes in the rebel-held town of Nawa, on June 26, 2018 (via cnn.com).
Air raid sirens blared in the Northern Galilee mid-day Wednesday after two rockets landed near the Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona after crossing the Israeli-Lebanese border. No casualties or major damage was reported, although emergency crews responded to a fire which resulted from the impact of one rocket. A third rocket was also launched from Lebanon, but fell short of the so-called Blue Line, which serves as an armistice border between Israeli and Lebanon. The Israeli military responded with dozens of rounds of artillery fire targeting militant positions in Southern Lebanon, starting additional wildfires in the area. So far, there has been no public claim of responsibility for the rocket fire, although Palestinian militant groups aligned with Hamas have been responsible for sporadic rocket fire into Israel in recent months.
The latest cross-border skirmish between Israel and militant groups in Lebanon comes as the security situation along Israel’s Golani frontier continues to deteriorate. Last Thursday, Syrian rebels in the restive Daraa region seized government-held checkpoints and highways after negotiations with the regime of Bashar al-Assad broke down. Eight Syrian soldiers were killed and another fifteen taken captive in the Daraa al-Balad neighborhood, although the hostages were later released during Russian-brokered negotiations over the weekend. When talks broke down again Monday, the regime and its Iranian and Hezbollah-sponsored proxies responded with airstrikes and artillery fire against rebel-held areas of Daraa. However, an attempted incursion by pro-Assad militias was turned back.
Daraa is the birthplace of the Syrian Revolution in 2011, achieving semi-autonomous status for almost six years when a conglomerate of rebel groups forced Syrian forces to withdraw in 2012. It was during this timeframe that the Israeli military partnered with anti-Assad factions along the Israeli-Syrian border on the eastern slopes of the Golan Heights in Operation Good Neighbor, providing food and aid in return for a tranquil frontier. FAI Relief partnered with the IDF to operate clinics inside rebel-held territory during 2017-18, until advancing regime forces compelled rebel groups to surrender and submit to a Russian-brokered “reconciliation” process whereby amnesty would be granted to rebel fighters in return for loyalty to the regime and matriculation back into the Syrian Arab Army.
However, the “reconciliation” program failed to take root in the hearts and minds of the people of Southwest Syria, who only begrudgingly accepted regime occupation, and who resented the growing presence of Lebanese Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The regime’s demand of local communities last week to accept the increased presence of Iran and Hezbollah in their communities was the last straw. Reconciliation talks ended in failure, and in anticipation of a regime mobilization, rebel factions moved to secure government checkpoints and the Syrian-Jordanian highway. Assad’s government has demanded that rebel forces surrender their arms for a ceasefire, which is unlikely, suggesting that a protracted insurgency may be on the horizon along the Israeli-Syrian border once again. Already, thousands of Syrian civilians are reported displaced by the fighting around Daraa; with the prospect of tens of thousands more as hostilities continue.
We would ask the global Maranatha family to continue in prayer with us for the people of Northern Israel, Southern Lebanon, and Southwest Syria, as tensions continue to rise on multiple fronts. We pray for a hedge of protection around civilians, for Israeli and Lebanese leaders to be granted divine wisdom in addressing the threat of Hezbollah and other militant factions, and for each incident of violence and upheaval to soften the hearts of Israeli and Arab people to receive the Good News of the Prince of Peace as FAI continues to labor in the region.
Maranatha.
