Israel Skirmishes with Hamas and Hezbollah // FAI ONLINE

An Israeli fire crew arrives to battle a wildfire caused by incendiary balloons from Gaza on Thursday (Credit: Ammon Ziv, via @HananyaNaftali on Twitter).

The Israeli military and Hamas traded blows again on Thursday night and Friday morning, as the pattern of incendiary balloons, retaliatory airstrikes, and rocket fire was repeated yet again. Over 50 fires were caused in Southern Israel on Thursday by yet another wave of balloons carrying flaming objects and explosive devices. The balloons are released by small militant groups inside the Gaza Strip and float over the security fence into Israeli territory, most often landing in dry, open fields, or sometimes in Israeli communities.

The IDF responded to the balloons with airstrikes against Hamas positions inside the Strip, including an underground facility used by the terror group. Soon afterward, six rockets were fired from Gaza in retaliation for the airstrikes, which were not intercepted by the Iron Dome system and landed harmlessly in fields nearby. The IDF struck Hamas again early Friday morning, including a weapons manufacturing facility in Badr City, in keeping with a policy of answering every attack with a counter-attack.

The latest round of conflict on Israel’s southern front comes two days after heightened tensions on its northern front. Hezbollah operatives shielded themselves between UN installations on Tuesday before firing across the Blue Line at IDF troops during an exercise. The small arms fire did not cause any human casualties or property damage. The IDF conducted airstrikes against two Hezbollah observation posts in response. The mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) includes observation of militant activity in Southern Lebanon and intervention when the “Blue Line” demarcation between Israel and Lebanon is violated. However, Hezbollah routinely prevents UNIFIL from observing and investigating its activity, and its militiamen used its position between two UNIFIL facilities near the border to shield themselves from Israeli return fire, a violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701.

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Hezbollah has been under increased pressure in the wake of the August 4 Beirut explosion which killed 180 people and is widely blamed on Hezbollah for its negligent storage of over 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate near the port of Beirut. Automatic gunfire rang out across the southern district of Beirut on Thursday night as several Sunni militiamen engaged elements of the Iranian-sponsored terror group in a scene reminiscent of Lebanon’s bloody civil war that lasted over a decade between 1975 and 1990.

We ask the global FAI family to join us in prayer for the safety of Israeli, Gazan and Lebanese civilians today as they continue to endure the daily realities of life in the shadow of Hamas and Hezbollah. We pray for divine wisdom to be granted to Israeli leaders in government in both safeguarding civilians on every side and employing measured, effective responses against terrorism. We pray for the plots and schemes of violent men to be exposed and thwarted, and for the unending specter of war to open doors for the proclamation of the Good News of peace.

Maranatha.