Hezbollah To Israel: No More Carte Blanche For IDF In Lebanon

Oct 08, 2014 11:14 AM EDT

(Photo : Reuters/Ahmad Shalha) Lebanon's Hezbollah members carry the coffins of two of their comrades, who were killed in clashes with fighters from the Nusra Front in eastern Lebanon, during their funeral in Baalbek, in the Bekaa valley October 6, 2014.

Hezbollah, the Shi'ite armed group, has broken months of silence against Israel by setting off an explosive device Tuesday that injured two Israeli soldiers. Al Manar, a Lebanese media network, detailed that the incident occurred in the disputed land of Shebaa farms.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) responded with gunfire, but it insisted there was no civilian collateral damage. The Lebanese rebels did not specify reasons for the action, although a representative detailed that it was carried out in the name of Hassan Ali Haidar.

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Haidar, who is considered a martyr, died during a military operation in September.

Israel was able to seize the area together with the nearby Golan Heights during the 1967 war. Syria also claims possession but neither was recognized by the United Nations.

The attack was carried out in time with the 14^the anniversary of Hezbollah's abduction of three Israeli soldiers in 2000. It was the first time that the militant group claimed responsibility for bombings over the past several years.

The heightened tension raised public anxiety, but analysts said that Hezbollah's attack was not meant to declare war but to send a message to Israeli forces. It is also probable that Hezbollahs have been meaning to reiterate their power over Shebaa and that they are not threatened by the military's presence.

Both parties offered opposing accounts of the cause of the explosions, where the Shi'ite militant group said that Israeli forces initiated an open fire wounding one of the Lebanese soldiers.

The Syrian conflict has been long standing since 2006. Hezbollah also blame the Israel government for the death of Hassan al-Laqis, one of their senior leaders, in his Beirut home on December 2013.

Related incidents that worsen the current civil war include an IDF attack to a Lebanese warehouse in February, as well as the murder of a Hezbollah fighter trying to dismantle a listening device last month.

TagsHezbollah, Israeli Defense Forces, Syrian conflict, War Conflict, Israeli–Lebanese conflict, Islam and antisemitism