Israeli aircraft struck posts belonging to the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah early on Wednesday after shots were fired from Lebanon towards its troops, Israel’s military said according to ynetnews.com.

No Israeli troops were wounded in the firing, the military said. Soldiers deployed illumination flares, smoke shells and live fire after the shots from the Lebanese side of the frontier, it said.

“In response, overnight, IDF attack helicopters and aircraft struck observation posts belonging to the Hezbollah terror organization in the border area,” the military said in a statement, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah. Early Wednesday, the military ordered residents living in communities near the border with Lebanon to shelter in place and blocked roads following what it described as a “security incident” in the area.

Tension has been running high on the border. Last month, Israel said Hezbollah carried out an infiltration attempt, which the Iran-backed group denied.The Israeli military said it lifted a curfew it had imposed overnight.

Israel considers Hezbollah to be its toughest and most immediate threat. After battling Israel to a stalemate during a monthlong war in 2006, Hezbollah is believed to be far stronger today.

Israeli officials estimate that Hezbollah possesses some 130,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking virtually anywhere in Israel. The group also has gained valuable battlefield experience by fighting alongside Iranian troops backing the forces of President Bashar Assad in the Syrian civil war.

Israel, which considers Iran to be its greatest enemy, has acknowledged carrying out scores of airstrikes in Syria it says were meant to stop Iran from transferring sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah.

A suicide bombing carried out by a suspect in a security incident that killed three people in the town of Kaftoun in northern Lebanon last week renewed fears of sleeper cells belonging to extremist organizations that could exploit the tense situation in the country to revive their activities, like reported by aawsat.com.

Those fears, however, are rejected by security sources, who stressed that the “success achieved by the Lebanese authorities in terms of proactive security is still effective and possesses the full ability to maintain stability.”

On the night of Aug. 21, four people driving a car without a license plate opened fire at three members of the municipal guard in the northern town of Kaftoun, killing them instantly, before fleeing to an unknown destination.

Subsequently, the joint security force in the Beddawi Palestinian refugee in northern Lebanon handed over one of the wanted people to the Lebanese authorities at dawn on Sunday.

On Monday, a force from the Intelligence Bureau of the Internal Security Forces raided an apartment occupied by displaced Syrians in an area in the North, with the aim to arrest a suspect in the crime. But the wanted man detonated himself with explosives before the forces could arrest him.

The National News Agency (NNA) reported that the ISF cordoned off the area and confiscated two laptop computers from the apartment. It added that a number of people were arrested during raids in several refugee camps across the North.

Judicial sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the wanted person who blew himself up was a 40-year-old Syrian, who had previously served a prison sentence on charges of belonging to ISIS.

“The other suspect, who was handed over to the Lebanese authorities at dawn on Sunday, also had extremist tendencies,” according to the sources.

They added that the investigations into the Kaftoun crime showed the presence of two other vehicles that accompanied the suspects’ car. One of those cars transported the perpetrators to a safe place. The sources asserted that they “were planning to carry out a terrorist act before they clashed with the municipal guards, who prevented them from executing their operation.”

Head of the Middle East Center for Studies, Dr. Hisham Jaber, said sleeper cells were usually “present, and they wake up when they find opportunity or a security vacuum.”

But he asserted that these factors “are not available in Lebanon, due to the constant vigilance of the services.”

Jaber, a retired Lebanese Army brigadier general, noted that Lebanon “has succeeded since 2014 in proactive security,” referring to the concerted efforts by “the security services to exchange information in an integrated manner.”

Beirut’s ammonium nitrate explosion earlier this month has further exposed Hezbollah to public anger, with some Lebanon observers predicting a gloomy road ahead for the U.S.-designated terror group in the aftermath of the devastating event, like reported by voanews.com.

The blast at the port from the detonation of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate on August 4 killed more than 200 people and injured thousands of others. The Hezbollah-backed government resigned amid mass demonstrations demanding radical reforms in the government.

Experts say Hezbollah is now facing a major challenge to protect its influence and shape the country’s future government because many protesters see it as a major obstacle to eradicating corruption in the country’s political system.

Rami Khouri, a senior public policy fellow and journalism professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB), told VOA, “Hezbollah don’t want to run the country, and they don’t want to see it collapse into chaos. They will have to use their capabilities to engage … both with the protesters and the sectarian elites. This is a big challenge that they never faced before.”

He added that many people in Lebanon have criticized Hezbollah publicly in the past but rarely pushed to be rid of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

However, after the blast, as protesters demanded justice and a transparent investigation, they set up makeshift gallows with cardboard effigies of Lebanese leaders, including Nasrallah.

Some local reports claim that the explosion at the port occurred from a weapons warehouse belonging to Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. Nasrallah denied those accusations, calling the charge an “exceptional injustice.”

Lebanese President Michel Aoun says a government investigation into the explosion has not yet determined the cause and dismissed allegations of Hezbollah’s responsibility.

Trust deficit

Many families of the victims and protest activists want an international investigation of the incident.

Jad Yateem, a Lebanese activist and journalist, said that Lebanese protesters do not trust the outcome of any investigation from the government, fearing a cover-up if the probe finds the blast was the result of negligence by authorities.

“We are calling for a transitional government … accompanied by an international fact-checking committee to reveal what caused the blast,” Yateem told VOA.

“Hezbollah is involved whether the stored ammonium nitrate belonged to the party, or either by being part of the corrupted government,” he said, adding that the protesters want a transitional government to oversee a new electoral law that could reshape the government.

Hezbollah, described as a “state within a state,” for using political leverage in the government to protect its interests, is viewed as a major cause of the government’s inability to fight its worst economic crisis since the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.

Mass demonstrations began in October 2019, with the protesters demanding an overhaul of the ruling political class and a fix for its economy. Lebanese opposition groups and activists blame the crisis on mismanagement of public resources and corruption by consecutive governments leading to the current Hezbollah-led government.

Seizing the opportunity

As Lebanon seeks aid and assistance from the international community, some experts say Lebanon’s political party backers see this as an opportunity to reshuffle loyalties.

Representatives of dozens of regional and international entities have visited Beirut offering emergency medical aid and solidarity, including Iran, Hezbollah’s major supporter.

“Out of disaster opportunity arrives, this pushes Lebanon to the void,” David Daoud, research analyst at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) told VOA.

“If Iran appears like the good guy here, it will either win the sympathy of the Lebanese street broadly or at least hold the sympathy of Hezbollah’s base,” said Daoud, who focuses on Hezbollah and Lebanon. He added that Hezbollah is trying to portray Lebanon’s myriad of crises not as a product of mismanagement but rather because of the U.S. sanctions against the group.

Social solidarity

After the blast, people in Lebanon volunteered to clean the streets, clear the rubble and help those who had lost their homes. Aid groups in Lebanon, saying they don’t trust the government to distribute aid effectively, have called on international donors to channel assistance directly to hospitals and local organizations.

Chrystine Mhanna, communication and advocacy officer at the Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH), said that they are coordinating efforts with other NGOs to establish help centers in different areas of Beirut to assist those who lost their homes. Since the blast, the CLDH, which monitors human rights violations, has expanded to provide legal assistance to people who have lost their homes.

“Emergency response teams took a long time to arrive at the site,” she told VOA. She added, “There was no sufficient information or direct assistance provided to the victims. Hospitals dealing with coronavirus found themselves under pressure while providing medical aid to survivors from the blast.”

Mhanna, whose office in Beirut was untouched by the blast except for shattered windows, said “The government is absolutely absent.”

Four terrorists from the Islamic Jihad organization were killed in a so-called “work accident” in the Gaza Strip late on Monday.

After explosions were reported in an Islamic Jihad compound in the northern Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaiya, Palestinian Arab media initially attributed the explosions to Israeli Air Force strikes.

However, Israeli security officials quoted by Israeli media denied any Israeli connection to the incident, adding that it appeared to have been a “work accident.”

The group subsequently announced that four of its members were killed in the blast during “preparations to remove the criminal entity from our occupied land.”

According to Kan 11 News, which cited Palestinian Arab sources, the terrorists were killed while preparing rockets to fire toward Israel.

The incident comes amid increased tension as rocket and incendiary balloon attacks from Gaza toward Israel have intensified in recent days.

Early Tuesday morning, IDF fighter jets, tanks and aircraft attacked Hamas targets and in the southern Gaza Strip.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said that the attack was carried out in response to the firing of incendiary balloons from the Gaza Strip toward Israeli territory.

On Friday, a “Red Color” siren was sounded in the city of Sderot and in Kibbutz Ibim.

The IDF confirmed that one rocket was identified as having been launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israeli territory. The rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

“Work accidents” are common in Gaza, and often occur as terrorists are preparing to fire a rocket or when an underground terrorist tunnel collapses.

According to the latest statistics of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Turkey has sent more than 18,000 Syrian mercenaries to Libya, of whom about 7,000 returned to Syria, in addition to about 10,000 from other nationalities, like reported by syriahr.com.

Thousands of mercenaries join the groups affiliated with the government of National Accord in Tripoli, which is currently planning to seize the strategic city of Sirte, amid a state of international anticipation that subsided with the conclusion of a ceasefire agreement in Libya on Friday.

The mercenary Taha Hammoud who is fighting alongside the Accord government after Turkey sent him to Libya said: “We have freedom of movement in Misrata. We can go out on our own. We found gold in many abandoned houses.”

Hammoud admitted in his interview to the “Investigative Journal” that he and those with him looted the homes of the Libyans in Misrata, adding: “Here, they did not pay us what they promised, so it is a good way to earn more money.”

According to the newspaper, the Syrian mercenaries were promised that they would receive a monthly salary of about two thousand dollars for the fighting in Libya, but a large number of them said that they were paid much less, while some explained that they had remained in Libya for more than 5 months and received only one payment.

It revealed that during the meeting that took place a few days ago in Libya between the Qatari Defense Minister Khaled al-Attiyah, the Turkish Minister Hulusi Akar and the Prime Minister of Tripoli, Fayez al-Sarraj, they agreed to increase the salaries of Syrian mercenaries by 30 percent.

But a member of “al-Hamza Division” mercenaries stationed in Ain Zara area near Tripoli, and is called Omar believes that this is “just talk.”

He continued, “Our leaders tell us that we will get salaries soon, but this is not happening. They may have said that they would pay more because they thought they would need us to attack Sirte, but why do they need us now?” In an indication to the ceasefire agreement reached recently.

Omar revealed that he gets more information from his friends in Syria than from anyone in Libya: “They do not tell us anything here. We hear news from Syria and we hear rumors as well. We do not know anything for sure until it happens.”

Despite the ceasefire agreement, Turkey is still continuing to train mercenaries with the aim of likely sending them to Libya, according to the Observatory.

Hamas launched a war against Israel on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s orders, the Bulgarian Military reported.

According to the report, the launch came while Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met with Erdogan in Istanbul. Haniyeh’s depity, Saleh al-Aruri, and Turkey’s Deputy Secretary of Intelligence, Kan Fidan, also attended the meeting, as did Erdogan’s chief aide Sefer Turan.

The report also claimed that the AKP is launching another proxy war for Erdogan, who wants to take over control of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

According to the Bulgarian Military, Hamas terrorists are planning attacks both in Israel and abroad.

The site also noted that a Turkish journalist accessed secret documents confirming a espionage activities in Greece and an illegal intelligence gathering by Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency, as well as by Turkish consulates. The first of the documents dates from March 2019, the site noted.

The secret documents also show that Turkey is monitoring all of Erdogan’s critics, even after they cross into Greece and seek asylum.

Terrorists fired 12 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip overnight, nine of which were intercepted, and Israel responded with three airstrikes on targets linked to the territory’s Hamas rulers, the Israeli military said early Friday, like reported by theepochtimes.com.

It was the most serious exchange of fire along the Gaza frontier in months, but there were no reports of casualties. Police said buildings and vehicles in Israel were damaged, and that bomb-disposal units had been dispatched to pick up shrapnel and rocket parts.

In recent weeks, groups affiliated with Hamas have launched incendiary balloons into Israel, igniting farmland in a bid to pressure Israel to ease the blockade it imposed on Gaza when the Islamic militants seized power in 2007. The rocket fire marks a significant escalation.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars and several smaller battles over the last 13 years. Israel has warned Hamas of strong retaliatory action as incendiary balloons were flown across Israeli borders, lighting uncontrolled fires.

In response to the incendiary balloons, Israel has already closed Gaza’s only commercial crossing, causing the territory’s sole power plant to shut down for lack of fuel and limiting the territory’s 2 million residents to around four hours of electricity a day. Israel has also banned fishing in Gaza’s coastal waters.

Egyptian mediators were in Gaza earlier this week to try and shore up an informal truce but left without announcing any progress. Israel has allowed the Gulf nation of Qatar to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Gaza in recent years to keep the economy from collapsing and preserve calm.

The latest exchange of fire began late Thursday when terrorists fired two rockets that landed near the security fence. A few hours later, a volley of three rockets was intercepted by Israeli missile defenses. Another seven rockets were fired early Friday, six of which were shot down.

The Israeli military said it carried out airstrikes targeting Hamas military infrastructure, including a compound used to manufacture rocket ammunition, in response.

It was the most serious cross-border exchange since February, when the smaller Islamic Jihad terrorist group fired dozens of rockets into Israel after one of its fighters was killed near the border while allegedly planting explosives. Israel struck dozens of targets across the territory.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has directed the army to maintain the highest levels of preparedness and combat readiness to protect Egypt’s national security, like reported by arabnews.com.

During a meeting with various senior military personnel, the president directed them to continue to maintain combat readiness to carry out any tasks entrusted to them, in light of the current challenges in the region.

The meeting came a day after El-Sisi sent an important message to the commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. The message was delivered by the director of the Egyptian Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Khaled Megawer, at the LNA headquarters in Ar Rajma outside the eastern city of Benghazi. The content of the message was not revealed.

The message and El-Sisi’s statements come after the Turkish and Qatari defense ministers visited Tripoli to meet with the Head of Turkish-backed Al-Wefaq Government, Fayez Al-Sarraj.

Libyan media reported that the two ministers held talks about military support with officials in the unconstitutional Al-Sarraj government that currently controls Tripoli. They also held meetings with some senior militia figures.

July 2020, the Egyptian president chaired a meeting of the National Defense Council to discuss the Libyan situation, as well as the Renaissance Dam crisis.

The spokesman for the Egyptian president stated that the council had addressed the country’s current political, security and military situations, within the framework of various regional and international developments.

The council discussed the situation in Libya in the western theater, in light of Egypt’s efforts to stabilize the current situation and to bring peace to all the various parties.

The council affirmed the strong ties between the two countries, and that Egypt would spare no effort to support its neighbor to help its people overcome the current crisis.

Turkey and Qatar are deeply involved in supporting the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Tripoli. Despite the arms embargo, Turkey transports thousands of mercenaries, mainly from jihadist militias in Syria, and arms to the regime. In doing so, it works closely with Qatar, the other major sponsor of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, like reported by anfenglish.com.

This is the first time, however, that Qatar has shown such open support for the Islamists in Libya. For Qatar, the aim is to strengthen its own position vis-à-vis its regional competitor Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is among the opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Ankara-Doha-Tripoli axis.

On Monday, the Turkish and Qatari defence ministers signed a military agreement with the Muslim Brotherhood Government in Tripoli during a visit to the capital. Salah al-Namrutsh, the regime’s deputy defence minister, stated that “an agreement on trilateral cooperation for the establishment of a military training camp has been agreed with Turkey and Qatar”. Military personnel of the “unity government” are now to be trained in the military academies of Turkey and Qatar. Furthermore, the deployment of “military advisors” was contractually agreed upon.

The agreement threatens further escalation in Libya with the interference of neighbouring states. Libya is in the midst of a proxy war in which Turkey wants to assert its neo-Ottoman ambitions against the interests of Russia and Egypt.

Hezbollah purchased and received hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate from Iran in 2013 and 2014, the German Welt paper reported on Wednesday, citing Western intelligence sources.

According to WELT, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards made three deals with Hezbollah at the price of nearly 400,000 Euros between July 2013 and April 2014 – and delivered the goods via land, air and sea.

The smuggling was executed by Hezbollah’s logistics chief Mohammed Qasir. On the Iranian side, the deal was overseen by Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani – who was assassinated by the United States earlier this year in Iraq – as well as Seyyed Mojtaba Moussavi and Tabar and Behnam Shahriyari.

A stock of 2,750 tons of the chemical exploded in Beirut port on August 4, devastating Lebanon’s capital and killing 180 people in one of the biggest blasts in recorded history. However, there is no information linking Hezbollah to the explosion or suggesting that the port stock had originated in Iran.

The explosion was triggered when the stock of ammonium nitrate caught fire. An Israeli analyst said seismological data suggests that six blasts at 11-second intervals preceded the large explosion.

Who was responsible for the explosions and stock has yet to be determined. However, documents have emerged showing the country’s top leadership and security officials were aware of the chemicals stored at the port.

An FBI team is taking part in the probe at the invitation of Lebanese authorities. French investigators are also taking part in the Lebanese-led probe.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said he did not trust any international investigation, adding that any international probe would likely seek to clear Israel of any responsibility in the port explosion. He has denied any connection to the blast or chemical stock, and said the cause of the explosion is still unclear.

Initial information on the blasts suggested that the ammonium nitrate stock had arrived in Beirut port aboard the Rhosus ship sailing from Georgia to Mozambique. Before leaving the Mediterranean, the ship’s captain and two crew members say they were instructed by the Russian businessman they regarded as the ship’s de facto owner to make an unscheduled stop in Beirut and take on extra cargo.

The Rhosus arrived in Beirut in November but never left, becoming tangled in a legal dispute over unpaid port fees and ship defects. Creditors accused the ship’s legal owner, listed as a Panama-based firm, of abandoning the vessel and the cargo was later unloaded and put in a dockside warehouse, according to official accounts.

The empty ship eventually sank where it was moored in 2018, according to Lebanese customs.