At least three Katyusha rockets, fired from south Lebanon and aimed at northern Israel, caused the wounding of some people. Israel promptly retaliated with five artillery shells that were sent as “a pinpoint response at the source of fire.” Israel earlier had intelligence reports about rocket attacks from Lebanon that can happen even before Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were to assault Gaza.

Lebanon, however, has immediately declared that the rocket attacks did not come from the Hezbollah. But Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened harsh response should Israel attack Lebanon. The situation is far more than tense. Hezbollah emerged in the 1980s and soon after became the region’s leading Islamist fundamentalist group. The Arab world recognizes the group as a legitimate resistance movement. However, the US, Israel, Canada, and the Netherlands have declared the Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

The Middle East is in severe political crisis right now. Israel seems to be caught between the two militant groups of Hamas in Palestine and the Hezbollah of Lebanon. Israel’s offensive in Gaza, as well as its stubbornness to accept any truce proposal, is putting itself at the beginning of an explosive series of events that is ready to blow up any time soon. Now on its second week of air and ground assaults in Gaza, Israel has started a crisis situation whose end is not apparent to anybody.

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Via Haaretz