The Israel Defense Forces has said it attacked military targets of  Hezbollah group in the border area with Lebanon, media reports said.

IDF posted on X: "The IDF recently attacked military targets of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in the border area with Lebanon. Among the targets, an observation post towards the sea was attacked from where anti-tank fire was launched at Rosh Hankara yesterday."

IDF said the attacks were carried out in response to the incidents of shooting at Israel on the last day.

Israel’s northern border has been heating up amid the ongoing war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel towns, and the Hezbollah terror group attacked several Israeli army posts along the border, as skirmishes on the frontier continued on Wednesday (October 18, 2023), reported The Times of Israel.

Meanwhile,  UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland on Wednesday highlighted the need for an inquiry into the strike against a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds, including patients, staff and displaced people seeking shelter.

Wennesland told the Security Council that he “watched in horror and in real time” as reports of mass casualties emerged from Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday (October 17, 2023).

“The circumstances of this catastrophe and responsibility remains and still needs to be clarified.  And we will need a fact-based, full investigation and broad investigation,” he said, speaking from Doha.

Brink of an abyss

Wennesland, officially UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, updated the Council on his efforts to end the current hostilities, which he called one of the most difficult moments facing Israelis and Palestinians in 75 years.

He unequivocally condemned the Hamas militant group’s deadly attacks on Israel on 7 October, and seizure of hostages, saying there is no justification for these acts.

“I fear that we are at the brink of a deep and dangerous abyss that could change the trajectory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, if not of the Middle East as a whole,” he said.

After more than a century of conflict and over half-a-century of occupation, the international community had failed to bring the parties to a just, sustainable political resolution, he said.  The recent events have served to re-ignite grievances and re-animate alliances across the region.

“The risk of an expansion of this conflict is real - very, very real - and extremely dangerous,” he warned.