Israel strikes deeper into Lebanon as Hezbollah downs drone

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00:00 Now, Israel's army says it struck Hezbollah targets deep inside Lebanon.

00:05 At least two strikes were conducted earlier today in the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbeck.

00:10 Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have been mounting since the 7th of October, with

00:14 frequent border skirmishes reported.

00:17 We can now go across to France 24's Rawad Taha, standing by in Beirut.

00:22 Rawad, good afternoon.

00:23 What caused Israel to hit a target deep inside Lebanon today?

00:29 It seems that this is an Israeli retaliation to an operation claimed by Hezbollah earlier

00:34 today, this morning, for possibly the first time since the beginning of the war between

00:40 Hezbollah and Israel.

00:42 On October 8th, at the beginning of the daily skirmishes between the two parties, Hezbollah

00:47 was able to down an Israeli surveillance unmanned drone.

00:53 The drone was hit with a surface-to-air missile by Hezbollah.

00:58 This is a significant advancement of Hezbollah's air defense capabilities.

01:04 And thus, Israel retaliated with significant airstrikes deep into Lebanon, and specifically

01:12 deep into the northern part of the Bekaa Valley, near the city of Baalbeck, where they attacked

01:19 a hangar where supposedly local authorities claimed it contained food supplies and another

01:28 four-story building.

01:30 Casualties out of these two airstrikes in Baalbeck are two civilians and two Hezbollah

01:36 fighters, according to what intelligence and military sources confirmed to France 24.

01:42 Now, Rawad, since the 7th of October, we've had both Israel and the United States warn

01:47 Hezbollah not to get involved in this conflict.

01:51 We have seen skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah, but they've been mainly around

01:54 the border.

01:56 Could these strikes today risk the conflict, the current conflict, escalating?

02:01 We've actually seen this conflict escalating gradually since October 8th.

02:06 The distance from which Hezbollah has fired from and the distance from which the Israelis

02:13 have attacked has gradually increased over time.

02:17 We've seen Israeli precision strikes, in particular targeting Hamas or Hezbollah officials in

02:23 areas that are not so close to the border, deep into southern Lebanon, deep into other

02:28 areas of Lebanon.

02:30 We've seen the precision strike by the Israelis in Beirut's southern suburbs when they assassinated

02:37 Hamas official Saleh al-Aruri.

02:41 And this latest round of airstrikes earlier today in the Bekaa Valley, near the city of

02:47 Baalbek, which was attacked for the first time in this war and for the first time since

02:52 the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, definitely indicates that what we are seeing

02:59 is a gradual intensification of this war and a gradual spillover into what could possibly

03:06 be a much larger conflict if the diplomatic efforts in reaching a deal as soon as possible

03:13 is not available.

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