‘The safe room was shaking like crazy’: Tensions run high in northern Israel

The situation in Israel took a troubling turn on Sunday morning as mortars were fired from Lebanese territory towards Mount Dov in northern Israel.

By Sveta Listratov, TPS

Israel shot down an aerial drone that entered the country’s northern skies from Lebanon, raising tensions among already-frayed residents.

“I heard the shooting today; the safe room was shaking like crazy; it was awfully close,” Vicki Tiferet, a resident of Moshav Kfar Yuval told the Tazpit Press Service.

As a local emergency deputy and a Hatzalah volunteer, Tiferet has been busy assisting residents who decided to leave the area as recommended by the army officials.

“Yesterday, as the events in the south started unfolding, we immediately started preparing in terms of equipment and everything needed for evacuating and also for taking care of those who chose to stay,” the mother of four added.

More than 600 people live on the moshav, which abuts the Israel-Lebanon border.

Israel was rocked by a surprise attack on Saturday by Hamas, as terrorists infiltrated Israeli communities on the Gaza border, taking hostages. The death toll from the rampages and rocket barrages stands at 600 and is expected to climb.

The situation took a troubling turn on Sunday morning as mortars were fired from Lebanese territory towards Mount Dov in northern Israel. The Israel Defense Forces retaliated with artillery fire and also destroyed a Hezbollah outpost the terror group managed to provocatively set up several meters inside the Israeli side of the border, though outside Israel’s security fence,

The IDF also responded to suspects approaching the perimeter fence along the border by firing flares, effectively thwarting their approach.

Doron Shnaper, the spokesperson for the nearby Kiryat Shmona municipality, told TPS “We are prepared for any situation; we have switched to emergency mode.”

The town of over 22,000 residents is about two km (one mile) from the Lebanese border.

“I hope we will not have to prove our abilities. Our resilience is excellent, and the residents demonstrate a spirit of volunteering in the community. They also trust the IDF, despite the events that happened yesterday,” said Shnaper, who has lived in the town for decades.

Israeli military reservists have been mobilized to reinforce security.

The Israel-Lebanon Border

The Blue Line demarcating the 120 km-long border was created in 2000 by UN cartographers to verify Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, which the UN Security Council later certified as complete. The border runs from Rosh HaNikra on the Mediterranean coast to Mount Dov, where the Israeli-Lebanese border converges with Syria. Hezbollah says it does not recognize the Blue Line and disputes numerous points along the border.

Among those points is a strip of land on Mount Dov itself, which Israel captured from Syria. Hezbollah claims the area called Shebaa Farms belongs to Lebanon. Syria has not commented on the matter.

International peacekeepers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) have been deployed in southern Lebanon to monitor the border since 1978.

Hezbollah has in the past year constructed no fewer than 27 military posts along the border.

The posts were built under the guise of Green Without Borders, a Hezbollah-affiliated organization that poses as an environmental NGO. Hezbollah launched the project in parallel to Israel’s construction of a fortified perimeter fence along the entire border. Israel’s effort to fortify the border was prompted by the discovery of Hezbollah cross-border attack tunnels in 2018.

According to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the terror group is forbidden from operating near the border and Israeli officials have been critical of UNIFIL’s inability to stop Hezbollah.

Hezbollah perceives Israeli social divisions over a controversial judicial overhaul initiative as a sign of weakness.