The Message Behind an Israeli Air Strike on Lebanon’s Shi’ite Amal

Jerusalem, 20 November, 2023 (TPS) -- On Monday, an Israeli air strike damaged the home of a Lebanese lawmaker, sending a message to Hezbollah and other influential Shi’ite personalities in Southern Lebanon.

However, the parliamentarian, Kablan Kablan, is affiliated not with Hezbollah but with its close ally, the Amal Movement.

Although Amal’s leader is Nabih Berri, who has served as speaker of Lebanon’s parliament since 1992 and is close to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, Amal opposes escalating tensions along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Kablan is a prominent figure in the Shi’ite communities of Southern Lebanon. He lives in Meiss El Jabal, located close to Kiryat Shemona and Kibbutz Manara Both communities have been frequent targets of Hezbollah rocket fire.

Since Oct. 7, about 80 Hezbollah terrorists have been killed in Israeli preventive and retaliatory strikes. According to Israeli sources, Nasrallah is trying to increase the number of Israelis killed just enough to burnish his “resistance” credentials while at the same time avoiding a destructive all-out war.

Hezbollah’s founders from 1982 were religious members of Amal. At first, Amal and the Iran-backed Hezbollah were bitter rivals, but their mutual interests led to today’s political alliance.

Israel’s message to the powers that be in Southern Lebanon is, “Look what will happen to you if Hezbollah opens up a new front.”

Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on Monday were especially damaging.

A fire broke out in the the Upper Galilee area of Biranit after a Hezbollah terror squad fired rockets and mortar shells from Lebanon.

The military said that it had hit several locations in Lebanon with artillery, which was followed by Hezbollah fire on Kibbutz Bar’am, the Bedouin village of Arab al-Aramshe, and Biranit. The latter is home to the headquarters of the army’s Galilee Division.

Footage posted to social media shows extensive damage to the military base.

IDF and Israel Fire and Rescue Services personnel arrived to extinguish the fire. No casualties were reported. The IDF struck the sources of the launches.

The military updated in the afternoon that IDF tanks, a fighter jet and a helicopter also struck Hezbollah terror infrastructure in response to the earlier launches.

The IDF also reported on Monday afternoon that earlier in the day, forces struck a terror cell attempting to launch anti-tank missiles from the area of Marwahin in southern Lebanon.

A total of 25 launches were identified from Lebanon toward several locations adjacent to the border, with the IDF Aerial Array intercepting some of rockets, while others landed harmlessly in open areas.

The IDF also identified three drones from Lebanon that hit next to an Israeli military post. No injuries were reported. The IDF struck the sources of the launches.