Escalation ends, but Israel-Hezbollah tensions remain

An escalation between Israel and Hezbollah has ended after a brief exchange of fire, but tensions remained high along the Lebanese border Monday after the enemies traded accusations. Residents returned to life as normal on both sides of the border, though burnt fields could be seen and the Israeli military had established new checkpoints.

Schools were open in the Israeli village of Avivim, from which the Lebanese town of Maroun al-Ras is clearly visible on a nearby hill. "The war can start in a minute. I am worried it could happen," said Dudu Peretz, 35, as he dropped his son off at kindergarten.

In southern Lebanon, farmers returned to their fields and the United Nations force tasked with monitoring the border area resumed its patrols, an AFP journalist said. "We're used to this kind of thing," said Ali al-Safari, a resident of Bint Jbeil on the Lebanese side of the border. "We remain determined and calm." Sunday's incident, which caused no casualties, followed a week of rising tensions that included what the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite movement described as an Israeli drone strike on its Beirut stronghold on August 25.

Israel has not acknowledged that attack but in its wake it published what it said were details of Hezbollah's efforts with Tehran to produce precision-guided missiles on Lebanese soil. Hezbollah had warned of retaliation, and on Sunday fired anti-tank missiles from Lebanon at an Israeli battalion headquarters near Avivim and at a vehicle Israel said was a military ambulance.

Israel retaliated with around 100 artillery shells targeting the squad that fired the missiles. Hezbollah said it had destroyed an Israeli military vehicle and killed and wounded those inside -- a claim refuted by Israel.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV on Monday aired footage purporting to show a missile being launched towards a moving armoured vehicle before an explosion sends large clouds of white smoke into the sky. Al-Manar's presenter said two Kornet anti-tank missiles had been fired at the target, 1.5 kilometres (one mile) from the border.

The Syrian government hailed Hezbollah's actions. "The Syrian Arab Republic expresses its pride at the... operation that the Lebanese national resistance carried out against the military patrol of the Zionist occupier," a source at the ministry of foreign affairs told state news agency SANA.

Israeli media reported that the military staged evacuation of two supposedly injured soldiers, who were not in fact wounded, in order to deescalate the situation.