The Israeli military is racing to harden its border with Lebanon, preparing for a potential second front in its war against Islamist militants.
Israeli soldiers clean the barrel of a howitzer Wednesday near the border with Lebanon in northern Israel. SHTULA, Israel — One hundred fifteen miles from Gaza, Israel was racing to harden its border with Lebanon on Wednesday, preparing for a potential second front in its war against Islamist militants. In Shtula and other small towns in this hilly region, fears are rising that Hezbollah will join the fight.
The IDF says at least five Israelis have been killed, including three soldiers in a shootout with a Hezbollah gunman who infiltrated the area. The lone civilian fatality, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, was hit Sunday while working at a construction site in this hilltop town just yards from the border fence.
Civilians on both sides of the border, where neighborhoods are close enough for Israelis and Lebanese to see and hear one another, were bracing for the possibility that their home will again become a war zone — as it was in 2006 during a 34-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.Ahmed Deeb, the mayor of the Lebanese border village of Wazzani, said Israeli shells had already landed on his town’s outskirts. But most of the town’s residents are poor, and few were thinking of leaving.
Guy Becker, 52, said the majority of people in his border kibbutz of Baram had relocated to a single hotel in Tiberias, 19 miles to the south. He and his wife and two daughters tried several locations before deciding it was more comfortable to ride it out with their 400 fellow residents, he said.
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