By Bassam Zaazaa -- .thenational.ae -- Israeli forces on Monday said they exchanged fire with Hezbollah fighters along the country’s northern border with Lebanon, in the heaviest fighting between the bitter enemies in almost a year. The Israel army said it foiled a Hezbollah attempt to infiltrate its territory after a cell of four fighters crossed the Lebanese borders and exchanged fire with Israeli forces. The military said it had ordered residents along the border to remain indoors as local media reported an exchange of artillery fire near Shebaa Farms, where explosions were heard. Hezbollah dismissed the Israeli claims about "purported skirmishes".

But the attack by the Iran-backed militia was in response to the killing of one of its fighters in an Israeli strike on the edge of Damascus last Monday, a Lebanese source told Reuters. The Israeli army said a “security incident” had taken place. It said it had blocked roads and told people to avoid “non-essential” travel. Israel’s public broadcast channel Kan said there had been an exchange of fire. Israeli army spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said the military thwarted "an attempt to infiltrate into Israel” by a group of armed militants. “We know for certain that they were armed and that they crossed the Blue Line into Israel,” Lt Col Conricus said. The militia rejected the accusations. Hezbollah "confirms that it did not take part in any clash and did not open fire in today's events until now", it said. "All that the enemy's media is claiming about thwarting an infiltration operation from Lebanon into occupied Palestine is completely false." Andrea Tenenti, spokesman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, said the head of mission and force commander, Maj Gen Stefano Del Col, contacted both sides to assess the situation and ease tension. Gen Del Col urged both parties to exercise "maximum restraint".

by arabnews.com -- NAJIA HOUSSARI -- BEIRUT: Lebanon’s government was accused on Saturday of botching its response to the coronavirus pandemic and urged to impose a tough new lockdown after the average number of daily cases doubled in a week. The state coronavirus committee of medical specialists has advised closing markets, bars, nightclubs, indoor pools, children’s clubs and sports halls, and banning beach parties and religious and social events for a week. “If Lebanon continues to witness an increase in cases of infection, and as long as the Lebanese do not adhere to the preventive and precautionary measures, then we must get to this level,” Dr. Abdel-Rahman Bizri, a member of the national committee for infectious diseases, told Arab News. The number of cases of COVID-19 infections in Lebanon passed 3,400 on Saturday, and the death toll rose to 46. The number of infections during the past week increased from 75 cases a day to 166. “We are currently wavering between the third and fourth phase in confronting the virus, which means that we reached the stage of societal reproduction because the virus is internally spread and not being transmitted by people coming from abroad,” Bizri said.

by middleeastmonitor.com — The Lebanese Army said Israel violated Lebanon’s airspace 29 times in the past 48 hours, Alaraby English reported. The …