'We are surrounded': Guarding the Middle East's most dangerous border - BBC News

Clashes between Israel and Hezbollah are intensifying as the risk of a wider regional conflict grows.

4 days agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsIsrael-Gaza warImage caption, Barbed wire fencing and cameras run along the border at the Israeli town of MetulaBy Jeremy BowenInternational editor, MetulaIt is a lonely drive to Israel's most northern town, Metula, along a spur of land that is surrounded on three sides by Lebanon. That means it is also surrounded on three sides by Lebanon's most powerful armed group, Hezbollah.

The soldiers at the checkpoint on the edge of Metula were all local men, mostly middle-aged reservists with no illusions about the force on the other side of the border.

As the rain lashed down on a miserable, foggy night, one of them, who did not want his name to be published, used his finger to traverse the compass, pointing to the border and Hezbollah's positions.

"To the west a quarter of a mile, to north half a mile and another half mile to the east. So, we are 300 degrees surrounded by the Hezbollah." The other 60 degrees, he said, included the steep road back down to the rest of Israel.

The Gaza war that started after Hamas attacked on 7 October, killing around 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, has been devastating. The Israeli offensive that followed has, so far, killed well over 27,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and inflicted severe damage on Gaza.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68231543?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

---