Israel closes beaches and restricts gatherings as tensions with Hezbollah rise

JERUSALEM

Amid escalating tensions with the Lebanese Hezbollah group, the Israeli army on Saturday ordered the closure of beaches and restricted gatherings and educational activities in northern Israel.

“Changes in defense policy have been decided for the Home Front Command in Lower Galilee, Upper Galilee, Central Galilee and some settlements in the (occupied Syrian) Golan Heights,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a statement.

The area named by the army spokesman stretches from the city of Haifa to the border with Lebanon, the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

Hagari said the changes included limiting gatherings to a maximum of 30 people outdoors and 300 people indoors.

He added that educational activities could be carried out in places that provide access to protected areas.

The military spokesman said beaches in these areas would remain closed to the public as part of current security measures.

The new instructions came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an emergency meeting on Saturday evening to assess the security situation on the border with Lebanon.

Cabinet ministers and senior security officials attended the meeting, Yedioth Ahronoth said.

Israel is on high alert as it expects an imminent response from Hezbollah to Friday's deadly attack that killed at least 38 people, including children and women, and wounded dozens more in a southern suburb of Beirut.

Hezbollah confirmed that at least 16 of its members were killed in the Israeli attack, including its leader Ibrahim Aqil and its commander-in-chief Ahmed Wahbi.

The attack came two days after two waves of wireless communications equipment explosions across Lebanon killed at least 37 people and injured more than 3,000 others.

While the Lebanese government and Hezbollah blame Israel for the explosions, Tel Aviv has neither denied nor confirmed its involvement.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in a cross-border war since the start of Israel's war on Gaza. The war left nearly 41,400 people, mostly women and children, dead following a cross-border attack by Hamas on October 7 last year.

*Written by Rania Abu Shamala

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