Hezbollah is evacuating fighters in anticipation of Israeli attacks, according to a source close to the group

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has promised to “hit the enemy hard” after the rocket attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, which killed twelve children and young people between the ages of 10 and 20.

Israel accuses the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, which supports Hamas in the Gaza Strip, of being behind the attack on Majdal Shams, which the group itself denies.

“Hezbollah has evacuated certain positions in the south and in the Bekaa Valley that they believe could be targets for Israel,” says a source close to the group, speaking on condition of anonymity, to the AFP news agency.

Monthly with gunfire

Hezbollah has a strong presence in the Bekaa Valley, located in eastern Lebanon on the border with Syria, and in southern Lebanon, where the group and Israeli forces have attacked each other almost daily since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year.

The cross-border shootings have largely been limited to the border area between Lebanon and Israel, but Israeli forces have also repeatedly hit targets deep inside Lebanon, including at night.

Evacuations in Syria

Hezbollah is also deployed in Syria, where it has fought for years in support of President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.

The Syrian exile group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Sunday that pro-Iranian groups and Hezbollah-linked fighters had “evacuated their positions” south of the capital and in the Damascus countryside, as well as in parts of the Syrian-controlled Golan Heights, in anticipation of “potential Israeli airstrikes”.

Since Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mostly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including from Hezbollah. The purpose of the raids is to cut Hezbollah’s supply routes to Lebanon.