BRUSSELS, September 24. /TASS/. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called the escalation in Lebanon extremely dangerous and close "to a full-fledged war," Reuters reported.

"This situation is extremely dangerous and worrying. I can say that we are almost in a full-fledged war," the top EU diplomat said at a press conference in New York, pointing to the growing intensity of strikes and the increasing number of casualties.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 250 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the crisis, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported on the West Bank.

Against this backdrop, tensions continue to rise sharply on the Lebanon-Israel border, where constant shelling from Lebanese territory has begun since October 8, to which the Israeli military responds with fire. According to the army press service, Hezbollah targets are being targeted. Eighty thousand people were evacuated from border areas in northern Israel.

The Israeli Air Force carried out massive strikes in southern Lebanon on September 23. Their targets were declared military facilities of the Hezbollah movement. According to the Israeli side, the strikes are being carried out in response to months of shelling of the northern regions of Israel by Hezbollah units, as a result of which tens of thousands of Israelis were evacuated from the border area.