JERUSALEM, Jan 18, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Israel's army chief said Wednesday the likelihood of war breaking out on the country's northern border with Lebanon has become "much higher".
 
   "I don't know when the war in the north is, I can tell you that the likelihood of it happening in the coming months is much higher than it was in the past," Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said in a statement during a visit to northern Israel.
 
   The Lebanese-Israeli border has seen near daily exchanges of fire between Israel's army and Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.
 
   Hamas's armed wing said Wednesday it had fired 20 rockets from southern Lebanon towards Israel in response to the "massacres" in Gaza and the killing of the group's deputy leader in Beirut earlier this month.
 
   The Israeli army said Wednesday it had carried out air strikes in southern Lebanon, including on "terrorist infrastructure sites and a number of active launchers".
 
   Israel on Tuesday launched its most intense attacks on a single location in Lebanon's south, targeting a border valley with air strikes and artillery, a local official and a security source told AFP.
 
   Over 190 people have been killed in Lebanon during more than three months of violence, including more than 140 Hezbollah fighters and over 20 civilians, among them three journalists, according to an AFP tally.
 
   In northern Israel, nine soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.