Israel Launches Wave of Strikes Across South Lebanon
BEIRUT (Dispatches) – The
Israeli military has launched several air raids across south Lebanon, killing at least one person, Lebanon’s National News Agency reports, as it intensifies its attacks in the country, in the latest violations of a ceasefire agreement. Lebanon’s Health Ministry also reported a second person shot dead by Israeli forces in a separate attack.
The strikes on Thursday targeted areas near the towns of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, Beit Lif, Ramia, al-Bisariya, Wadi al-Safa and al-Sarira. Low-flying Israeli jets and drones were also reported in several regions of southern Lebanon.
An Israeli drone strike killed a municipal worker operating a water well in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, according to the town’s mayor, Zein Ali Ghandour.
Ghandour said on Thursday that the victim, Mahmoud Hasan Atwi, was “martyred” while on his official duty of trying to provide water for the people of the town.
“We condemn in the strongest terms this blatant aggression against civilians and civilian infrastructure as well as the Lebanese state and its institutions,” the mayor said in a statement.
Ghandour called on the international community to press the issue and put an end to Israeli violations.
The Zionist regime’s military had claimed that it fired at a “Hezbollah operative” who it said was “rehabilitating a site” used by the group.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry later reported that a person was killed by Israeli gunfire on the Lebanese border town of Kfar Kila.
The occupying regime has been carrying out near-daily attacks in Lebanon in violation of the ceasefire agreement it reached with Hezbollah in November of last year, causing mostly civilian deaths and injuries.
Last week, the Israeli military launched a wave of air strikes across south Lebanon that it said targeted Hezbollah infrastructure.
The regime has also been regularly firing at fields and civilian homes on the Lebanese side of the border.
In an earlier attack on Thursday, an Israeli drone dropped a stun grenade on the southern village of Beit Lif, injuring at least one person, the National News Agency reported.
Israel claims that its attacks are in enforcement of the ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to pull its forces to the north of the Litani River, about 30km, from the border, in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolution 1701.
But the Israeli military has been carrying out strikes in the entire country, not just south of the river. Israel has bombed the Lebanese capital Beirut several times this year.
Early in April, an Israeli strike assassinated a Hezbollah official and killed three others in the Beirut suburbs of Dahiyeh.