Israeli strikes kill 12 in Lebanon in breach of cease-fire
Israel unleashed its largest wave of airstrikes across Lebanon since agreeing to a cease-fire with Hezbollah last week, killing at least 12 people.
The deadly attacks came after the Lebanese resistance group fired a volley of projectiles as a warning over Israeli truce violations.
The projectiles were apparently the first time that Hezbollah took aim at Israeli forces after the 60-day cease-fire went into effect last Wednesday. The increasingly fragile truce aimed to end more than a year of war between Hezbollah and Israel — part of a wider regional conflict sparked by the devastating Israel’s war in Gaza.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday that an Israeli drone strike on a southern town killed one person. An Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Haris killed five people and wounded two while another airstrike on the village of Tallousa killed four and also wounded two, the ministry said on Monday.
Israel’s military carried out a string of airstrikes late Monday against what it said were Hezbollah fighters, infrastructure and rocket launchers across Lebanon, in response to Hezbollah firing two projectiles toward Mount Dov in the occupied Shebaa Farms in Lebanon.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it fired at an Israeli military position in the area as a “defensive and warning response” after “repeated violations” of the cease-fire deal by the regime. It said complaints to mediators tasked with monitoring the cease-fire “were futile in stopping these violations.”
Before the Hezbollah projectiles, Israel carried out at least four airstrikes and an artillery barrage in southern Lebanon, including a drone strike that killed a person on a motorcycle, according to Lebanese state media. Another strike killed a corporal in the Lebanese security services.