BEIRUT: A day of tragedy occurred on the southern Lebanese front on Wednesday after Israeli airstrikes targeted several villages. There were some deaths, including a woman and two children, while at least nine others were injured. Some of the victims remained buried under rubble.
The Israeli warplanes initiated the series of airstrikes following an attack by Iran-backed Hezbollah on Israeli military sites — involving precise and long-range missiles — near the city of Safed.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, said: “We either initiate a full-scale war against Hezbollah or the Israeli public will be informed that there is no government.”
Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of Yisrael Beiteinu, said: “The red line turned into a white flag, and the War Cabinet surrendered to Hezbollah and lost the north.”
The mayor of Safed said that “Hezbollah missiles fell on military bases around the city and not inside it.”
The Iron Dome failed to intercept the last missile, and an Israeli spokesman said: “One person was killed in the bombing and seven were wounded, three seriously.”
Israeli media said that the wounded were “Israeli soldiers.”
Israeli fighter jets conducted multiple airstrikes on the town of Adshit in Nabatieh, targeting a three-story building.
One person was reportedly killed in the attack, while several were unaccounted for under the debris.
Ambulance teams were engaged in the rescue operation, working diligently to clear the rubble and search for survivors.
One of the raids also targeted a house in the town of Al-Sowanah, killing a Syrian woman, Rawaa Mohammed, and two of her stepchildren, Hassan Mohsen, 13, and his brother Amir, 2.
Israeli warplanes simultaneously targeted the towns of Basalia and Jbaa in Nabatieh, the outskirts of Zhalta in Jezzine, and a property in Kfardonin.
Airstrikes also targeted the area south of the coastal town of Naqoura, while the Israeli Iron Dome was activated to intercept missiles near the town of Marwahin.
Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli War Council, said: “The responsibility for launching rockets from Lebanon does not lie only with Hezbollah, but with the state of Lebanon as well. The response to targeting northern Israel will be strong.”
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday referenced those who threatened an expansion of the war, saying: “We threaten them with expansion as well, and whoever imagines that the resistance in Lebanon feels, even for a single moment, fear or confusion, is completely mistaken.”
Nasrallah said Hezbollah was “monitoring all developments in the region, and all possibilities are open. When the aggression against Gaza stops, the war in the south will stop.”
He added: “The enemy is fighting on the southern Lebanese front within limits and controls.”
Several killed, including 2 children, in Israeli raids on southern Lebanon following Hezbollah strike
https://arab.news/mx2g6
Several killed, including 2 children, in Israeli raids on southern Lebanon following Hezbollah strike
- The Israeli warplanes initiated the series of airstrikes following an attack by Iran-backed Hezbollah on Israeli military sites near Safed
- Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of Yisrael Beiteinu, said: “The red line turned into a white flag, and the War Cabinet surrendered to Hezbollah and lost the north”
Soleimani warned Al-Assad about ‘spy’ Luna Al-Shibl: Al-Majalla
LONDON: The late Iranian General Qassem Soleimani confronted Syria’s National Security Bureau chief Ali Mamlouk in late 2019 after seeing Luna Al-Shibl leaving his office. Al-Majalla magazine claims its reporters reviewed a document containing the full Arabic transcript of their exchange.
Soleimani reportedly asked, “Who is this?” and Mamlouk replied, “She is Louna Al-Shibl, the president’s adviser.”
The Quds Force commander pressed further: “I know, I know… but who is she really? Where did she work?”
According to Al-Majalla, a sister publication of Arab News, he said her former salary was “ten thousand dollars,” compared with her current salary of “five hundred thousand Syrian pounds,” before asking: “Does it make sense for someone to leave ten thousand dollars for five hundred thousand pounds? She is a spy.”
Both Soleimani and Maher Al-Assad, commander of the Syrian army’s powerful Fourth Division, had warned the ousted president’s inner circle about Al-Shibl, Al-Majalla reported.
‘Suspicious’ car crash
On July 2, 2024, Al-Shibl was involved in what officials described as a traffic accident on the Damascus-Dimas highway. She was hospitalized and died four days later.
But Al-Majalla reported that photos of her armored BMW showed only minor damage, raising immediate questions among those close to the case.
Eyewitnesses told the magazine that the crash was intentional. One said, “a car approached and rammed her vehicle,” and before her bodyguard could exit, “a man attacked her and struck her on the back of the head,” causing paralysis that led to her death.
She was first taken to Al-Saboura clinic, then transferred to Al-Shami Hospital. Several senior regime-linked figures, including businessman Mohammed Hamsho and an aide to Maher Al-Assad, were present when her condition deteriorated. One witness told Al-Majalla that when her bodyguard tried to explain what had happened, “he was arrested immediately in front of the others.”
The presidency later issued a brief statement announcing her death. Her funeral was attended only by a handful of officials. Then president Al-Assad did not attend.
