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
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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”
NGOs condemn settler attack on activists in West Bank
- Herzog said on X he strongly condemned the violence that “stands in complete opposition to the values of the State of Israel“
- The attack occurred in the Palestinian village of Qusra in the northern West Bank
JERUSALEM: Two Israeli NGOs denounced an attack Friday in which settlers used sticks to beat two activists in the occupied West Bank, calling the incident “state violence” and “Jewish terrorism.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on X he strongly condemned the violence that “stands in complete opposition to the values of the State of Israel.”
“This serious incident adds to a series of recent... unacceptable events that harm, above all, the (West Bank colonization) enterprise and the reputation of the State of Israel,” he added.
The attack occurred in the Palestinian village of Qusra in the northern West Bank.
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem released a video filmed by one of the activists, which showed at least four masked men armed with sticks jumping out of a four-wheel drive vehicle that arrived at high speed.
Someone was then heard yelling “No, please, no” in Hebrew, followed by thuds and cries of pain, before the attackers departed.
Two people were left on the ground, one of them motionless and stretched out face down with a bleeding head.
Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom said the two wounded individuals, who are in their fifties, were taken by helicopter to a hospital in Israel.
The Israeli military said it was searching for suspects.
Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law.
Around three million Palestinians live in the territory, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
In recent months, attacks attributed to Israeli settlers have multiplied in the West Bank, targeting Palestinians, Israeli and foreign anti-settlement activists and sometimes Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli government, considered one of the most right-wing in the country’s history, has fast-tracked settlement expansion.
B’Tselem said “the unrestrained attacks carried out by settlers throughout the West Bank constitute state violence.”
“They are carried out with full backing, participation, and assistance from state authorities, as part of a strategy of Israel’s apartheid regime seeking to advance and complete the takeover of Palestinian land,” it added.
Avi Dabush, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, said “the blood of our friends is on the hands of those who support and finance Jewish terrorism, either directly, through the government or by turning a blind eye.”
He also condemned “the army’s impotence” in a statement that called on “Israeli society to pull itself together ... in order to put an end to this endemic terrorism.”
