BEIRUT: Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed eight members of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement on Saturday.
A civil defense paramedic also died of his wounds after being shot in the head by Israeli forces several days ago.
Burkan rockets launched by Hezbollah hit an Israeli military site in the Western Galilee region.
Israeli military reconnaissance aircraft flew over the villages of the western and central sectors throughout Friday night into Saturday, reaching the outskirts of the city of Tyre.
The Israeli army also fired flash bombs over the border villages adjacent to the Blue Line in the western and central sectors.
At dawn, Israeli forces fired weapons toward the outskirts of the towns of Ramyah and Aita Al-Shaab from their positions.
Saturday was marked by intensive Israeli airstrikes on targets in southern Lebanon.
Jets raided a courtyard near Beaufort Castle in the Nabatieh area, north of the Litani Line, targeting an abandoned room.
The town of Marjayoun was hit by Israeli airstrikes on Friday night for the first time since the start of hostilities on Oct. 8, targeting a center affiliated with the Amal Movement, a Hezbollah ally.
Hezbollah, a close ally of the Palestinian group Hamas, says its campaign aims to pressure Israel to end its war in Gaza.
The town of Khiam was hit by intense artillery and phosphorus shelling in the early morning.
Israeli jets also attacked a house in the town of Tayr Harfa, without causing casualties.
Another airstrike targeted the town of Labbouneh on the outskirts of Naqoura.
Lebanon’s civil defense crews worked throughout Friday night to recover the bodies of two victims from under the rubble of a destroyed home in Mays Al-Jabal, which was targeted by Israeli airstikes.
Israeli Army Radio said that warning sirens sounded in the town of Shlomi in the Western Galilee.
Hezbollah said that it targeted a group of Israeli soldiers near the military site of Ramya with artillery fire.
It also announced the targeting of the Israeli military site of Malikiya with “a precision missile strike.”
Hezbollah also targeted the Israeli site of Jal Al-Alam in the Western Galilee.
According to the government displacement crisis management committee in Lebanon, hostile operations have resulted in 331 deaths and about 1,000 injuries.
Additionally, 75 public and private schools in border and background towns have been closed since the start of the war.
About 790 hectares of agricultural land has been damaged and 340,000 livestock killed.
A recent government survey conducted in tandem with international organizations found that about 140,000 people have been displaced in Lebanese border towns.
Of these, about 93,000 have registered with municipalities while 60,000 remain in conflict areas.
8 Hezbollah, Amal fighters killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon
https://arab.news/nncbc
8 Hezbollah, Amal fighters killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon
- Israeli military reconnaissance aircraft flew over the villages of the western and central sectors throughout Friday night into Saturday
- At dawn, Israeli forces fired weapons toward the outskirts of the towns of Ramyah and Aita Al-Shaab from their positions
High-level Turkish team to visit Damascus on Monday for talks on SDF integration
- The visit by Turkiye’s foreign and defense ministers and its intelligence chief comes amid efforts by Syrian, Kurdish and US officials to show some progress with the deal
ANKARA: A high-level Turkish delegation will visit Damascus on Monday to discuss bilateral ties and the implementation of a deal for integrating the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into Syria’s state apparatus, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said.
The visit by Turkiye’s foreign and defense ministers and its intelligence chief comes amid efforts by Syrian, Kurdish and US officials to show some progress with the deal. But Ankara accuses the SDF of stalling ahead of a year-end deadline.
Turkiye views the US-backed SDF, which controls swathes of northeastern Syria, as a terrorist organization and has warned of military action if the group does not honor the agreement.
Last week Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara hoped to avoid resorting to military action against the SDF but that its patience was running out.
The Foreign Ministry source said Fidan, Defense Minister Yasar Guler and the head of Turkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, Ibrahim Kalin, would attend the talks in Damascus, a year after the fall of former President Bashar Assad.
TURKEY SAYS ITS NATIONAL SECURITY IS AT STAKE
The source said the integration deal “closely concerned Turkiye’s national security priorities” and the delegation would discuss its implementation. Turkiye has said integration must ensure that the SDF’s chain of command is broken.
Sources have previously told Reuters that Damascus sent a proposal to the SDF expressing openness to reorganizing the group’s roughly 50,000 fighters into three main divisions and smaller brigades as long as it cedes some chains of command and opens its territory to other Syrian army units.
Turkiye sees the SDF as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and says it too must disarm and dissolve itself, in line with a disarmament process now underway between the Turkish state and the PKK.
Ankara has conducted cross-border military operations against the SDF in the past. It accuses the group of wanting to circumvent the integration deal and says this poses a threat to both Turkiye and the unity of Syria.
