Woman killed, people wounded as Israel hits south in response to Hezbollah drones
An Israeli airstrike on a house in the southern town of Arab Salim killed a young woman and wounded several people on Thursday, as Israel launched a wave of airstrikes outside the so-called security zone in response to an alleged Hezbollah drone attack.
The National News Agency said the woman "had been married for 48 hours."
The Israeli strikes also targeted Nabatieh al-Fawqa, Kfar Rumman and the Ali al-Taher heights.
The Israeli army later claimed that it struck “warehouses in which weapons belonging to ... Hezbollah were stored, intended to harm IDF (Israeli army) forces and the citizens of the State of Israel.”
Earlier in the day, the Israeli army said that Hezbollah had launched two explosive drones at its forces in the Ali al-Taher area overnight, causing no casualties.
Israeli “troops fired and downed one of the drones, and contact was lost with the second drone,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
The Israeli army “will not allow ... Hezbollah to operate against (its) forces in the security zone” and “is currently operating and will continue to operate forcefully against its repeated attempts to harm” its forces, it added.
Strikes and shelling had targeted overnight into Thursday Ali al-Taher, al-Mansouri, Mayfadoun, Zawtar al-Sharqiyeh, and Mays al-Jabal while Israeli forces bulldozed, burned and detonated houses in the southern border village of Mays al-Jabal.
Israel has increased its attacks on south Lebanon in recent days, particularly in the Nabatieh area where the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge is located.
Israel has previously said Hezbollah fighters are holed up in "underground terror infrastructure" there.
On August 15, Lebanon said Israeli strikes killed 11 people including several children, as Israel's military said it launched raids in retaliation for a Hezbollah attack and that it killed two of the group's commanders.
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict on March 2 by attacking Israel in support of its backer Iran, triggering massive Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion that Lebanese authorities say have killed more than 4,300 people.
Israeli forces are operating inside a self-declared "security zone", which runs around 10 kilometers deep inside Lebanese territory along the border.
Violence has dropped since a U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding on the broader conflict in June and a framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon later that month.
But Lebanon still reports Israeli strikes, artillery shelling and broad demolitions of civilian buildings in southern villages and towns.
Source: Naharnet, Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://prod.naharnet.com/stories/en/322108 |