Violent day in the South: two Lebanese soldiers killed, two peacekeepers injured

Friday was particularly violent in South Lebanon, where Lebanese soldiers were killed in Israeli strikes and UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) peacekeepers injured.

“The Israeli enemy fired on an army post in the town of Kafra (caza of Bint Jbeil), in South Lebanon, killing two and wounding three,” the Lebanese army wrote on its X account. In the evening, outgoing Lebanese Prime Minister Nagib Mikati “condemned the Israeli aggression in Kafra” in a statement from his press office “These perpetual Israeli crimes do not spare our brave soldiers who fulfill their national duty, protect our lands. and our people. And the international community remains silent. We need global awareness to put an end to this aggression,” the text underlines.

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Two peacekeepers injured in new attack, “accidentally” according to the Israeli army

Commenting on Israel’s attacks against civilians, UNIFIL and the Lebanese army, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berry said it was “a clear-cut assassination attempt on Resolution 1701.” of the UN”. “We confront the international community with its responsibilities, it must act to put an end to the war of annihilation that Israel is waging against Lebanon and against everything linked to the rules of morality, humanity and international legitimacy,” he said in a press release.

UNIFIL: Israel justifies itself by “a threat”

LUNIFIL announced Friday that its headquarters in Naqoura “was hit by explosions for the second time in 48 hours.” The press release specifies that “two peacekeepers were injured after two explosions occurred near an observation tower”. One of the injured was transferred to Tire hospital, while the other is being treated in Naqoura.

After initially claiming that these soldiers had been injured “accidentally”, the Israeli army indicated that “soldiers operating in South Lebanon identified an immediate threat against them and responded with fire in the direction of the threat “. An “initial review” clarified that during the incident “a shot hit a UNIFIL post located approximately 50 meters from the source of the threat, resulting in the injury of two UNIFIL personnel,” the text continues.

Later in the day, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an attack on a gathering of Israeli soldiers in Ras Naqoura, in the Tire district. The day before, the Shiite party had claimed to have attacked Israeli soldiers advancing towards Ras Naqoura, destroying a tank and preventing the soldiers from recovering the victims of this attack.

Tragedy in Mays el-Jabal

In the Bint Jbeil district, strikes in Yater killed three people and hit a Civil Defense center of the Islamic Health Committee, affiliated with Hezbollah. In the same caza, in Bourj Qalaway, three people were killed in airstrikes, according to a source from the emergency services. Another bombing which reached Jibchit, in the caza of Nabatiyé, left at least one dead, according to our correspondent in the South. An Israeli strike on Majdel Zoun also reportedly caused casualties.

Another tragedy on Friday: the village of Mays el-Jabal announced that several of its residents displaced to Beirut died in the Israeli strike which hit a building in Basta on Thursday evening. Among the victims are Ali Youssef Ammar and his two granddaughters, Joud Ammar (3 years old) and Tala Choucair (7 years old), as well as Ali Kabalan and his two daughters, Tia (9 years old) and Léa (6 years old). Ali Ammar had already lost his daughter and family in an Israeli attack in May.

The Israeli air force bombed several villages in the South throughout the day: Blat, Batoulié, Bazouriyé, Arnoun, Kfar Remmane, Kfar Tebnit, Mahmoudiyé, Kfar Hammam, Majdel Selm, Wadi Berghoz, Jbaa, Kherbet Selm, Beit Lif, Mays el-Jabal and Houla. Strikes also targeted an area between Kfar Hammam and Halta, the outskirts of Zaoutar el-Gharbiyé in the caza of Nabatiyé, as well as the outskirts of Zrariyé, near Saïda. The Bekaa was not spared either. An air raid hit the area around el-Ain north of Baalbeck, while an attack in Bouday caused at least five deaths. Two buildings in Karak, already hit the day before, were completely destroyed by new raids. Another strike also hit an area between Yohmor and Sohmor, in West Bekaa.

Drone attacks on Haifa

For its part, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an attack with “trapped drones” on the “air defense headquarters in Kiryat Eliyezer”, a neighborhood near the port of Haifa. This strike took place at 8:30 a.m., simultaneously with a rocket attack that targeted Zvulun, north of the city, according to separate statements from the Shiite party.

At the same time, warning sirens sounded in Acre and Haifa after the intrusion of a “hostile flying machine”, according to the daily Haaretz. The Israeli military said 25 rockets were fired from Lebanon, some of which were intercepted, while others fell in “open” areas without causing casualties. At 10:50 a.m., Hezbollah also struck with rockets “the village of Kfar Szold”, located about ten kilometers southeast of the Blue Line, near the occupied Syrian Golan.

In the morning, Hezbollah had already claimed several strikes against Israeli positions near the Lebanese border. An anti-tank missile strike from Lebanon killed a Thai worker in Yiron, on the border. The Shiite party also claimed to have launched “a massive barrage of rockets” on a deployment of Israeli soldiers “in the Yiftah barracks and its surroundings”, opposite the Lebanese village of Blida (Bint Jbeil). Another strike targeted “technical equipment” at the al-Abad site, opposite Houla (Marjeyoun), with a “guided missile”, according to Hezbollah. The party also fired rockets at a deployment of Israeli soldiers in Ya’ara, a village near the border, opposite Alma el-Shaab (Tyr), as well as at another gathering in the Shomera region, in the northern Israel, opposite Marwahine (Tyr), and in the region of Tell Chaar, opposite the Lebanese village of Rmeich (Bint Jbeil).

“We will not stop”

“We will not stop until we bring back the residents safe and sound,” Israeli Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi said in the middle of a house presented as being located in a village from South Lebanon, in a video published on social networks by the Israeli army.

Avichay Adraee, Arabic-speaking spokesperson for the Israeli army, published on the X network images of a room full of weapons that he claims belong to Hezbollah and seized by Israeli forces in villages in Lebanon -South. He described these weapons as “sophisticated, some of Iranian manufacture”, specifying that his army “will not allow Hezbollah to continue to stockpile these dangerous munitions on our borders”. Earlier in the day, he announced that Israeli fighter jets “attacked and eliminated a commander of the anti-tank unit of Hezbollah’s al-Radouane force in the area of ​​Mays el-Jabal (caza of Marjeyoun) , known as Gharib el-Choujaa”. This Hezbollah official was allegedly involved in several anti-tank missile attacks towards the Ramot Naftali region, in northern Israel.