AA/ Jerusalem/ Abdel Raouf Arnaout
A video posted on social media on Thursday shows the Israeli army using a catapult to launch fireballs at border lands in southern Lebanon in an attempt to set them ablaze.
In the video, apparently filmed by an Israeli soldier, a number of soldiers hidden behind a concrete wall several meters high are seen using a ballista to launch warheads across the border.
The Hebrew newspaper “Israel Today” claimed that soldiers used this method in an attempt to set fire to dried plants to prevent Hezbollah fighters from hiding in the area, noting that the Israeli army had initially used cocktails Molotov.
“Israeli army reserve forces used the catapult, a medieval siege tool, to set fire to shrubs and dry plants near military positions and to prevent Hezbollah militants from hiding in the area” , says the same source.
He added: “The bushes near the border fence make it difficult for soldiers to locate Hezbollah units hiding in the area.”
At the start of the war, reserve soldiers used Molotov cocktails, trying to set bushes on fire so that Hezbollah members could not hide there, the newspaper continued.
According to the newspaper also, the Lebanese reported that Israeli soldiers also use phosphorous bombs which cause fires.
“In order to find a solution to the problem without using financially expensive artillery, the reserve soldiers decided to assemble a catapult, which is a tool for throwing stones and burning objects at a distance of several hundred meters, and which was used in Europe until the 15th century”, says the newspaper, specifying that the soldiers did not appreciate the aforementioned solution and that they decided to carry out the fire operations with the help of drones to drop bombs.
“The video went viral, causing astonishment among Internet users at the use of this primitive device by the Israeli army, one of the most technologically advanced armies in the world,” explains the same source.
This follows a border escalation seen on Wednesday, when Hezbollah fired 215 missiles at Israel, along with drones and artillery shells, in the largest attack since clashes between the two began. left on October 8. A significant area of forests has burned in northern Israel.
Since October 8, Palestinian and Lebanese factions in Lebanon, notably Hezbollah, have exchanged daily bombings with the Israeli army across the “Blue Line” that separates them, leaving hundreds dead and injured, most of them on the Israeli side. Lebanese.
The factions say they are in solidarity with Gaza, which has been exposed to an Israeli war since October 7. Some 122,000 Palestinian deaths and injuries, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, have been recorded, in a context of famine and massive destruction.
*Translated from Arabic by Malèk Jomni
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