Beirut – The Israeli military announced today that it had carried out a targeted airstrike in Beirut. Two security sources in Lebanon told Reuters the attack targeted a high-ranking member of Hezbollah, but could not immediately say who had been targeted or whether he had been killed. The attack, according to Reuters sources and witnesses, took place in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, which is a stronghold of the Iran-backed Shiite movement.
The incident represents a further escalation of tensions following the explosions of Hezbollah members’ communications devices and massive cross-border attacks by both Israel and Hezbollah this week.
Hezbollah fired 150 rockets at Israel, tensions on the Lebanese border are rising
Hezbollah fired 150 rockets from southern Lebanon at targets in northern Israel this afternoon. The attacks came in three waves and aimed at seven different targets, the press agencies inform, citing the Israeli army and the media as well as the statement of the Lebanese Shiite movement. Israel’s emergency services said it had no immediate reports of any casualties. So far, the latest wave of attacks from Lebanon came after Israel on Thursday evening launched what appeared to be the heaviest airstrikes yet on positions of Iran-backed Hezbollah in the nearly year-long cross-border conflict.
Today, according to the AP agency, Hezbollah announced that it attacked seven different targets on Israeli territory along the Lebanese border with Katyusha rockets, including several air defense bases and the headquarters of an armored brigade, which it claimed was the first time it hit. He added that he sent the rockets in retaliation for Israeli strikes on villages and homes in southern Lebanon.
Today, Israeli air forces struck at least three villages in southern Lebanon, Lebanese security sources told Reuters. The Israeli military says it targeted buildings used by Hezbollah members.
On Thursday evening, the army said its planes, during more than two hours and about 50 airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, hit about 100 rocket launchers, consisting of about 1,000 barrels, which were ready for immediate fire into Israeli territory. Lebanese security sources Reuters described these Israeli strikes as the most intense in the last year.
The United Nations Interim Mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) this morning called for an immediate easing of tensions and hostilities on the Lebanese-Israeli border, which they said had “significantly intensified” over the past 12 hours.
The current conflict between Israel and the Shiite movement Hezbollah, which flared up last October after the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip, gained extraordinary momentum this week after an unprecedented attack on members of Hezbollah through the explosion of their communications equipment. Explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday killed at least 37 people and injured about 3,500 others, hundreds of them seriously. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack, but Hezbollah has attributed it to it. The movement’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, threatened retaliation against the Jewish state on Thursday; at the same time, he declared that Israel had crossed all limits and de facto declared war on Hezbollah. Today’s salvo of rockets fired at Israel was more powerful compared to other attacks, AP noted.
United Nations Lebanon Israel struggles diplomacy PHOTO
Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
