Israeli attack on villages in southern Lebanon resulted casualties among civilians
Around 11 civilians, including six children, were killed in a barrage of Israeli strikes on villages in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, at a time when Israel said it responded to Hezbollah’s launching of missiles inside Israel.
Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been exchanging fire on the border for more than four months, after the Lebanese group fired rockets across the disputed border in support of its Palestinian ally, Hamas.
Hezbollah and Lebanese security sources said that four of the Lebanese fighters were killed in separate strikes.
Hezbollah didn’t announce any operations, Wednesday.
The head of its Executive Council said that Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory “cannot go without a response.”
Israeli government spokeswoman Ilana Stein said that the barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon killed an Israeli soldier and transported eight others to the hospital.
She added, “As we have repeatedly made clear, Israel isn’t interested in a war on two fronts… but we will respond strongly if we are provoked”.
She added, “The current reality is unbearable after the displacement of thousands of Israelis and their inability to return to their homes… They must be able to return to their homes and live in peace and security”.
Stein and the Israeli army said on Wednesday that the Israeli army responded to the launching of cross-border missiles from Lebanon.
Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy stated that despite what he described as the gains against Hezbollah, “the time isn’t right to stop,” Halevy held a series of meetings with local mayors in northern Israel on Wednesday.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast on television on Tuesday that the group will not stop exchanging fire unless a complete ceasefire is reached in Gaza.
He added, “When the shooting stops in Gaza, we will stop the shooting in the south”.
The cross-border bombing led to the death of more than 200 people in Lebanon, including more than 170 Hezbollah fighters, in addition to about a dozen Israeli soldiers and some of its civilians, and also led to the displacement of tens of thousands from the border areas of the two countries.
