Israel Hit Northern Lebanon Villages During Overnight Attack on Syria

Villagers say large blast hit near residential area

Overnight, Israeli warplanes carried out an attack against Syria’s al-Qusayr, and as is so often the case, they attacked Syria from Lebanese airspace. Lebanon is planning to lodge an official complaint about that to the UN.

Beyond that, Israel appears to have hit several villages in northern Lebanon as well, with locals reporting blasts in several areas during the night. One of the biggest hit the village of Lehfed, creating a 15 meter crater.

The locals in Lehfed reported it was lucky that the rocket hit the rocks, noting it wasn’t far from a residential area and could’ve caused substantially more damage and casualties. As it is, the blast caused only broken windows.

Another rocket was reported to have fallen on the village of Mejdel. Blasts were reported elsewhere along the border between Syria and northern Lebanon. It’s not clear which of these were intended targets of Israel, and as usual Israel is not commenting.

Al-Qusayr, Syria was definitely the primary target of this operation, with reports claiming they were going after Hezbollah forces in the area. This was the second Israeli attack on Syria so far this week.

Attacking Lebanon isn’t out of character for Israel, either, as they were shelling southern Lebanon earlier in the week, and may have figured that if they were going out to attack Syria anyhow they might as well hit neighboring parts of Lebanon while they were at it.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.