Israeli Airstrikes Kill 9 Civilians in Lebanon

Woman killed in Safed, Israel; nine civilians killed in Southern Lebanon

Correction: An earlier version of this article said that an Israeli civilian woman was killed, but the woman was an Israeli soldier .

Nine Lebanese civilians were killed and a substantial number of others were wounded as an escalation of strikes was carried out by both sides across the border. Hezbollah was presumed to be carrying out the rocket fire on Israel Wednesday morning, but unlike most recent salvos, they did not formally announce it by the time of Israel’s retaliation.

Israel, which has been talking up an offensive against Lebanon, responded, terming today’s strikes an “extensive wave of attacks,” hitting mostly towns in southern Lebanon. Israeli attacks on Soueneh killed a mother and her two children. All told, Lebanese hospital officials said nine civilians, including four children, were slain in a handful of towns. Four Hezbollah members were also reported killed.

The attacks against Israel focused on military bases in Safed, though a building in the city itself was hit by rockets, killing a female soldier and wounding eight others. The wounded were taken to the local hospital, and it was reported rockets landed sort of near the hospital, though no casualties were claimed. Israel said their attack on Lebanon was against the source of the rocket fire.

The two sides have been trading fire off and on for months, but today marked an escalation from both as more and more targets were being hit, even as the international community struggled to try to come up with a ceasefire agreement to end fighting on the northern Israel border.

France was keen to offer a deal in which Hezbollah would be moved around 10 km away from the border. Reportedly they would be replaced in the area by the Lebanese military, though it isn’t clear how Lebanon feels about placing its forces in a potential line of fire.

Even if Lebanon, eager to prevent another war with Israel, would be agreeable to the proposal, Hezbollah is insisting they are also holding out for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip before ending their fire on Israel. With the open-ended Gaza War still relatively popular in Israel, that seems a non-starter.

Israeli military sources have talked up their readiness for an outright offensive against Lebanon, and have sought to downplay repeated warnings, from both Israeli thinktanks and US military intelligence, that opening a second front risks putting Israel at a substantial disadvantage.

The fighting in the north has forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee deeper into the country, and the military says the primary war goal would be to allow them to return home. Other politicians have advocated a military occupation of much of the Lebanese border region, which, however, risks another open-ended war that would leave the northern Israeli towns under open-ended siege.

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.