Israel has repeatedly insisted that they are at war with Hezbollah, not Lebanon, and that they have not been deliberately targeting Lebanese military in the course of their invasion of Lebanon. Despite those protestations, they keep hitting Lebanese military targets.
Today, the Lebanese Army reported one of their posts was targeted by an Israeli airstrike against the town of al-Mari. At least two soldiers were killed, and injured at least two others.
The army statement went on to say that the incident was the result of Israel “directly targeting” the post, and that 36 soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the invasion as a result of Israeli aggression.
There have been several reports of incidents in which Israel attacked and killed Lebanese soldiers. In one case, Israel apologized for an airstrike which killed three soldiers, and insisted that they believed the army vehicle probably contained armed Hezbollah at the time of the attack.
Despite the apologies, the incidents keep happening, and while sometimes they come with claims that the soldiers were in the vicinity of a Hezbollah target, often, as today, there is no indication that there was any Hezbollah target near the army post in al-Mari.
There was another airstrikes reported today against the same small town, in Hasbaya District of the Nabatiyeh Province. That airstrike killed a man and two of his small children. Another person was injured.
Once again there was no indication of anything resembling a valid military target at the site of the strike. The population of Mari is overwhelmingly Druze, with a minority of about 10% Greek Orthodox. There is no substantial Shi’ite population, and subsequently it is not a Hezbollah hot-spot.
As is often the case with such incidents, Israel has yet to offer any comment on either of the strikes against the town of Mari.
