In the two weeks since the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire went into effect, Israel has launched an ever growing number of attacks against southern Lebanon. These attacks have killed dozens of people, mostly civilians. Until today, these violations have been almost exclusively along the southern border.
Overnight, Israel carried out an airstrike against a three-story civilian home in northern Lebanon’s Akkar Province. Strikes this far north have been unusual, though not unheard of, even before the ceasefire. Israel has provided no indication why it attacked this particular home.
The bomb didn’t explode as intended, and crashed unexploded into the building, causing considerable damage. Civilian homes were also destroyed in Israeli attacks further south, including in the village of Khiyyam.
All told, at least a dozen airstrikes have been reported against southern Lebanon towns and villages. There were reports of artillery strikes in the south as well. One person was confirmed to be killed on Tuesday, in the town of Bint Jbeil.
Since the “ceasefire” on November 27 Israel has directed roughly 160 attacks at towns and villages, mostly in Lebanon’s south. Now, in addition to the fear of these attacks worsening, locals are reporting that a number of drones have been seen flying at low altitude over the suburbs of the capital of Beirut. These suburbs were a popular target earlier in the war but haven’t seen any strikes for the past two weeks.
Despite itself having committed so many ceasefire violations, Israel continues to accuse Lebanon of violations of the ceasefire. Previous claims of violations involved civilians in civilian vehicles traveling in southern Lebanon. More recently, claims accused people thought to be Hezbollah of operating in buildings believed to be “weapons storage facilities.”
Though Hezbollah has launched a single strike against Israeli troops inside Lebanon in response to the Israeli attacks, the overwhelmingly majority of the strikes being carried out are Israel against Lebanese soil, and a large number of those against civilians. Despite that, the ceasefire has yet to be formally declared a failure.
