Israel commits multiple violations of the ongoing Lebanon ceasefire daily, but this weekend those violations seem to be intensifying in scope and casualty figures. The largest incident this weekend was near the town of Janta, along the Syria border.
An Israeli drone attacked an area in the al-Sharaa neighborhood, killing at least six people and wounding two others. There has as yet been no confirmation of who the slain actually were, though Lebanon’s government has condemned the attack.
The IDF issued a statement on Saturday saying that the attack targeted a “strategic weapon manufacturing and storage site” belonging to Hezbollah. They added that the existence of the facility itself amounted to a broad violation of the ceasefire.
Hezbollah has yet to comment, though multiple of Israel’s past strikes on Hezbollah sites and storage didn’t appear to ultimately do much to Hezbollah itself. A recent strike by Israel against a small vegetable truck, for instance, was hastily rebranded as targeting a “Hezbollah truck” that they believed was carrying weapons.
It is unclear exactly why Israel is escalating the attacks this weekend, though it may be related to Lebanon announcing a new government, and in defiance of US demands included a number of Shi’ite members in the new cabinet. This is only speculation at this point, but Israel clearly has problems with Lebanon’s new PM, who was the ICJ president during the beginning of the inquiry in Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip. That the new Labor Minister was the target of an unsuccessful Israeli assassination attempt in November only adds to the tension.
Lebanon’s criticism of the new Israeli drone strike is more an aside than anything, with their main focus being on getting Israeli ground troops to withdraw from the country by the new deadline of February 18, which is fast approaching.
Under the ceasefire, Israel was suppose to be out of Lebanon by January 26, which the US “guaranteed” would happen. Israel decided to stay, and the US endorsed that decision and extended the date to February 18.
Lebanon is now pushing for the US to ensure that February 18 is the actual withdrawal date. There has been little comment from either Israel or US on the firmness of this date, but what villages Israel has withdrawn from have been mostly destroyed. The destruction continues elsewhere, and it’s not clear Israel will be finished with it within the next 9 days.
