Tuesday marked the end of the deadline for Israeli troops to withdraw from Lebanon, and while IDF troops are still inside Lebanese territory, the main focus Wednesday is on Israeli attacks against the parts of southern Lebanon they actually did withdraw from.
In the border town of Ayta al-Shaab, an Israel drone attacked a vehicle, killing one person and wounding two others. The identities of the casualties are still not confirmed, though Israel claimed they were targeting a Hezbollah member that they saw “handling weaponry.”
It’s not clear who that was, or how he was handling weaponry in a moving vehicle. Israel reported that he was killed in the strike, though there is no confirmation that was the case, or who the two wounded people were even alleged to be.
That’s not the only cross-border incident, either. The IDF reported their troops inside northern Israel fired “warning shots” against the group of “suspects” in the village Kfar Kila, which is right along the Lebanese side of the border opposite the Israeli town of Metula. It doesn’t appear the “suspects” were anything more than some civilians returning home, finding the villages massively damaged.
It does not appear there were any people wounded in Kfar Kila, though the IDF reported the people “withdrew” after being shot at by Israeli troops on the other side of the border. Israel has repeatedly warned civilians not to return home to southern towns and villages, and while the pullout is as over as it’s likely to be for awhile, it’s not clear that Israel intends to allow Lebanese civilians back into the Lebanese villages they live in, even if they’re not being actively occupied.
Israeli troops also fired across the border at civilians in Wazzani, another Lebanese border village a few miles east of Kfar Kila. Two people were injured in that attack, their identities similarly uncertain.
Another incident was reported in the area near the Israeli kibbutz of Manara, where a group of Israeli hasedim tried to illegally cross into Lebanon, and attacked Israeli troops along the border in the process. The hasedim were trying to reach the shrine at the tomb of Rav Ashi, a fourth century Talmudic scholar. The shrine is in the hills on the Lebanese side of the border. In the process, Israeli troops expelled most of the people who crossed the border, but arrested four people who threw stones at the troops.
Israel withdrew from populated areas in Lebanon on Tuesday, but continues to occupy hilltop posts across southern Lebanon. The Lebanese government continues to express opposition to that, though there is no sign Israel intends to actually withdraw from those sites.
