Israeli Drone Strikes Kill at Least Three in Southern Lebanon

Israel continues to carry out drone strikes across southern Lebanon on Wednesday, targeting vehicles in the area and killed at least three people, both of whom the Israeli government quickly labeled high ranking Hezbollah officials.

The first strike was in the town of Yater, and attacked a man operating a bulldozer who was clearing wreckage of houses that Israel has previously destroyed. The mayor identified the man as Ali Hassan Abdul Latif Suwaidan, but the IDF termed him a “Hezbollah commander” in the Radwan Force. One other person was reported wounded in the strike.

The Radwan Force is Hezbollah’s elite special forces unit. It would be unclear why a high-ranking commander in such a unit was engaged in demolition work in a small town, but Israel has prioritized attacking bulldozers clearing the ruins of their invasion and occupation since the ceasefire began.

A third strike was reported later in the day in Aitaroun, where another person was killed, who Israel again labeled a “Hezbollah operative” in a subsequent statement.

While having Israel posthumously label their targets as Hezbollah leaders is more or less standard operating procedure, the other strike was somewhat unique. In that case, Israeli attacked the town of Ain Baal, near Tyre, and blew up a civilian car, killing one.

The IDF declared this slain man was Hussein Nahij Barja, who they said was a “significant Hezbollah engineer.” They claimed Barja had an extensive understanding of weapons systems and was a source of knowledge for Hezbollah’s research division.

Moreover, the IDF declared Barja’s activities to be a “flagrant violation” of the ceasefire, even though at the time of the attack all he was doing was driving a car in a small town near Tyre. Israel often terms the very presence of Hezbollah personnel, even those they haven’t actually proven were in Hezbollah in the first place, as inherent violations.

By contrast, Israel’s thousands of violations of the ceasefire involved launching multiple daily airstrikes against Lebanese soil, routinely violating Lebanese airspace, and actively occupying multiple sites inside Lebanon with ground troops. Since the ceasefire took effect in November, Hezbollah has not fired a single rocket at Israel, and the one incident that did happen, which Israel quickly blamed on Hezbollah, was actually conducted by a rival faction.