Israel continues to carry out its daily airstrikes against southern Lebanon, and continues to claim they’re killing Hezbollah figures despite evidence to the contrary. Thursday, the deadly drone strike came against the town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa.
The strike hit a forest on the town’s periphery, killing one person who Israel described as a “Hezbollah terrorist” and was working on restoring some sort of Hezbollah site involved in firing on Israeli territory. That’s the official Israeli story at least, and as usual, they provided no evidence to confirm it.
Mayor Zein Ali Ghandour was quick to offer a correction, however. Ghandour reported that the man killed was Mahmoud Hasan Atwi, a municipal employee, and that he was in the forest to work on a water well in the area.
This is just the latest of several thousand Israeli ceasefire violations since the truce went into effect in November. Those strikes have killed over 200 people, most of whom have never been conclusively identified.
The IDF though, when it comments at all on who they killed, virtually always declares the slain to be Hezbollah commander of some sort or another, and declares their very existence to be a violation of the ceasefire.
Since the ceasefire, Hezbollah has not launched a single strike on Israel. The group has handed over functionally all of its sites south of the Litani River to the Lebanese Army, and the Lebanese government reported some 80% of those sites have already been dismantled.
It’s difficult to say Lebanon will ever destroy all those sites to Israeli satisfaction, however, because every time a Lebanese government bulldozer is clearing a farmer’s field, Israel declares it to be the revitalization of a Hezbollah infrastructure and attacks the bulldozer.
A second Israeli drone attack was reported in Beit Lif, and injured one person. That person was not identified, but the strike involved a sound bomb instead of an explosive.
In addition to the drone strikes, Israel has continued to launch raids across the border into Lebanese territory, and retains soldiers inside Lebanon occupying five military outposts within. Overnight, Israeli troops reportedly entered the area around Blida, with bulldozers in tow. This is the second time Israel launched an incursion in that general area this week alone, though last night’s raid did not appear to result in any incidents.
The Israeli troops entered and were in the process of approaching a Lebanese Army post in the area. The UNIFIL peacekeeper patrol, however, met the Israeli troops before they reached the Lebanese forces, and ensured Israel withdrew.
Lebanese PM Nawaf Salam has urged the US, meant to be one of the primary guarantors of the ceasefire, to pressure Israel to withdraw from Lebanese soil. Salam termed the Israeli presence a “red line.”
Israeli officials have insisted they have no intention of withdrawing from Lebanon any time soon, and further claim that the US gave them the “green light” to stay. The US hasn’t confirmed that, but they have not publicly criticized Israel for the continued occupation, nor the thousands of drone strikes they’ve carried out against Lebanon.
