Israel Continues Strikes on Southern Lebanon as Commander Threatens New Offensive

One injured in drone strike near Qalaouiyeh public school

Israel continues its strikes on southern Lebanon Thursday, hitting multiple targets and causing damage, though at present only one injury was reported. The bigger news is that Israel’s Northern Command chief Gen. Ori Gordin is threatening a new offensive.

The threat was based around a handful of rockets being fired from southwest Syria into the occupied Golan Heights. Israel is threatening escalation against Syria above and beyond their active invasion and occupation that preceded the fire.

But Gen. Gordin also talked up moving against Lebanon if anyone from Lebanon actually ends up firing rockets into Israel as well. This presumably would be above and beyond the thousands of strikes Israel has carried out since the ceasefire went into effect before any hypothetical rocket fire was carried out.

The only incident of rocket fire from Lebanon since the ceasefire went into effect was when a group fired rockets toward the Israeli border at Metula. The rockets mostly fell short of the border, though two were intercepted. Israel was quick to blame Hezbollah, though the group that ultimately got arrested appears to be a handful of Palestinians totally unaffiliated with Hezbollah.

Israeli artillery struck the outskirts of Wazzani today, and a drone strike targeted a vehicle near a public school in Qalaouiyeh, injuring one. The IDF has yet to make any statements commenting on these strikes, and indeed rarely comments on any of their daily attacks unless they kill someone, in which case, they often claim them to be top Hezbollah leaders.

Lebanese PM Nawaf Salam addressed the ongoing situation in the south, reporting that the Lebanese Army has dismantled over 500 Hezbollah positions south of the Litani River. It has been consistently reported that Hezbollah has handed over the overwhelming majority of its positions south of the river, as well as many of the areas north of there.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.