Late in the evening and into the night on Wednesday, Israel carried out a large number of airstrikes against southern Lebanon, targeting Touline, Deir Siriane, Zoutar and al-Qantarah. At least one fatality has been confirmed so far, and three people wounded. The toll may rise, however, as the continuing strikes have prevented rescue teams from accessing the areas to find survivors.
The IDF claimed that the strikes targeted Hezbollah weapon storage and “infrastructure,” claiming some of the underground facilities they hit held engineering equipment that might well have been used by Hezbollah to restore its operations.
They also suggested the presence of those facilities, which has yet to be confirmed, constituted a violation of the ceasefire with Lebanon, though in practice Israel has committed several thousand active violations with their near-daily attacks on Lebanese soil.
Student slain in Israeli strike on Touline | Image from X
Despite the IDF narrative that they were targeting Hezbollah sites, the one person slain was identified as an 11 or 12 year-old student from Touline killed when an Israeli strike hit his home’s garage. His father was also seriously wounded in the strike.
Hezbollah-run TV channel al-Manar had friends of the student on to mourn the loss, adding “we are waiting for the state to protect us. Tomorrow, we don’t know who we will lose.” The IDF has not revealed why this garage was attacked.
Two other people were reported wounded in the attack on the village of Deir Siriane. The casualties have yet to be identified and rescue workers haven’t confirmed that those are the only casualties, just the only ones they’ve found so far.
