On Thursday, Israel launched a number of airstrikes against southern Lebanon. As they so often do, the IDF claimed they were attacking “Hezbollah infrastructure” in the attacks, a claim reported without scrutiny by Israeli media outlets.
The reports suggest that the strikes mostly hit random civilian targets, however. A motorcyclist was attacked and killed in Deir Seryan, the only confirmed fatality so far. The IDF claimed he was a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, but as always offered no evidence to support this allegation.
Another attack hit an apartment building in al-Housh, wounding at least seven residents according to he Health Ministry. There was no claim from the IDF about who these casualties were, nor why they attacked a residential building in the first place.
Other strikes were reported in Wadi al-Zrariya and Qalaat Meiss. The IDF claimed a weapon storage site was involved, but there was no evidence that any such site was hit. Israeli drones also dropped flares over areas in Nabatieh.
These attacks come just days after the US urged Israel to start complying with November’s ceasefire with Lebanon, and as Lebanon released a detained Israeli citizen, which Israeli officials deemed a “positive step.”
Israel has violated that ceasefire several thousand times since November, including near daily strikes. The Israel government claimed that the presence of Hezbollah in those areas they attacked amount to a violation itself, though they have yet to prove that most of the things they hit were actually Hezbollah at all. Prime Minister Netanyahu recently claimed that the enormous numbers of attacks on Lebanon are “in accordance” with the ceasefire, and it seems unlikely they have any intention to cease firing.
