On the day that the Lebanese government is expected to release its plan to fully disarm Hezbollah, Israel carried out yet more attacks against southern Lebanon, targeting the Ali al-Taher and al-Dabsheh forests near Nabatieh al-Fawqa, sparking major fires which civil defense forces are struggling to get under control.
Strikes were centered around Upper Nabatieh. The Israeli warplanes also dropped leaflets over Aita al-Shaab vowing that strikes against “Hezbollah infrastructure” would continue. Details on what exactly they were attacking beyond the forests isn’t clear, however.
The Israeli Army claimed the attack targeted underground Hezbollah sites, inconveniently located in the forests. They provided no evidence that this was the case, however, and the indication is that the strikes primarily just damaged trees, though the fire it caused extended into surrounding areas, damaging homes.
In Aita al-Shaab, an Israeli drone also attacked a house. There is no word on casualties from any of the strikes, though substantial property damage has been caused, particularly in the area around the now-burning forests.
On Friday, an Israeli drone attacked the village of Sir al-Gharbiyeh, killing one person. The IDF claimed the person was an official with Hezbollah’s Radwan Special Forces, though as usual they did not provide evidence supporting this allegation.
Two Lebanese soldiers were also killed on Thursday by an Israeli drone which crashed near Naqoura. The soldiers were moving to recover the drone when it exploded, killing two.
