At Least Six Killed Over the Weekend as Israel Escalates Lebanon Strikes

IDF claims at least two top ranking Hezbollah leaders slain, provides no evidence

After killing three people in strikes on Thursday, Israel has continued to escalate strikes against southern and eastern Lebanon over the weekend, with at least six more people confirmed killed and several others wounded in various attacks.

Two were killed and two wounded on Friday in a drone attack on the town of Toul, in the Nabatieh District. The drone attacked and destroyed a vehicle in the town, while the IDF statement claimed to have attacked a “military camp” and killed a top logistics leader for Hezbollah.

As usual, no evidence of the Israeli claim was actually offered, and the Lebanese Health Ministry reported the casualties without any identification suggesting any of them were in any way in league with Hezbollah.

The strikes continued Saturday, with one man killed in a strike on a vehicle in Haruf, also near Nabatieh, and another person wounded. An Israeli drone also attacked a motorcycle in al-Qlaileh, killing another person.

Here again, the IDF was crying Hezbollah leader, claiming the Haruf man was actually a top commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces, without evidence. Despite the group’s supposedly small size and elite nature, Israel has claimed to have killed scores of top Radwan leaders since the ceasefire went into effect in November.

Sunday saw yet more people in vehicles killed, with an early Sunday strike reported against a car in Naqoura killing one, and another strike in the eastern town of Nabi Chit, killing another. The IDF has not offered any narrative for who they killed today.

Israel doesn’t always identify the people they kill in Lebanon, even for the sake of narrative, and when they do claim a Hezbollah leader of some sort, it’s generally to present their very existence as a violation of the ceasefire, an effort to cover the constant Israeli violations, which involve airstrikes and occupation of Lebanese territory, both of which they promised not to do in the ceasefire.

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.

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