Israel is once again carrying out airstrikes across southern and eastern Lebanon today, with strikes killing at least two people and wounding one other, and the IDF offering the usual pretext that the targets were all Hezbollah infrastructure of one form or another.
Attacks occurred across the south, but the first major strike was near Khirbet Selm, targeting a warehouse which the IDF claimed was being used by Hezbollah to manufacture weapons. They provided no evidence of this, but one person was reported killed and at least one other wounded in the strike.
The other fatal strike was near Tyre, targeting a car between Barish and Maroob, killing the driver. The strike was near the gas company, and the IDF claimed the slain man was a Hezbollah operative, again without evidence.
Recent photo of destruction in Ain Baal, Southern Lebanon ©MSF
It is here that the lack of evidence, while common in Israeli strikes, becomes a serious dispute, as local media outlets identified the slain in the second strike as Mohammed al-Hossayni, who was a local school teacher.
Several other villages in the southern parts of Lebanon were struck, including Aita al-Shaab and Bouslaiya. Further strikes were reported in the eastern Bekaa Valley, striking mountains near Nabicheet, and claiming that the target was Hezbollah infrastructure.
The IDF statement claimed that the infrastructure in Nabicheet violated the ceasefire, which is a common claim when they attack any area, even though they didn’t specify what was meant to be there, there was no report of casualties, and Nabicheet is far north of the Litani River.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah was meant to be removed from south of the Litani, but Israeli strikes seem to target north of the river as often as the south, and the IDF justifications seem to never change, nor does the lack of evidence on what was actually targeted.
