Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces traded cross-border attacks a day after the Lebanese Health Ministry reported three civil defense members killed in an Israeli attack.
The Iran-backed group said that it bombarded the northern Israeli town of “Kiryat Shmona twice with a volley of Falaq rockets” early on Sunday “in response to the enemy attacks… and particularly the attack that killed civil defense members in the Lebanese village of Froun.” It also fired rockets at the Israeli community of Shamir, near Kiryat Shmona.
At around 1:15 AM, the Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike targeting Aita al-Shaab in the Bint Jbeil district with two missiles, and Yaroun. Maroun al-Ras was also subjected to an airstrike, causing a power outage in the cities of Bint Jbeil and Ainata.
For its part, the Israeli army stated that “the Iron Dome intercepted rockets fired by Hezbollah at Kiryat Shmona.” The Israeli army radio announced that “Hezbollah targeted northern Israel last night with three waves of rockets, one of which hit a building in Kiryat Shmona.” It also noted that “Hezbollah launched about 100 rockets toward northern Israel over the past 24 hours.” Moreover, the Israeli military announced on Sunday morning that it had carried out a series of airstrikes on “Hezbollah military structures” and intercepted projectiles launched from Lebanon during the night.
On Saturday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said three emergency responders were killed and two others were wounded, one of them critically, in an Israeli strike on Froun. The ministry said the attack targeted “a Lebanese civil defense team that was putting out fires sparked by the recent Israeli strikes,” while the Israeli military said the strike “eliminated terrorists” from the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement in Froun.
Lebanon’s civil defense agency said three of its employees were killed in “an Israeli strike that targeted a firefighting vehicle after they had finished a firefighting mission.”
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack, saying in a statement that “this new aggression against Lebanon is a blatant violation of international laws… and human values.”
The Amal movement, Hezbollah’s ally, said two of its members were among the dead in Saturday’s strike. It said they were killed “while carrying out their humanitarian and national duty defending Lebanon and the south.”
The cross-border violence has killed some 614 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including 138 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
A statement from Lebanese Minister of Health Firass Abiad said that “due to the (Israeli) aggression,” 27 emergency personnel and health workers have been killed, and 94 others have been wounded since October.
Two hospitals and 21 health centers have been “targeted,” while 32 fire or ambulance vehicles have been “put out of service or partially damaged,” the statement said, urging an end to the “repeated and deliberate targeting of health workers and civilians.”
With AFP
