2024-01-16 15:52:08
Beirut (AFP) – On Tuesday, Israel launched heavy raids on a valley in southern Lebanon, according to what a local security official and source said, in what was considered the “most violent” targeting of a single place since the start of the escalation with Hezbollah across the border due to the impact of the war in Gaza.
Published on: 01/16/2024 – 16:52
2 minutes
A security source in Lebanon, who was accompanying the escalation in the south, told Agence France-Presse, “Israeli forces targeted Wadi Saluki with more than 14 raids.”
He explained that the pace of bombing was the “heaviest” on the same place since the start of the confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel on October 8, the day following the outbreak of war between the Hebrew state and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
For its part, the Israeli army announced that it had bombarded with air and artillery “several terrorist targets” in Wadi Saluki.
He explained in a statement that he carried out “joint air and artillery strikes” that hit “within a short time (…) dozens of military buildings and combat infrastructure” belonging to Hezbollah.
The Israeli army accused Hezbollah of using the valley for “terrorist purposes” and that it had established “dozens of means and infrastructure” to “target Israeli civilians and soldiers.”
During Israel’s occupation of Lebanon, which lasted 22 years until its withdrawal in 2000, Wadi Saluki, along with small neighboring valleys, formed an area of operations for party fighters once morest Israeli military sites.
Hezbollah announced in successive statements on Tuesday that it had targeted gatherings of Israeli soldiers and military sites.
Shakib Qutaish, the mayor of Houla, adjacent to Wadi Saluki, confirmed that the air strikes were accompanied by heavy artillery shelling.
He reported other raids that targeted homes in the town, but no casualties were reported.
The official National News Agency reported an Israeli bombing that affected a number of towns in the south of the country.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, the Lebanese-Israeli border has witnessed a daily exchange of bombardments. Hezbollah announces that it is targeting Israeli military sites and points in support of Gaza and “in support of its resistance,” while the Israeli army responds with air and artillery bombardment, which it says targets the party’s “infrastructure” and fighter movements near the border.
Since the start of the escalation on both sides of the border, 193 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 141 Hezbollah members and more than twenty civilians, including three journalists, according to a tally compiled by Agence France-Presse.
In Israel, the army counted the deaths of nine soldiers and six civilians.
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