AFP – Israel expanded its aerial bombardment of targets in Lebanon, hitting areas both in and outside traditional Hezbollah bastions, as its troops battled militants across the border yesterday.
In areas where Hezbollah holds sway, Israeli warplanes hit a marketplace in the southern city of Nabatiyeh on Saturday, and then a 100-year-old mosque in a village near the border yesterday, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA).
There have also been deadly strikes in other areas of Lebanon – one on a village in a mountain area, and another in north Lebanon, the Health Ministry said.
AFP footage shot from the northern Deir Billa area after the strike there showed rescuers and villagers digging with bare hands through rubble.
The mayor of Kfar Tibnit, where the NNA said a strike destroyed a mosque, said he felt he had lost a beloved site that brought people together. “It was a significant place because families used to gather in the square right next to it on special occasions,” Fuad Yassin told AFP, adding that the mosque was at least 100 years old.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said strikes on three villages on Saturday killed 15 people.
The Lebanese Red Cross said paramedics were lightly injured and ambulances destroyed in Sirbin when a house was hit by a second air strike as they searched for casualties.
Israel has alleged that group use civilian infrastructure in Lebanon and Gaza to conduct operations – a claim the groups have denied.
The Israeli military said its 36th division continued “targeted and limited operational activity” in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah.
It said Israeli jets had hit “Hezbollah launchers, anti-tank missile posts, weapons storage facilities, and additional terror targets”.
According to the NNA, Israeli forces have “escalated their attacks” on southern Lebanon, with “successive air strikes from midnight until morning” pounding several border villages.
Hezbollah said it clashed with Israeli troops who tried to “infiltrate” twice into a border village, sparking an hour-long battle.
It later said it shelled Israeli soldiers gathered in Maroun al-Ras village.
Early yesterday, Israel said it intercepted five more projectiles fired from Lebanon. The military said Hezbollah launched around 320 projectiles into Israel over the weekend of Yom Kippur.
It also said roughly 280 “terror targets” were attacked in Lebanon and Gaza over the same period.
Israel on Saturday told residents of south Lebanon not to return home, and issued new evacuation warnings for several villages.
With no sign of a let-up in the violence, United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon warned against a “catastrophic” regional conflict.
In an interview with AFP, spokesperson for the United Nations peacekeeping mission UNIFIL Andrea Tenenti said he feared an Israeli escalation against Hezbollah could soon spiral “into a regional conflict with catastrophic impact for everyone”.
There is “no military solution”, Tenenti said.
At least five UN peacekeepers have been wounded in recent days as Israeli forces battle Hezbollah.
