Rabat – Israel has carried out multiple airstrikes on Lebanon, on Saturday, at what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netnayahu and Defense Minister Israel Kats claimed to be “dozens of Hezbollah targets.” The deadly strikes killed seven people, including two children, and injured 40 others.
Israel alleges that the strikes were in response to several rockets that were intercepted after being fired from Lebanon, and claims that the “counterattacks” have succeeded in hitting dozens of rocket launchers and a Hezbollah command center.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned that his country is being dragged into a war that will lead to grave consequences on Lebanon and its people, mainly placing the blame on the military action in the south of Lebanon and called for “decisive action to ensure that only the Lebanese state retains the authority to declare war or peace.”
Reiterating its commitment to the November ceasefire, Hezbollah, in turn, issued a statement definitively denying any involvement in the attacks on Northern Israel, accusing Netanyahu of creating a pretext to renew its war on Lebanon.
Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Menassa said that the Lebanese army has launched an investigation on the circumstances of the alleged rocket fire and called on the states sponsoring the ceasefire to “deter the Israeli enemy from its continued violations and tracks under flimsy pretexts and false pretexts.”
Salam also decried Israel’s continued occupation of parts of the Lebanese territory as a violation of the November ceasefire and called on the international community to “exert greater pressure on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.”
In fact, Hezbollah’s latest rocket fires are the first they have launched since the ceasefire, whereas Israel has breached the agreement several times, repeating its exact playbook from Gaza.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel was set to withdraw from the occupied parts of Lebanon by January; however, the IOF remain in five locations inside Lebanon and have carried out dozens of deadly strikes, striking civilians under the guise of targeting Hezbollah.
By January 26, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) reported that the IOF carried out 330 air strikes and shelling attacks since November, recording 260 residential properties destroyed alongside roads and other civilian infrastructure.