Israeli strikes in southern Leb
...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration....killed at least 11 people on Saturday, including three children and two women, Lebanese authorities said, with Israel saying the raids came in response to a Hezbollah attack that violated the ceasefire and seriously maimed at least three IDF soldiers.
Israel later acknowledged that there were civilian casualties in the strikes, accusing the terror group of "deliberately putting civilians in that military compound" and identifying the women and kiddies as the family members of a targeted senior Hezbollah commander.
The Israeli strikes drew harsh criticism from Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, who accused Israel of sending a "clear message" ahead of the next round of US-sponsored negotiations between the countries.
Seven people were killed and two maimed when Israeli warplanes struck a home in Ansar, north of Tyre. Another strike in Deir al-Zahrani, north of Nabatieh, killed four people and maimed several others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news media.
The IDF confirmed launching
...
KABOOM!...
s in southern Lebanon overnight, saying it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in response to an attack by the terror group on Israeli troops. A series of strikes were also reported in the Nabatieh area, including heavy attacks on the Ali Taher Ridge, beneath which Hezbollah has a major underground facility.
The IDF later confirmed three troops operating in the area of the ridge were seriously maimed after being hit by an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah around 2:30 a.m.
The drone went
kaboom!near soldiers of the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, seriously wounding an officer and two soldiers, all three of whom were taken to a hospital for treatment.
In response, the IDF said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in both the Nabatieh area and Ansar, which are some 9 miles apart, killing the senior commander.
"The strikes were carried out following an action by the Hezbollah terror organization against our forces in the Ali Taher Ridge area, which is located within the security zone where IDF troops are operating," the military said.
CIVILIAN SHIELDS
The wounding of three soldiers in the Hezbollah attack was announced earlier by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, in a rare English-language statement published on Shabbat.
"This morning Hezbollah violated the ceasefire in Lebanon by attacking our soldiers in the security zone, which protects Israeli communities just across the border. The Hezbollah attack seriously injured three of our soldiers," the statement said.
"The IDF responded by striking the Hezbollah terror headquarters which ordered the attack," the PMO said.
"Only later did the IDF learn that Hezbollah deliberately put civilians in that military compound," the statement added, acknowledging the civilian casualties.
The military also confirmed that women and kiddies had been killed and said they were family members of the senior Hezbollah commander it targeted.
"The headquarters was used by the Hezbollah terror organization to command its activities in the area," the military said.
According to the IDF, the strike killed Ali Samir al-Haj Hassan, a battalion commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, along with several more Hezbollah operatives involved in advancing attacks on troops.
"At the time of the strike, Hassan’s family was also present with him inside the military headquarters and, according to the claim, was harmed in the strike. It should be emphasized that the family members were not the target of the strike. The strike was specifically directed at Hassan, who was a lawful target under international law. The terrorist used his family as human shields, hiding alongside them inside the military headquarters," the IDF said in a statement.
IDF names second senior Hezbollah commander killed in Saturday strikes, mum on overnight fire
[IsraelTimes] The Israel Defense Forces says it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanon town of Deir al-Zahrani yesterday.
The statement from the IDF does not acknowledge claims of overnight strikes in southern Lebanon, after Lebanese media reported heavy explosions in the Ali Taher ridge area for a second day in a row.
The IDF says the Saturday morning strike on Ali Muhammad Fakhr al-Din came in response to a Hezbollah explosive drone attack in the pre-dawn hours Saturday that seriously wounded three soldiers.
Lebanese media reported that the Deir al-Zahrani strike on Saturday morning killed two people.
Al-Din, also known as Abu Hassan Alaa, is identified by the IDF as a “senior commander” in Hezbollah’s Badr regional division. The regional unit is tasked with the area north of the Litani River.
The IDF says that as part of his role, Hassan Alaa took part in numerous attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.