Israeli Airstrikes in Lebanon Kill 11, Escalating Cross-Border Conflict
Israeli airstrikes on villages in southern Lebanon on Wednesday killed 11 people, including six children, Lebanese security sources and a hospital director said. This escalation followed a Hizbullah rocket attack that claimed the life of an Israeli soldier. The ongoing conflict between Hizbullah and the Israeli military along the Israel-Lebanon border has intensified over the past four months, stemming from Hizbullah’s rocket attacks, which the Iran-backed Shi’ite militia says are in support of its ally, Hamas.
In one of the Israeli counterstrikes, a mother and her two children were killed in the village of Souaneh, around 8 miles west of the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona. Another attack in Nabatieh led to the deaths of four children, three women, and a man, according to Hassan Wazni, the director of the town’s hospital, and three security sources. The strikes also killed four Hizbullah fighters and wounded seven people.
Despite the absence of new operations announced by Hizbullah, a high-ranking official stated that Israel’s actions would not go unanswered. In response to the day’s events, an Israeli government spokesperson revealed that rocket fire from Lebanon had killed an Israeli soldier and hospitalized eight others. “As we have made clear time and time again, Israel is not interested in a war on two fronts,” said spokesperson Ilana Stein. “But if provoked, we will respond forcefully.”
Israel’s military chief, Herzi Halevi, and Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah have both made statements regarding the ongoing hostilities, with Nasrallah indicating a halt to attacks contingent on a comprehensive cease-fire in Gaza. The conflict has already led to the deaths of over 200 Hizbullah fighters and dozens of civilians in Lebanon, and some 15 soldiers and around six civilians on the Israeli side, while displacing 100,000 Lebanese and 80,000 Israelis.
