The Israeli army carried out strikes Tuesday on a valley in southern Lebanon, considered by a local official and a security source to be the most intense in the region since the start of cross-border violence.
• Read also: Explosive regional context: Iranian missile attacks on northern Iraq
• Read also: Gaza: intensive phase of war “soon” over in the south
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, there have been daily exchanges of fire on the Israeli-Lebanese border between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
“Israeli forces carried out more than 14 raids against Wadi Slouqi,” a security source told AFP, on condition of anonymity, adding that these were the “most intense” bombings on the same area since the start of exchanges of fire between Israel and the Islamist group Hezbollah.
According to the mayor of the neighboring municipality of Houla, Chakib Koteich, the airstrikes were accompanied by artillery fire. Other strikes also targeted homes in the locality, without causing any casualties.
Hezbollah, which has claimed several attacks against Israeli military positions and soldiers, did not report any deaths among its fighters on Tuesday.
The Israeli army announced in a statement that it had carried out “joint air strikes and artillery fire” which hit, “in a short time (…), dozens of military buildings and Hezbollah combat infrastructures”.
Israel accused the pro-Iranian group of using Wadi Slouqi for “terrorist purposes”. She added that the party had hidden “dozens of resources and infrastructure” used to “target Israeli civilians and soldiers.”
During the 22 years of Israeli occupation of Lebanon until its withdrawal in 2000, Wadi Slouqi, as well as other neighboring valleys, constituted an area from which Hezbollah fighters launched operations against the Israeli state.
Hezbollah says it is targeting Israeli military positions in support of Palestinians in Gaza while the Israeli army responds with aerial and artillery bombardments which it says target the party’s “infrastructure” and fighters near the border.
In more than three months of violence at the border, 193 people have been killed in Lebanon, including at least 141 Hezbollah fighters and 22 civilians, according to an AFP count.
Across the border, the Israeli army counted at least 15 Israelis killed, including nine soldiers.