(Beirut) Israeli bombings targeted several regions in southern Lebanon, killing two people, including a Hezbollah fighter, and sparking major fires on Saturday, state media and the Lebanese Islamist movement reported.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip more than eight months ago, Lebanese Hezbollah has regularly exchanged fire with the Israeli army, in support of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
In recent weeks, violence has intensified and exchanges of fire have sparked fires on both sides of the border.
“An Israeli drone carried out an air attack with two guided missiles, targeting a café in Aïtaroun and killing the owner of the café, Ali Khalil Hamad, 37, and a young man, Moustafa A. Issa,” the National Defense Agency said. information (Ani).
The agency also reported a “heavy airstrike” on the village of Khiam, also in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army announced that “one of its planes had struck a Hezbollah terrorist in the Aïtaroun region,” adding that its aircraft had also “struck terrorist infrastructures in the Khiam region” and “in the Markaba region.” , where several terrorists were identified in a military structure.”
In the evening, Iran-backed Hezbollah announced that one of its fighters, Radwane A. Issa, was killed by Israeli fire and said in separate statements that it had carried out a series of attacks against Israeli border positions.
PHOTO ARIEL SCHALIT, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
An Israeli firefighter works to put out a fire near the border with Lebanon, in northern Israel, Tuesday, June 4, 2024.
The group said its attacks came “in response to the aggressions of the Israeli enemy […] notably in Aïtaroun where two people died as martyrs”, in “Khiam and Markaba”.
Fires broke out in the “Finger of Galilee” after shooting from Lebanon […] fell in open areas and in the areas of Malkia and Misgav Am where structures were hit,” the Israeli army said, without reporting any injuries.
“Phosphorus bombs”
Large fires also broke out in the morning in wooded areas of southern Lebanon, notably “near the sites of the Lebanese army and the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL)”, near the border, after bombings Israelis with phosphorus, according to Ani.
Lebanese authorities and several international NGOs accuse Israel of using white phosphorus munitions, a substance which ignites on contact with oxygen and can be used as an incendiary weapon.
Ali Abbas, from the Al Risala association, part of the Amal movement, allied to Hezbollah, told AFP that rescuers were struggling to extinguish the flames, with the Lebanese army not sending helicopters, for fear of being targeted by Israel.
Hezbollah also announced before midnight that it had “targeted a group of soldiers of the Israeli enemy who were carrying out an attack with phosphorus bombs and starting fires in the wooded areas in front of the town of Ramia”.
More than eight months of violence have left at least 458 dead in Lebanon, including around 90 civilians and nearly 300 Hezbollah fighters, according to an AFP count. On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians were killed, according to the authorities.
On both sides of the border, tens of thousands of residents have been displaced by the incessant fighting.