Israeli strike kills 18 in northern Lebanon as Hezbollah steps up attacks

The Lebanese Red Cross has reported that an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment complex in northern Lebanon, killing at least 18 people.

“Eighteen dead and four wounded in the strike on Aito”, the Red Cross said on Monday, referring to the Aitou village in the Christian-majority Zgharta district.

The official Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli attack targeted a “residential apartment” in the village.

According to NNA, this is the first time Israel and the Lebanese organization Hezbollah have attacked the area in a year of hostilities.

The southern suburbs of Beirut and the south of the country are primarily where Hezbollah is active. The Israeli military did not respond right away.

As people tried to remove bodies from beneath rubble and trees, a large plume of smoke rose out of the hilly village and several destroyed cars were standing next to a severely damaged building.

Four soldiers were killed and dozens of others were hurt in a Hezbollah drone attack on a military base in northern Israel the day before the strike.

Hezbollah launched a ground offensive in the south of Lebanon, the deadliest known attack since the Israeli military’s recent military offensive. According to Lebanese officials, more than one million people have been forced to leave their homes as a result of the fighting.

Hezbollah claimed on Monday that its fighters clashed with Israeli soldiers in the Aita al-Shaab village in southern Lebanon. A guided missile was used by Hezbollah fighters to attack an armored personnel carrier, according to a statement. The vehicle caught fire and soldiers inside were killed and wounded, it said, without providing evidence.

The Iran-aligned group claimed to have fired rockets at Haifa, a northern Israeli city. The majority of the projectiles, according to the Israeli army, were intercepted.

On Monday, sirens were activated in the Sharon and Wadi Ara areas of central Israel. According to a military statement, Lebanon’s air defenses shot down all of the rockets, according to a statement from the military.

Separately on Monday, the Israeli military also claimed it killed Muhammad Kamal Naim, the commander of the anti-tank system of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, in an air strike in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

UN peacekeepers’ attacks are “total unacceptable.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has recently experienced several Israeli attacks that have drawn international condemnation.

Such attacks against UN peacekeepers are inadmissible, according to a statement.

We demand urgent answers from the Israeli government regarding the UNIFIL attacks, which are essential to south Lebanon’s stability.

The force, which has about 9,500 soldiers from around 50 countries under the leadership of a general in Spain, has recently reported numerous Israeli attacks that have claimed the lives of five of its soldiers and sparked widespread criticism.

Israeli tanks forced entry into one of UNIFIL’s positions on Sunday, according to UNIFIL, the most recent incident in a string of Israeli forces’ violations and attacks against the peacekeepers.

Israeli officials have urged UN peacekeepers to step down, but Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared on Monday that UNIFIL would not leave southern Lebanon. He demanded that the EU take action in response to Spain and Ireland’s request to halt a free trade agreement because of Israel’s constant attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.

Israel is also accused of undermining the UN and its Lebanon-based peacekeeping force, according to Micheal Martin, the foreign minister of the Republic of Ireland.

Israel is essentially undermining the United Nations and the UN peacekeeping force with the very rules-based international order, according to Martin.

Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from Hasbaiyya in southern Lebanon, said Sunday’s attack on the UNIFIL base was “extremely serious”.

According to Khan, “They used a tank to blow up a gate and then launched chemical-type bombs,” according to the injuries sustained by the peacekeepers.

He added: “Getting rid of an observer force would make the international community blind to what’s happening. The Lebanese army and the UN are both very concerned about this.

Source: Aljazeera