The Israeli military has hit “dozens of Hezbollah targets” in Lebanese town of Nabatieh.
It said in a statement that the air force struck “military buildings, military headquarters and munitions warehouses” that Hezbollah “placed near civilian buildings, using the civilian population as a human shield.”
Nabatieh Governor, Howaida Turk said that at least five people were killed, including the town’s Mayor, Ahmad Kahil after a number of Israeli air strikes hit two municipal buildings.
Kahil was said to be inside the town’s municipal building when it was attacked.
Turk said that Israel carried out 11 airstrikes on Nabatieh and surrounding areas.
The Israeli army also said Israeli forces raided a system of shafts and underground infrastructure in southern Lebanon, which included living spaces, adding that weapons were found, it said.
It stated that the route of the infrastructure is located in the heart of a village, under houses of Lebanese citizens that were used by Hezbollah terrorists, making cynical use of civilian facilities in southern Lebanon.
Israel has turned up the heat on Hezbollah since it launched its offensive into Lebanon after killing Hezbollah leaders and commanders, including its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
Najib Mikati, the Lebanese Prime Minister condemned the new Israeli aggression against civilians in the city of Nabatieh, which deliberately targeted “a meeting of the municipal council that was discussing the city’s services and relief situation.”
The Israeli air strikes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs hours after the United States said that it opposed the scope of attacks on Lebanon’s capital.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Tuesday that US officials assured Lebanon that Israel would tamp down its strikes on Beirut. He added Washington was “serious about pressuring Israel to reach a ceasefire”.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said that its fighters carried out four rocket attacks overnight on the “occupied city of Safed” in northern Israel as well as the Dalton, Dishon and Yiftah areas in the north.
In a post on social media, Hezbollah said a large rocket barrage was fired at Safad, and rockets were also fired at Israeli artillery position in two of the three other areas in the north that were targeted between 01:40am local time (10:40 pm GMT) and 03:40am (00:40 GMT).
Israel’s military said earlier that about 50 launches were detected crossing from Lebanon into northern Israel in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Some of the launches were intercepted by Israeli aerial defence systems while “crashes were detected in the region”, the military said.
The Israeli military did not report on casualties or damage to infrastructure resulting from the attacks.
Israel Seeks To ‘Close’ Front With Hezbollah With Eye On Iran
Meanwhile, Sultan Barakat, a Professor at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University, opined that the increase in Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon over the past 36 hours shows its desire to hurriedly “close the front with Lebanon” as it prepares to strike Iran after the missile barrage last week.
“They [the Israelis] need to do something to restore the deterrence they’ve had for many decades in the region, but it would be very unwise to do so while they’re still at war with the Lebanese.”
Sultan Barakat
He added that Israeli may not be able to completely neutralise Hezbollah, but it wants to weaken it enough to secure a UN-backed ceasefire that will keep the Lebanese group on the sidelines during a war with Iran. “This is why they’re intensifying their attacks at the moment, and this needs to be done before the American elections,” Barakat said.
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