Australia urges citizens to leave Lebanon as border tensions escalate
An uneasy calm settled over the south on Thursday morning after a day of heavy exchanges of fire.
At a funeral procession in Bint Jbeil on Wednesday, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told the ceremony that "no crime against civilians will pass without the enemy paying the price".
Hezbollah later Wednesday said it launched a barrage of 30 Katyusha rockets towards Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel "in response to the enemy's repeated crimes and its targeting of civilian houses in Bint Jbeil".
Since the cross-border hostilities began, more than 150 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah combatants but also more than 20 civilians, three of them journalists, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, at least four civilians and nine soldiers have been killed, according to figures from the military.
After two Australian citizens were killed in an airstrike on their house in bint Jbeil, Australia's attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, urged Australians to leave Lebanon while commercial flights were still operating.
- Suicide drones -
Exchanges of fire have been largely confined to the border area, although Israel has conducted limited strikes deeper into Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah said Wednesday it carried out a series of other attacks on Israeli troops and positions, including one on the contested Shebaa Farms involving "suicide drones", missiles and artillery.
The Israeli military said in a statement that "a number of launches were identified crossing from Lebanon toward various areas in northern Israel", adding that the army struck the sources of fire and "additional areas in Lebanon".
It also said "fighter jets" struck "terrorist infrastructure, as well as Hezbollah military sites".
- 1701 -
Israel has been pushing for Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River, which lies about 30 kilometers north of the border.
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, called for the removal of armed personnel south of the Litani, except for U.N. peacekeepers and the Lebanese army and state security forces.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati said last week that Lebanon was ready to implement international resolutions that would help end Hezbollah's cross-border attacks if Israel also complies and withdraws from disputed territory.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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