Three wounded in Israeli strike and gunfire in Markaba, Khiam

W460

Three people were injured Tuesday in Israeli attacks on south Lebanon, the Health Ministry said.

Two people were injured in a strike on the border village of Markaba and a civilian was injured by Israeli gun fire in al-Khiam.

Israeli warplanes also raided Tuesday the al-Rihan mountain and the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, while artillery shelled al-Khiam.

Warplanes had raided overnight the outskirts of Zebqine, Yater and Tayrharfa while the Israeli army shelled villages along the border with flare bombs.

Israeli soldiers fired at dawn at Ras al-Naqoura and al-Labbouneh with heavy machine guns and later in the day, Hezbollah targeted the Jerdah post and surveillance equipment and soldiers in the al-Raheb and al-Assi posts in northern Israel.

Hezbollah also targeted Tuesday posts in the occupied Kfarshouba Heights and Shebaa Farms.

On Monday, an Israeli strike killed two people in a car in the southern coastal town of Naqoura, including a contract worker for the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission near the border.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident. It has been exchanging fire near-daily with Hezbollah since clashes along the border began last October. Hezbollah began firing rockets over the border on Oct. 8, a day after the outbreak of the war in Gaza sparked by the deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel.

Hezbollah maintains that it will stop firing once a cease-fire agreement is reached to end Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Tensions in recent months have boiled, sparking global fear of the exchanges spiraling into all-out war. U.N. and international governments for months have urged an end to the fighting.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a draw.

Since Oct. 8, almost 600 people have been killed in Lebanon, mostly fighters with Hezbollah and allied groups, but also including more than 100 civilians and noncombatants.

In northern Israel, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed by strikes from Lebanon.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border.

SourceNaharnet
Comments 0