Israeli forces carried out a blast on Monday in the al-Qantara area of southern Lebanon, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue destroying Hezbollah’s infrastructure in what he described as a “security zone” inside Lebanon. Netanyahu said the Israeli army had “destroyed Hezbollah’s major stronghold at the Beaufort Castle and Ali al-Taher.”
Airstrike toll and medic killed in Kfar Rumman
It added that a separate drone strike on a civilian car in the town killed a medic and wounded two others. A Lebanese woman said at least three of those killed were her relatives, and that one strike hit a residential building as children were preparing to go to school.
Israeli army justifies targeting weapons transfers
The Israeli army, for its part, said it targeted people it had observed transferring weapons in the Kfar Rumman area. The army added that it used precision-guided munitions and aerial surveillance to limit harm to non-combatants, saying it was reviewing reports of casualties among them. The strikes on Kfar Rumman were carried out without an advance online evacuation warning.
Fears of renewed military operations have grown in Lebanon as airstrikes intensified over the past few days, despite the ceasefire reached in June to halt fighting in the south. Lebanese security officials said the strikes had intensified on towns north and west of the highlands, and expected the escalation to continue in the coming weeks.
The ceasefire had led to a sharp decline in violence, but Israeli forces continued operations across large parts of southern Lebanon, along with airstrikes inside the area Israel unilaterally declared a “security zone” and in areas to its north.
