Seven people were killed in an airstrike launched by Israel at dawn in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s state news agency. Some Israeli media outlets, however, reported nine deaths.
Three others were injured when Israeli warplanes struck a house in the village of Ansar, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Canadian Anne Carson Wins the Nobel Prize in Literature
A Look Back at Apollon’s International Soccer Players
The strike is one of the deadliest attacks in Lebanon in weeks, coming after the country agreed to a peace framework with Israel following U.S. mediation. The framework provides for the continued presence of Israeli troops in occupied southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed and the Lebanese army takes control. The Iran-backed organization rejected these terms, calling them a surrender.
“The framework agreement… is an Israeli mandate written in Israeli ink and signed by the Lebanese authorities,” the Hezbollah leader said in a speech yesterday, Friday.
In a statement, the Israeli army said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure overnight in a “security zone,” as it described it, in southern Lebanon, in response to attacks against its soldiers.
The Israeli military occupied a strip of land in southern Lebanon during the war with Hezbollah earlier this year, which broke out when the organization fired rockets into Israel two days after the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
Israel says it will keep its forces there to protect northern Israel from further attacks.
During a visit to southern Lebanon on Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that Israel will not withdraw from the areas it controls untilHezbollah is disarmed.
A State Department official stated that a permanent Israeli military presence in the region is inconsistent with the commitments outlined in the agreement with the Lebanese government.
At least 4,300 people have been killed in Lebanon since the new round of hostilities began on March 2.
SEE ALSO: Tehran to Trump: “The Strait of Hormuz was, is, and will remain Iranian” | AlphaNews
Source: APE-MPE
