Israel Strikes Hezbollah Target in Lebanon over Aerial Objects

Palestinian flag seem next to the Hezbollah flag in southern Lebanon (AFP)
Palestinian flag seem next to the Hezbollah flag in southern Lebanon (AFP)
TT

Israel Strikes Hezbollah Target in Lebanon over Aerial Objects

Palestinian flag seem next to the Hezbollah flag in southern Lebanon (AFP)
Palestinian flag seem next to the Hezbollah flag in southern Lebanon (AFP)

Israel's military said early on Saturday it had struck a Hezbollah target in southern Lebanon in response to the "infiltration of unidentified aerial objects into Israel" and fire on an Israeli drone.

The military intercepted the objects and the fire on its drone, it said.

Earlier on Friday, Israeli shelling struck a Lebanese army observation post at the border on Friday, three sources in Lebanon told Reuters, after the Israeli military warned of a suspected armed infiltration that it said it was responding to with artillery fire.
Israel later ruled out that any incursion had occurred and residents of a village near the border, who had been instructed to hole up at home and lock doors and windows, were told they could again go outdoors.
The alert was issued in Hanita, 500 metres (yards) from the tense border and opposite Aalma El-Chaeb.
Lebanon's Hezbollah group later said it had carried out attacks on a number of border areas as a response to attacks Israel carried out earlier in the day on south Lebanese towns.
The military statement said there had been an explosion at the adjacent border fence, which was lightly damaged.
Lebanese state media reported that shells struck near Alma Al-Shaab and Dhayra, the sites of repeated clashes in the past week, the deadliest at the border since Hezbollah and Israel fought a brutal month-long war in 2006.



Israeli Forces Fire at UNIFIL Positions in South Lebanon

Armored vehicles of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are pictured during a patrol around Marjayoun in south Lebanon on October 8, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Armored vehicles of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are pictured during a patrol around Marjayoun in south Lebanon on October 8, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
TT

Israeli Forces Fire at UNIFIL Positions in South Lebanon

Armored vehicles of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are pictured during a patrol around Marjayoun in south Lebanon on October 8, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Armored vehicles of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are pictured during a patrol around Marjayoun in south Lebanon on October 8, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

Israeli forces fired on two positions used by UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Thursday and at another one on Wednesday, the UN force said, as Israel pressed its assault on Hezbollah and told Lebanese civilians not to return to homes in the south.

The UNIFIL force said two of its peacekeepers were injured in one of the incidents, when an Israeli tank fired at an observation tower at the force's main headquarters in Naqoura, hitting the tower and causing them to fall.

There were no casualties in the other two incidents, a UN source said.

"Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law," UNIFIL said in a statement, adding that it was following up with the Israeli military.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which is waging a widening offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah.

Israel says its Lebanon offensive aims to secure the return home of tens of thousands of Israelis who evacuated northern Israel due to cross-border rockets launched by Hezbollah, which opened fire a year ago to support Hamas in Gaza.

UNIFIL said Israeli soldiers had also fired at a UN position in Ras Naqoura "hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system.”

"An IDF drone was observed flying inside the UN position up to the bunker entrance," UNIFIL said. The previous day, Israeli forces had "fired at and disabled the position’s perimeter-monitoring cameras,” it added. They also deliberately fired at and damaged another position, it said.