Hezbollah Hits Back After Israel Strike Kills Woman, Girl In Lebanon

Smoke billows after an Israeli airstrike on a village in southern Lebanon. (AFP)
Smoke billows after an Israeli airstrike on a village in southern Lebanon. (AFP)
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Hezbollah Hits Back After Israel Strike Kills Woman, Girl In Lebanon

Smoke billows after an Israeli airstrike on a village in southern Lebanon. (AFP)
Smoke billows after an Israeli airstrike on a village in southern Lebanon. (AFP)

An Israeli air strike on south Lebanon killed a woman and a girl on Wednesday, prompting Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement to retaliate with rocket fire.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said that Khadija Salman was killed and her daughter seriously wounded in the "enemy" strike on the southern village of Majdal Zun.

Requesting anonymity, a hospital source confirmed the woman had died and her daughter remained in serious condition, adding that a young girl was also killed.

Rescue workers said several other people were wounded and rushed to hospital, AFP reported.

In the evening, Hezbollah said it fired several rockets at the Matzuva kibbutz across the border in Israel "in response to Israeli attacks on villages and civilian homes" including Majdal Zun.

The Lebanese movement also claimed responsibility for 11 other operations against Israeli military positions on the border.

The cross-border exchanges since October have killed at least 271 people on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 42 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army.

Last week, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed that Israel would pay "with blood", after 10 civilians, including seven members of one family, were killed in Lebanon's largest single-day death toll so far. Five Hezbollah fighters were also killed.



France Highlights Its Role in Brokering Lebanon Ceasefire Deal

 Lebanese soldiers ride in a convoy in Mansouri, as they head to southern Lebanon, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP)
Lebanese soldiers ride in a convoy in Mansouri, as they head to southern Lebanon, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP)
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France Highlights Its Role in Brokering Lebanon Ceasefire Deal

 Lebanese soldiers ride in a convoy in Mansouri, as they head to southern Lebanon, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP)
Lebanese soldiers ride in a convoy in Mansouri, as they head to southern Lebanon, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP)

France’s foreign minister underlined his country’s role in brokering an agreement that ended fighting between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group alongside the US, saying the deal wouldn’t have been possible without France’s special relationship with its former protectorate.

“It’s a success for French diplomacy and we can be proud,” said the minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, speaking hours after the ceasefire went into effect Wednesday.

“It is true that the United States have a privileged relationship with Israel. But with Lebanon, it’s France that has very old ties, very close ties,” the minister added. “It would not have been possible to envisage a ceasefire in Lebanon without France being involved on the front line.”

France will be involved in monitoring the ceasefire, Barrot noted, with 700 French soldiers deployed as part of the 10,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, that has been patrolling the border area between Lebanon and Israel for nearly 50 years.

The minister said France will also work to strengthen Lebanese troops that will deploy in the south of the country as part of the ceasefire, although he didn’t specify what that might include.