عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Hezbollah Says it Launched Drone Attack on Israeli Military Posts

A firefighter extinguishes a flame at the site of a rocket attack, launched from southern Lebanon, in the town of Katzrin in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on August 21, 2024. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
A firefighter extinguishes a flame at the site of a rocket attack, launched from southern Lebanon, in the town of Katzrin in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on August 21, 2024. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
TT
TT

Hezbollah Says it Launched Drone Attack on Israeli Military Posts

A firefighter extinguishes a flame at the site of a rocket attack, launched from southern Lebanon, in the town of Katzrin in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on August 21, 2024. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
A firefighter extinguishes a flame at the site of a rocket attack, launched from southern Lebanon, in the town of Katzrin in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on August 21, 2024. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)

Lebanon's Hezbollah launched an attack with a swarm of drones on military posts in the kibbutz of Amiad in northern Israel, the armed group said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Israeli kibbutz is located approximately 22 kilometers from the Lebanese border. 
Hezbollah said the attack was a retaliation for an Israeli strike on the Lebanese Bekaa region overnight.

Hezbollah also launched more than 50 rockets, hitting several homes in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

First responders in the Golan Heights said they treated a 30-year-old man who was moderately wounded with shrapnel injuries in Wednesday’s attack. One house was engulfed in flames, and firefighters said they prevented a bigger tragedy by stopping a gas leak.

Hezbollah said the attack was also in response to an Israeli strike in the Bekaa Valley on Tuesday night.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it bombed Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in the Bekaa overnight.
The air attack came hours after Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that "attacking munitions warehouses in Lebanon is preparation for anything that might happen."

Security sources said the strike was in a residential area near the eastern city of Baalbek in the Bekaa.

The airstrikes left at least two people dead and 19 injured, according to the sources.

Another Israeli airstrike on Wednesday hit a car on the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon, killing a member of the armed wing of the Palestinian faction Fatah, two Palestinian sources told Reuters.

Khalil al-Maqdah, the brother of Fatah Gen. Mounir al-Maqdah, was killed in the strike, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded near-daily strikes for more than 10 months against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Lebanon’s Salam Wins Enough Support to Become PM, Angering Hezbollah

Judge Nawaf Salam, president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) speaks at the ICJ at the start of a hearing in The Hague Netherlands May 16, 2024. (Reuters)
Judge Nawaf Salam, president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) speaks at the ICJ at the start of a hearing in The Hague Netherlands May 16, 2024. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Lebanon’s Salam Wins Enough Support to Become PM, Angering Hezbollah

Judge Nawaf Salam, president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) speaks at the ICJ at the start of a hearing in The Hague Netherlands May 16, 2024. (Reuters)
Judge Nawaf Salam, president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) speaks at the ICJ at the start of a hearing in The Hague Netherlands May 16, 2024. (Reuters)

Nawaf Salam, the head of the International Court of Justice, won enough support to become Lebanon's next prime minister after a majority of lawmakers backed him for the post on Monday, a big blow to Hezbollah which accused opponents of working to exclude it.

The support for Salam underlined the major shift in the power balance among Lebanon's sectarian factions since the Shiite group Hezbollah was pummeled in a war with Israel last year, and its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad was toppled.

Senior Hezbollah lawmaker Mohammed Raad, whose Iran-backed group had wanted incumbent Najib Mikati to stay in the post, said Hezbollah's opponents were working for fragmentation and exclusion. He said the group had "extended its hand" by electing Joseph Aoun as president last week only to find the "hand cut".

Last week's election of army commander General Aoun was another sign of shifts in the political landscape, in which Hezbollah had long held decisive sway.

Aoun, a Maronite Christian, was holding consultations over the choice of prime minister with parliament's 128 lawmakers on Monday. He is obliged to pick the candidate with the greatest number of votes.

Salam had secured the backing of 85 of the lawmakers by Monday afternoon, with the consultations yet to conclude.

The prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim according to Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system which parcels out state positions on the basis of religious affiliation. The presidency goes to a Maronite Christian and the speaker of parliament must be a Shiite Muslim.

Hezbollah lawmakers attended their meeting with Aoun later than scheduled, delaying their arrival as they saw the momentum building behind Salam, a Hezbollah source said according to Reuters.

Hezbollah believed a political understanding had been reached on Mikati's election before the group agreed to elect Aoun last week, the source said.

CHALLENGES AHEAD

Sunni and Christian allies of Hezbollah were among those who named Salam. Faisal Karami, a Sunni lawmaker aligned with the group, said he had nominated Salam, citing demands for "change and renewal" and Arab and international support for Lebanon.

Aoun's election and the designation of a new premier are steps towards reviving Lebanese government institutions which have been paralyzed for more than two years, with the country having neither a head of state nor a fully empowered cabinet.

The new administration faces huge tasks including rebuilding areas levelled by Israeli airstrikes during the war with Hezbollah, and launching long-stalled reforms to revive the economy and address the root causes of the collapse of Lebanon's financial system in 2019.

In his former role as commander of the US-backed army, Aoun played a critical role in the implementation of a US-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah.

The terms require the Lebanese army to deploy into south Lebanon as Israeli troops and Hezbollah withdraw forces.

Raad said Hezbollah would follow the next steps, and "proceed with calm and wisdom, out of concern for the national interest, and we will see their actions ... to expel the occupier from our land".