2 Lebanese Soldiers Killed as Airstrike Hits Near Lebanese Army Checkpoint

Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike at the village of Al Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, on 03 October 2024. (EPA)
Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike at the village of Al Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, on 03 October 2024. (EPA)
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2 Lebanese Soldiers Killed as Airstrike Hits Near Lebanese Army Checkpoint

Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike at the village of Al Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, on 03 October 2024. (EPA)
Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike at the village of Al Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, on 03 October 2024. (EPA)

Two Lebanese soldiers were killed and three others wounded in an Israeli airstrike that hit a building near a Lebanese Army checkpoint in Kafra, Bint Jbeil province, the Lebanese Army said Friday.

Since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon, Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters have clashed along the border while the Lebanese army has largely stood on the sidelines.

As Israeli troops made their first forays across the border and Hezbollah responded with rocket fire, Lebanese soldiers withdrew from observation posts along the frontier and repositioned about 5 km back.

On Oct. 3, a Lebanese soldier was killed and another injured in an Israeli strike in Taybeh during rescue operations. On Sept. 30, another Lebanese soldier was killed by an Israeli drone targeting a Lebanese Army checkpoint in Wazzani.



Hezbollah’s Priority Is Defeating Israel, Open to Efforts to Stop the Attacks, Group’s Official

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Jbaa on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Jbaa on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
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Hezbollah’s Priority Is Defeating Israel, Open to Efforts to Stop the Attacks, Group’s Official

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Jbaa on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Jbaa on October 11, 2024. (AFP)

Hezbollah's priority right now is defeating Israel militarily, but it is open to any efforts to stop "the aggression", the head of Lebanese group's media office, Mohammad Afif, said on Friday.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel bombing southern Lebanon, Beirut's southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, killing many of Hezbollah's top leaders, and sending ground troops into areas of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah for its part has fired rockets deeper into Israel.

"Tel Aviv is only the start, Israel has only seen so little," Afif said in a televised press conference in the southern suburbs of Beirut with the rubble of destroyed buildings behind him.

"Our absolute priority now is to defeat the enemy and force them to stop the aggression. However, any internal or external political effort to achieve a cessation of aggression is appreciated as long as it is consistent with our comprehensive vision of the battle, its circumstances and its results."

He denied there were weapons stored in Beirut's southern suburbs and said Israel used timed bombs to make it seem so, promising residents of the neighborhood and those displaced from southern Lebanon and Bekaa that they would return soon.