The Israeli army killed 15 Lebanese citizens on Monday during raids on towns in southern Lebanon, as part of its daily bloody violations of the ceasefire agreement.
On a daily basis, the Israeli army warns the Lebanese to evacuate villages and towns, in preparation for shelling that usually results in martyrs, injuries and widespread destruction, as part of continuous Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement announced on April 17 and extended until the beginning of next July.
On Monday morning, the Israeli army killed three people in three drone strikes on two roads linking the Nabatieh and South governorates in the south of the country, according to the Lebanese News Agency.
The agency explained that “hostile drones” carried out three raids in the morning targeting a car and a motorcycle on the Kafr Rumman-Jarmaq road, and a car on the Jarmaq-Khardali road.
Later in the day, Israeli warplanes attacked the towns of Kfar Rumman in the Nabatieh Governorate in southern Lebanon, and the city of Nabatieh was subjected to a “ring of fire,” in addition to an attack that targeted public housing in the Tyre district.
The Lebanese News Agency reported that 4 people were killed and 3 others were wounded in the Israeli raid on the town of Kfar Rumman in the Nabatieh district.
On Monday evening, the Lebanese agency announced the death of a citizen and his wife in an Israeli raid on their home in the town of Arab Salim in the Nabatieh district.
Rescue teams and the Islamic Health Authority are working to pull their bodies from under the rubble, according to the agency.
It also announced the death of a young man who succumbed to injuries sustained in yesterday's raid on the same town.
In this context, the agency reported that Israeli aircraft carried out raids this evening targeting the towns of Yater and Hadatha in the Bint Jbeil district and the Batm Mountains in the Tyre district.
Artillery shelling also targeted the town of Srifa in the Tyre district and Burj Qalawiya in the Bint Jbeil district, as part of the Israeli raid on southern Lebanon.
In the western Bekaa district of eastern Lebanon, the Lebanese agency reported that 5 people were killed and a number of others were wounded as a result of Israeli raids on the town of Mashghara.
In response, the Israeli military announced it had intercepted and downed several drones it said were launched from Lebanon. Some of the drones crashed in northern Israel near the border, including in the settlements of Zar'it and Even Menachem in the Western Galilee, as well as Shomera. No injuries were reported in most of the incidents. The military also reported intercepting a rocket fired toward northern Israel, noting that the incidents are still under investigation.
The army added that explosive-laden drones infiltrated the northern airspace, with one crashing near the Lebanese border, while another hit a building and caused fires in some locations, according to Israeli media.
In a related context, the Israeli army announced the start of raids on the Tyre district and other areas in southern Lebanon, claiming to target “Hezbollah infrastructure.” It also issued warnings to evacuate areas in and around Tyre, including Rashidieh, Al-Bass and Burj al-Shamali, warning that they would be targeted in the coming hours.
In response, Hezbollah announced in successive statements that it had targeted gatherings of Israeli vehicles and soldiers in several locations in southern Lebanon, including Rashaf, Qouzah and the vicinity of Adaysah, in addition to targeting the newly established Balat site with rocket barrages, stressing that its operations come in response to what it described as Israel’s violation of the ceasefire agreement.
Previous statements from the party also reported targeting Merkava tanks and Israeli military sites in southern Lebanon, amid continued cross-border operations and an expanding scope of confrontations.
Israeli escalation
In a related political and military development, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to deliver “severe blows” against Lebanon’s Hezbollah, claiming that Israel has a “special team” working to address the problem of the drones that are difficult to detect and which the party uses in its attacks.
This came in a video clip of Netanyahu broadcast by Hebrew media outlets on Monday evening, including the private Channel 12.
In recent weeks, Hezbollah’s drones, particularly those using fiber optic technology, have been causing increasing concern in Israel, with Netanyahu recently describing them as a “major threat” and calling on the army to develop ways to counter them.
Netanyahu said : “We are in the midst of a war with Hezbollah, and in recent weeks our fighters have eliminated more than 600 terrorists.”
He added: “We will not ease the pressure on Hezbollah, but on the contrary, we will increase it, and we will strike them even harder.”
He continued: “It is true that they are launching fiber-equipped drones at us, but we have a special team working on that, and we will solve this problem.”
He went on to say: “What we need now is to intensify the strikes; we will strike them very harshly.
In a significant development, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation revealed that Hezbollah used, for the first time, a suicide drone equipped with fiber optic technology and capable of carrying out nighttime attacks, resulting in injuries to Israeli soldiers in the Ras al-Bayada area of southern Lebanon, according to the report. The corporation indicated that these capabilities represent an evolution in attack tactics, allowing for more precise nighttime operations and making them more difficult to detect.
The broadcasting authority added that these aircraft rely on direct transmission via optical fibers instead of radio signals or GPS, making them more difficult to detect or jam, at a time when Israeli authorities described these developments as a “growing threat.”
The agency also reported that the Israeli army presented plans to the political level to expand operations in Lebanon with the aim of “breaking the equation” with Hezbollah, in light of the continued cross-border confrontations.
These developments come amid continued field escalation and repeated Israeli raids on Lebanese areas, in response to missile and drone attacks from inside Lebanon, with a continuous deterioration in the humanitarian situation inside the south.
