Israel says Hezbollah member killed in strike, but Lebanon says attack is a ‘crime against civilians’.
An Israeli drone strike has killed five people, including three children, in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon’s Health Ministry has said, as Israel continues to target its neighbour despite a US-brokered truce that took effect in November.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported on Sunday that the strike targeted a motorcycle and a vehicle, and wounded two other people.
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Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri said that the three children – named as Celine, Hadi, and Aseel – and their father were United States citizens. The mother of the children was injured in the attack.
Israel said that the strike had killed a member of the Hezbollah group, but admitted that civilians also had been killed.
Israel has frequently hit what it alleges are Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, claiming to be preventing the Iran-backed Lebanese group from rebuilding its military power following its war against Israel, which killed most of its senior leadership, including its longtime chief, Hassan Nasrallah.
‘New massacre’
“Is it Lebanese childhood that poses an existential threat to the Israeli entity?” Berri asked, according to NNA. “Or is it the behaviour of this entity, in killing without deterrence or accountability, that constitutes a real threat to international peace and security?”
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accused Israel of committing “a new massacre”.
“What happened is a blatant crime against civilians and a message of intimidation targeting our people returning to their villages in the south,” Salam, who previously served as the president of the International Court of Justice, said.
“The international community must condemn Israel in the strongest terms for its repeated violations of international resolutions and international law.”
Labour Minister Mohamad Haidar also claimed Israel was deliberately targeting the Lebanese population that had returned to the south after more than a year of conflict sparked by Israel’s war on Gaza.
“This plan will not succeed, because the will of the people of the south is stronger than the criminal machine,” Haidar said.
The US and Saudi Arabia, along with Hezbollah’s opponents in Lebanon, have been pressuring the Shia Muslim group to give up arms. Lebanon’s army earlier this month presented a plan to the government’s cabinet to disarm Hezbollah, saying the military will begin executing it.
Hezbollah is adamant it will hold onto its weapons and insists it would be a mistake to disarm while Israel continues to strike Lebanon and occupy swaths of territory in the south.
