At least two Israeli strikes targeted a town near the main city in southern Lebanon, Saida, on Monday February 19, wounding fourteen people, a security source told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The Israeli army claims to have targeted “Hezbollah arms depots”. An AFP photographer heard at least two explosions a few seconds apart in Gazieh, located about fifty kilometers from the border with Israel. According to him, one of the raids targeted a warehouse located near the coastal highway and above which a thick cloud of smoke was escaping. Ambulances attended the scene.
According to the National News Agency, the strikes targeted a warehouse where tires and electric generators were manufactured, as well as the surroundings of a factory, causing “fourteen injured, mostly Syrian and Palestinian workers”. Two firefighters were injured while trying to control the fire which broke out, according to the same source.
In a statement, the Israeli army said its air force had struck “two Hezbollah weapons warehouses adjacent to Saida”in response to “launch of a drone towards (…) northern Israel ».
According to the Israeli army, the drone was probably launched by Hezbollah, which announces daily attacks against Israeli military positions. The army responds with aerial and artillery bombardments which it says are aimed at « infrastructures » of the party and the movements of fighters near the border.
The Shiite party, which says it acts in support of Hamas, after the war launched by Israel against the latter in Gaza, has so far not claimed responsibility for the drone attack.
Cross-border violence escalated last week, with Israel launching a series of deadly strikes against southern Lebanon on Wednesday, which left at least fifteen dead, including ten civilians, according to an AFP count. Seven members of the same family were then killed in one of the strikes against the town of Nabatiyé. The strikes were carried out in retaliation following an unclaimed rocket attack from Lebanon against a military base in northern Israel, which killed a female soldier.
The strikes against Gazieh are among the rare Israeli bombings deep into Lebanese territory over the past four months, with most hostilities with pro-Iranian Hezbollah so far limited to border areas.
In more than four months, at least 269 people, mostly fighters from Hezbollah and other allied groups, but including 40 civilians, have been killed in southern Lebanon, according to an AFP count. On the Israeli side, ten soldiers and six civilians were killed, according to the army.
Since the unprecedented attack by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, Hezbollah has exchanged deadly fire with the Israeli army on the Israeli-Lebanese border.