An Israeli drone strike killed two people and injured three others Monday morning in southern Lebanon, Lebanese civil defense said, as Lebanon prepares for Israeli retaliation after a rocket attack that killed 12 teenagers and children this weekend. Here is what we know about the situation, this Monday at midday.
The context Israel and the United States have accused Lebanese Hezbollah of being responsible for a rocket attack on Saturday that hit a soccer field in the town of Majdal Shams, killing 12 youths aged 10 to 16 years old and around thirty injured. Israel claims the rocket was an Iranian rocket, of the Falaq type, with a 53-kilogram warhead. Hezbollah is the only one to have them, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry. The Shiite movement denied being at the origin of this tragedy. The shooting came after the announcement of the death of four Hezbollah fighters in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon. On Saturday evening, the Lebanese movement said it had launched rockets towards military positions in the Golan, including a Falaq, before denying being behind the shooting on Majdal Shams.
The international community has called for moderation, creating an escalation in an area, the border between Lebanon and Israel where confrontation is almost daily between the Israeli army and Hezbollah troops, supporting Hamas. Israel's announcement of a response Late Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu, returned from the United States, convened the Israeli security cabinet to decide on the “manner and timetable” of the Israeli response. No indication was given of what measures Israel was considering. The country's largest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, cited unnamed officials saying the response would be 'limited but significant.' Retaliation options would range from a limited but 'highly visible' attack on infrastructure, including bridges, power plants and ports, to attacks on Hezbollah arms depots or targeting high-level commanders of Hezbollah, all countermeasures that Israel is already carrying out based on its information.
The first skirmishes Three people were injured in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon on Monday, including an infant, a Lebanese civil defense official told Reuters. Emergency services did not specify whether the victims were combatants or civilians. The Israeli military said its air defenses shot down a drone that entered the western Galilee from Lebanon on Monday. Planes on the ground Flights at Beirut International Airport were canceled or delayed Sunday evening as airlines reacted to the possibility of an Israeli response. Air France and Transavia are suspending their connections to Beirut on Monday and Tuesday, they announced on Monday. Lufthansa, Europe's leading airline group, is also stopping its flights to the Lebanese capital until 'August 5 inclusive' due to fears of a military conflagration in the region. Also affected are Eurowings and Swiss flights, which depend on the same operator.
Hezbollah evacuated positions in Lebanon after Israel's threats to strike it 'with force', in retaliation for a deadly rocket attack on the annexed Golan, a source close to the powerful pro-movement told AFP on Sunday. Iranian. Israel promised to 'strike the enemy with force' the day after this strike which it blamed on Hezbollah, and which left 12 dead on the annexed Syrian Golan Heights, raising fears of a regional conflagration in the midst of war in the strip. from Gaza. Hezbollah, which denied being behind the strike, 'evacuated certain positions in the south and in the Bekaa plain (east) which could in its estimation constitute a target for Israel', indicated the close source training at the AFP. Hezbollah is powerfully established in the Bekaa plain, bordering Syria, as well as in southern Lebanon, from where it has carried out almost daily attacks against Israel since the start of the war in Gaza almost ten years ago. month.
The formation armed and financed by Iran is also deployed in Syria, where it supports the power of President Bashar al-Assad. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), pro-Iranian groups linked to Hezbollah also evacuated positions around Damascus as well as in the part of the Golan under Syrian control. Flights postponed then rescheduled Hezbollah, for its part, evacuated these areas at the beginning of June, after being targeted by intensive Israeli raids, according to this NGO based in the United Kingdom and which has a vast network of sources in Syria. These raids in Syria also aim to cut off Hezbollah's supply routes to Lebanon. According to Israel, an Iranian Falaq-type rocket fired from Lebanon at a football field in the town of Majdal Shams on the Golan on Saturday killed 12 boys and girls and injured around 30 others. The Lebanese movement denied being behind the strike, but claimed to have launched rockets towards military positions in the Golan, including a Falaq, in response to the death of four of its fighters on Saturday.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, Hezbollah has launched almost daily attacks against Israel from southern Lebanon to support its Palestinian ally. Israel responds by bombing targets deep in Lebanon and targeting Hezbollah officials. Cross-border violence has killed at least 527 people in Lebanon since October 8, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 104 civilians according to an AFP count. On the Israeli side, 22 soldiers and 24 civilians were killed according to the authorities. Faced with tension on Sunday, the Lebanese national airline, Middle East Airlines (MEA), announced the postponement of several flights to or from Beirut on Sunday evening and Monday. The company specified that these flights had been rescheduled 'for technical reasons linked to the distribution of insurance risks'. At the start of the war in Gaza, the MEA sheltered around ten planes in neighboring countries. Israel bombed Beirut airport during the war with Hezbollah in 2006.
