BEIRUT: A security source reported on Thursday that an Israeli attack in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh killed a Hezbollah commander along with 14 others, sparking concerns about a potential escalation.
Since October 7, there has been almost daily gunfire across the border between Israel and the Hezbollah movement.
The Israeli military announced in a statement that it had killed Hezbollah commander Ali al-Debs, his deputy, and another fighter near Nabatiyeh on Wednesday—the bloodiest day since then.
According to a source in Lebanon, the strike claimed the lives of eleven civilians, including seven members of the same family, in addition to Debs and two other Hezbollah fighters. The number of civilians killed by Israeli attacks on Wednesday reached 15, the highest since the outbreak of cross-border fighting.
Debs, his deputy, and another fighter were slain “in a precise air hit executed by an IDF (Israeli army) airplane on a Hezbollah military facility in Nabatiyeh,” the Israeli military claimed in a statement. Hezbollah declared on Thursday that 3 of its fighters, including Debs, had passed away; however, the location of their deaths was not disclosed. It had previously stated that on Wednesday, two more members had died.
The Israeli army reported that its airplanes had struck Lebanon on Wednesday and that it had lost a soldier to unidentified rocket fire from Lebanon. On February 8, Debs was already the victim of an Israeli drones strike in the southern city that left her wounded.
Five people who died in Nabatiyeh were named by the official National News Agency of Lebanon as Hussein Barjawi, his two children, his sister, and his grandson. The security source claimed that his wife and niece had also perished.
Taken alive
The NNA further reported that while at least six other persons and another relative were sent to the hospital, emergency personnel managed to extricate a boy alive from the debris. According to the service, “a drone with a guided missile” was used to carry out the Israeli operation.
Furniture was scattered among the debris on the first and bottom floors of the three-story apartment building, according to a photographer. Additionally on Wednesday, the NNA reported that Israeli airplanes struck a home in Sawwaneh, south Lebanon, killing three members of the same family: a 13-year-old stepchild, a Syrian lady, and her 2-year-old child.
Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed partner of Hamas, claims it has been attacking Israeli military installations in the Gaza Strip to aid the Palestinian people.
Very alarming
Concerns about a potential full-scale confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah, which last fought each other in 2006, have been mounting. Najib Mikati, the prime minister of Lebanon, denounced the Israeli strikes and “new massacres” on Thursday, highlighting the deaths of civilians in Nabatiyeh.
“We find that the Israeli enemy keeps up its aggression,” he said, adding that Lebanon had encouraged “all parties” to prevent escalation and that Beirut would file a complaint with the UN Security Council.
Andrea Tenenti of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement that “all parties involved to halt hostilities instantly to avoid further escalation” was necessary due to the “devastation, loss of life, and injuries witnessed.”
SOURCE: DAWN NEWS
