Illustrative image. (Israeli Air Force)
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on May 28 that it had carried out a strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the first time in three weeks that Israel has bombed the area of the Lebanese capital.
According to Lebanese media, the strike took place in Shuwayfat, just south of the Lebanese capital. The area is generally considered a stronghold of Hezbollah.
The IDF said that it would provide further details later. However, Hebrew media reported that the target of the strike was Ali al-Husni, the head of the missile force in the Imam Hossein Division, an Iranian faction that operates alongside Hezbollah. It was not immediately clear whether he had been killed in the strike.
It marked the first Israeli strike on Beirut since May 6, with recent reports from Hebrew and Arab media suggesting that the United States, which brokered a ceasefire in Lebanon last month, was against such an escalation.
In addition to the strike on the Lebanese capital, the IDF said that 135 Hezbollah targets were struck over the past day. According to the military, the strikes hit targets in southern Lebanon and the eastern Beqaa Valley, including rocket launch sites and a Hezbollah training camp, in addition to 15 Hezbollah infrastructure sites used to advance attacks in the coastal city of Tyre.
The Lebanese health ministry reported the death of at least 14 people, including three children, in the strikes that targeted southern Lebanon only.
The strikes came as the IDF expanded its ground operations in southern Lebanon, challenging the fragile ceasefire. Israeli troops have crossed the Litani River over the past few days and issued a warning for residents to leave much of the area, in response to relentless deadly Hezbollah drone strikes on troops and northern Israel.
The group has been mainly using fiber optic-guided first person view suicide drones, which are hard to detect and completely immune to jamming.
Just a day earlier, a servicewoman from the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion was killed by a drone on the Israeli side of the border.
This was the eleventh IDF soldier to be killed in southern Lebanon since the start of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah which was brokered by the United States. She is also the 24nd to be killed since hostilities between Israel and the group escalated amid the Iran war. A civilian contractor was also killed in southern Lebanon.
Despite the Israeli escalation, Hezbollah continued to launch attacks, sharing videos showing five drone strikes in recent days.
The escalation is meant to calm down criticism inside Israel over the failure to address the threat posed by Hezbollah’s drones.
It is highly unlikely that the strike on Beirut and the renewed push in southern Lebanon will deter Hezbollah, or help curb its drone attacks.
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