The Israeli Defence Minister told troops Sunday that the military was targeting places that Hezbollah ‘planned to use as launchpads for attacks against Israel.’ The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon accused Israel of ‘deliberately’ destroying an observation tower in southern Lebanon.
Israel began bombing Lebanese branches of an association accused of financing the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, Lebanese state media reported late Sunday, October 20, a further escalation of Israel’s nearly month-long war against the militants.
The National News Agency reported 11 strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, many of them targeting Al-Qard Al-Hassan. Other strikes hit the association in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley and in the country’s south, NNA added. It also reported that a strike had landed near Beirut’s airport, the main entry-point of humanitarian assistance to the country and a major evacuation hub for those fleeing the conflict.
Soon after, Hezbollah said it had downed an Israeli Hermes 450 drone Sunday, without saying where. The Iran-backed group also said it had fired several rocket salvos at Israeli troops across the border. The strikes came after Israel said it had hit dozens of targets during air raids on Lebanon earlier Sunday, as Hezbollah claimed numerous rocket strikes over the border and clashes with Israeli ground troops. The United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon said the Israeli army had “deliberately” damaged one of their positions, the latest incident reported by the force.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops Sunday that the military was stepping up strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, destroying places the group “planned to use as launchpads for attacks against Israel.” The military warned it was about to attack offices of US-sanctioned Al-Qard Al-Hassan, calling on residents to move away from its facilities. Strikes began shortly after, according to NNA. They mark an expansion of Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah, as it seeks to degrade the group’s ability to fund operations, having already killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders.
Israel turned its focus north towards Hezbollah last month. Full-scale war erupted after a year of exchanges over the border as Hezbollah fired rockets in what it called support for Hamas Palestinian militants at war with Israel in Gaza since October 7 last year.
In southern Lebanon, the United Nations peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, said an Israeli “army bulldozer deliberately had demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence of a UN position.” Four days earlier, European Union nations with troops in the thousands-strong mission had agreed to “exert maximum political and diplomatic pressure on Israel” to prevent further “incidents” against UNIFIL.
Le Monde with AFP
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