At least 21 people are dead and eight wounded after an unusual Israeli airstrike in northern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The raid hit a residential building in Aitu, a predominantly Christian village far from areas where the Israeli military has carried out thousands of strikes targeting the militant Shiite Islamist group. Hezbollah. Residents said a family recently displaced by the war lived there. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the reports. But they came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “continue to hit Hezbollah mercilessly everywhere in Lebanon – including Beirut.”
Huge explosion
“Oh my God,” a man wailed as he walked through the devastation wrought on the village. Amidst the smoke and dust, corpses could be seen on the ground. Residents said there was no warning, just a single, huge explosion. However, they also said that several families displaced by the war in the south had recently moved to Aitu and that the house that was hit had been rented to new people just two weeks ago.
A Lebanese security source told the AFP news agency that the building “was targeted shortly after the arrival of a man in a car.” Lebanon’s health ministry said it was conducting DNA tests to identify the remains recovered by first responders at the scene. Also on Monday, the Israeli military said a strike in the southern Nabatieh region killed the commander of the anti-tank unit of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force. Hezbollah did not comment on the report.
The army of Israel
The military also said it hit Hezbollah launchers used to launch several rockets into central and northern Israel on Monday. Most of the rockets were intercepted or fell in open areas, according to the military. A woman was slightly injured by a barrage of 15 rockets fired at the northern town of Karmiel. Israeli police also said debris from an interception fell in the Holon district, south of Tel Aviv, without causing injuries or damage.
“Everything is going according to operational estimates. We proved it recently and we will continue to prove it in the days to come,” he added. The remarks came during a visit to a military base in northern Israel, where a drone launched by the Hezbollah group killed four Israeli soldiers and wounded dozens on Sunday night.
The military said it was investigating how the drone evaded its sophisticated air defense systems and hit the Golani Brigade training facility near the town of Binyamina. It was one of Hezbollah’s deadliest attacks in Israel in more than a year of cross-border clashes sparked by the war in Gauze.
Hezbollah’s response
Hezbollah said it was a response to deadly Israeli attacks in Lebanon, which, according to the country’s health ministry, have killed nearly 1,700 people in the past month. Most of the Israeli airstrikes in the past week have hit the Shiite-majority south and the Bekaa Valley in the east – areas where Hezbollah is strong. Aitu, a Maronite Christian community located in the mountains near the northwestern coastal city of Tripoli, was not a place you would expect to be attacked.
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