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Free Malaysia Today
a day ago
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Lebanon says 1 killed, 6 wounded in Israeli strikes
Israel has warned that it will keep striking Lebanon until Hezbollah has been disarmed. (AP pic) BEIRUT : Lebanon said one person was killed and six wounded today in a series of Israeli strikes in the south despite a ceasefire between Israel and rebel group Hezbollah. An 'Israeli enemy drone strike on a vehicle' in the town of Bint Jbeil 'killed one person and wounded two', Lebanon's health ministry said in a statement carried by the official National News Agency. The ministry later reported one person wounded in a drone strike on another car in the same town, and two others seriously wounded in a similar raid on a vehicle in nearby Shaqra. Earlier today, the ministry reported that a separate Israeli drone strike wounded one person in Shebaa, elsewhere in the south, with NNA reporting that a house was targeted. Israel has kept up its bombardment of Lebanon since a November 27 ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of all-out war that left the Iran-backed group severely weakened. On Thursday, an Israeli strike on a vehicle at the southern entrance of Beirut killed a man and wounded three other people, Lebanon said, as the Israeli army said it hit a 'terrorist' working for Iran. Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, about 30km from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region. Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country, but has kept them in five places it deems strategic. Israel has warned that it will keep striking Lebanon until Hezbollah has been disarmed.
Al Jazeera
4 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Lebanon says Israeli strike kills one as Beirut rules out normalisation
Lebanon's president says his country wants peace but not normalisation with Israel, as health authorities said an Israeli air strike killed one person in the south of the country. As well as causing one death on Friday, the drone attack on a car in Nabatieh district wounded five other people, according to Lebanon's Ministry of Health. It comes as Israel continues to launch regular strikes against sites in Lebanon, particularly in the south, despite a November 27 ceasefire agreement between it and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. Under the terms of the truce, Hezbollah had to retreat to the north of the Litani River, which is about 30km (20 miles) from the Israeli border, while Israel had to fully withdraw its troops, leaving only the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers in the area. However, Israel still occupies five strategic locations in southern Lebanon. Speaking on Friday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun expressed a desire for peaceful relations with his country's neighbour. But he stressed that Beirut was not currently interested in normalising ties with Israel, something mentioned as a possibility by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar last week. 'Peace is the lack of a state of war, and this is what matters to us in Lebanon at the moment. As for the issue of normalisation, it is not currently part of Lebanese foreign policy,' said Aoun, who urged Israel to withdraw completely from Lebanon. In a reference to the US's ongoing call for Lebanon to fully disarm Hezbollah, the Lebanese president also expressed Beirut's desire to 'hold the monopoly over weapons in the country', but he did not give further details. Hezbollah, which is considerably weakened after more than a year of hostilities with Israel, has dismissed questions about disarmament. 'We cannot be asked to soften our stance or lay down arms while [Israeli] aggression continues,' its leader Naim Qassem told crowds in southern Beirut on Sunday. On Wednesday, the Israeli military confirmed that some of its troops had entered southern Lebanon, with the army saying they sought to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure and to stop the group from 'reestablishing itself in the area'. The following day, a man was killed by an Israeli drone strike on a motorbike in the village of al-Mansouri near Tyre, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said. Two others were injured in the attack, it added.
