While the US puts pressure in Israel for a ceasefire with Hamas, Israel seems to be preparing to invade Lebanon. Israel has recently completed military exercises, simulating invading Lebanon. And a recent poll showed 55% of Israelis are for increasing 'operations' in the South of Lebanon.
Meanwhile attacks and threats continue. The hope that peace returns to Lebanon and Northern Israel with a Gaza ceasefire seems misplaced. It doesn't seem Israel is interested in peace at all.
Former Mossad chief threatens Hezbollah chief
Yossi Cohen, in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio, said Israel knows the whereabouts of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and “if we wanted to…could take him down”. The message comes as conflict rages along the Israel-Lebanon border, with Hezbollah and the Israeli military trading near daily strikes.
According to an opinion poll by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, 55 percent of Israelis support expanding the war with Hezbollah to the north.
Israel targets car in southern Lebanon’s Saida district
Videos verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad news agency have shown close-up scenes of the car targeted in an Israeli drone attack on the town of Kaouthariyet es-Saiyad, southern Lebanon’s Saida district.
The footage shows the targeted car catching fire and plumes of smoke rising.
🚨😳عاجل : اغار الطيران الاسرائيلي المسير مستهدفا سيارة بمنطقة كوثرية الرز قضاء صيدا الزهراني* pic.twitter.com/YAIGmfUaoa
— 🏴🚩جيهان حدرج🚩🏴 (@jihanhodrog) June 3, 2024
Translation: Initial information reported that there was an injury in the raid on the targeted car with four missiles from an enemy drone in the vicinity of Kaouthariyet es-Saiyad.
Israeli Army Radio reported that the aim of the attack was to assassinate a Hezbollah operative who was “strengthening” the Lebanese armed group. Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) also confirmed one death after the drone attack without naming the victim.
Hezbollah claims deadly drone attack on northern Israel
Hezbollah says it has launched a squadron of drones towards the headquarters of the Israeli military’s Galilee formation.
In a statement, the Lebanese armed group said the operation came in response to an Israeli drone attack on a car in the Saida district of southern Lebanon that we reported about earlier.
“In the Galilee Division (Nahal Gershom, east of Dishon), [Hezbollah’s drones] targeted the command building there and the places where its officers and soldiers were stationed and settled,” the statement on Telegram said. “They hit their targets accurately, which led to the outbreak of fire there and left the enemy soldiers dead or wounded,” the group added.
‘No one will hold Israel accountable’ as it targets medics in south Lebanon
Most evenings in al-Habbariyeh, a small town in southern Lebanon’s verdant hills, the young volunteers of the Lebanese Emergency and Relief Corps centre liked to get together to play cards or share an argileh (hookah).
On March 26, a clear, brisk night, Abdullah Sharif Atwi, Abdulrahman al-Shaar, Ahmad al-Shaar, Baraa Abu Qais, Hussein al-Shaar, Muhammad al-Farouq Atwi and Muhammad Ragheed Hammoud were in the second-floor hangout.
The Israeli drones hovered overhead, they had been going all day and now their sound was fading almost into the background. The group was in high spirits, taking videos of themselves and joking about.
About half an hour after midnight, just into March 27, Israel hit the centre with an air strike, levelling the two-storey building.
Seven young medical volunteers were killed in an Israeli strike. From left: Muhammad al-Farouq Atwi, Baraa Abu Qais, Abdullah Sharif Atwi, Abdulrahman al-Shaar, Muhammad Ragheed Hammoud, Ahmad al-Shaar and Hussein al-Shaar
