Israel kills four people in Lebanon: Ministry
A series of Israeli air strikes killed four people in south and east Lebanon, the Lebanese Health Ministry says, referring to strikes that occurred the previous evening.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that it had targeted Hezbollah “infrastructure that was used for producing and storing strategic weapons” in south Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
More than a year of hostilities – including two months of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, which largely ended with a November ceasefire – left the group badly weakened.
Israel has nonetheless kept up near-daily air strikes in Lebanon despite the ceasefire, and has threatened to continue them until the group has been disarmed. Under the terms of the truce, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border.
Israel was meant to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon, but has kept them in five areas it deems strategic.
Celebrated Israeli writer David Grossman says Israel committing ‘genocide’
David Grossman, an award-winning Israeli novelist, has said Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to a “genocide”, a term he said he is using with “immense pain and a broken heart”.
“For many years, I refused to use that term: ‘genocide’,” Grossman, a longtime peace activist and government critic, told the Italian daily La Repubblica newspaper.
“But now, after the images I have seen and after talking to people who were there, I can’t help using it,” he said.
“This word is an avalanche: once you say it, it just gets bigger, like an avalanche. And it adds even more destruction and suffering,” he said.
