Amid Ceasefire, Israel Launches Airstrikes in Lebanon Killing 11
Less than a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, he has already violated the agreement. The country's air force has launched another attack on Hezbollah bases in Lebanon. At least 11 Lebanese civilians have lost their lives.
The attack took place in the southern Lebanese district of Nabatieh on Monday (December 2), Al Jazeera and The Guardian reported.
According to the report, a Lebanese militant group fired a volley of projectiles as a warning over what it said were Israeli truce violations.
The projectiles were the first time that Hezbollah aimed at Israeli forces after the 60-day ceasefire went into effect last Wednesday. The increasingly fragile truce aimed to end more than a year of war between Hezbollah and Israel — part of a wider regional conflict sparked by the devastating Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
In the United States, President-elect Donald Trump demanded the immediate release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian militant Hamas group in Gaza, saying on social media that if they were not freed before he takes office in January there would be "HELL TO PAY."
It was not immediately clear whether Trump was threatening to directly involve the U.S. military in Israel's ongoing war in Gaza. The U.S. has given Israel crucial military and diplomatic support throughout the nearly 15-month conflict.
A new exchange of fire threatens Lebanon ceasefire
Lebanon's Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Haris killed five people and wounded two while another airstrike on the village of Tallousa killed four and also wounded two.
Israel's military carried out a string of airstrikes late Monday against what it said were Hezbollah fighters, infrastructure, and rocket launchers across Lebanon, in response to Hezbollah firing two projectiles toward Mount Dov — a disputed Israeli-held territory known as Shebaa Farms in Lebanon where the borders of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel meet. Israel said the projectiles fell in open areas and no injuries were reported.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it fired on an Israeli military position in the area as a "defensive and warning response" after what it called "repeated violations" of the ceasefire deal by Israel. It said complaints to mediators tasked with monitoring the ceasefire "were futile in stopping these violations."
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