Israeli strike in southern Lebanon’s Majdal Selm said to injure five people

No immediate comment from military; Beirut says 24 killed in Israeli strike Tuesday targeting what IDF said were Hezbollah vehicles moving weapons in violation of truce

Illustrative — An Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah targets in the area of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon on September 25, 2024. (Rabih DAHER / AFP)
Illustrative — An Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah targets in the area of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon on September 25, 2024. (Rabih DAHER / AFP)

Five people were injured in an Israeli drone strike in the southern Lebanese town of Majdal Selm on Wednesday, the Lebanese health ministry said.

The Israel Defense Forces had no immediate comment on the matter.

In a separate Israeli Air Force strike Tuesday night, the IDF targeted what it said were vehicles belonging to the Hezbollah terror group that were being used to transfer weapons near southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh, which would constitute a ceasefire violation on the part of the terror group.

The Lebanese health ministry said 24 people were injured in that strike, which came amid IDF warnings against civilians returning to villages in southern Lebanon, where Israel has said it will remain until February 18.

Israel had been due to withdraw by January 26, but said it could not do so as the Lebanese army had not yet deployed in those areas, and the US and Lebanon announced Sunday that the deadline had been extended.

Following the Tuesday strike, senior Hezbollah official Mohammad Raad said that the Lebanese people have a “sacred and legitimate right” to resist Israeli attacks, and said this right should be exercised at the time and place deemed necessary to protect the country’s security.

This aerial view taken a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold shows people inspecting the damage in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on November 28, 2024. (AFP)

Under the November ceasefire brokered by the US, however, Hezbollah must pull back north of the Litani River — some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Israel  — while Israel is entitled to strike threats it considers imminent, and to forward less imminent threats to a monitoring committee comprising representatives of Lebanon, Israel, France, the United States and UNIFIL.

Hezbollah, unprovoked, began firing rockets and drones at Israel’s north on October 8, 2023 — a day after thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.

The group’s near-daily attacks on Israeli border towns forced the displacement of some 60,000 northern Israelis, and the subsequent conflict — which included a surge of Israeli airstrikes starting in September and, starting October 1, a ground offensive in southern Lebanon — displaced some 1.3 million Lebanese.

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