BEIRUT — Top Lebanese officials called Thursday for the international community to intervene following Israeli airstrikes in the south of Lebanon.
Here’s what we know:
• Israel launched two airstrikes overnight Thursday near Dimashqiya in the outskirts of the town of Al-Mahmoudiya in south Lebanon, Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV reported. UNIFIL, the United Nations force tasked with peacekeeping on the border, said in a statement that its peacekeepers had heard explosion in that area as well as near Sur and Majayoun and that the Israeli army had subsequently confirmed hitting three sites in south Lebanon with airstrikes.
• Following a meeting with the Lebanese Army chief Joseph Aoun, President Michel Aoun said in a statement that “submitting a complaint to the United Nations is an indispensable step to deter Israel from continuing its attacks on Lebanon.” Aoun said that the airstrikes represented an “escalation of aggression” on Lebanon and its sovereignty.
• Meanwhile, caretaker Prime-Minister Hassan Diab has asked the caretaker foreign minister to submit an “urgent complaint to the UN Security Council” regarding the “Israeli aggression on Lebanon.”
• UNFIL’s head of mission urged both parties to “exercise maximum restraint … to avoid further escalation of the situation,” Candice Ardell, the deputy director of the UNIFIL media office, said in a statement.
• A Lebanese Army spokesperson said the army will not be putting out a statement, but confirmed to L'Orient Today that no casualties were reported. Hezbollah has so far not issued a statement or responded to requests for comment.
• Aoun and the army source both said the last Israeli airstrikes on Lebanese territory were in 2006, although other sources have said the last strike was in 2014, along the Lebanese/Syrian border in the Bekaa valley. Our sister publication, L’Orient le Jour, noted that the confusion is because the border is not clearly demarcated. Meanwhile, Israeli media reported airstrikes on Hezbollah targets along the Lebanese border in 2020.