A truck carrying a multi-gun rocket launcher was intercepted Friday in Shwaya, Hasbaya. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
BEIRUT — Four Hezbollah fighters who had carried out rocket attacks at Israel on Friday have been released, and the rocket launcher returned to the Shiite party.
Here’s what we know:
• A Lebanese Army spokesperson told L’Orient Today that four people who were arrested Friday after shooting rockets at the Israeli-occupied Lebanese territory of Shebaa Farms have been released on the order of a judge.
• A Hezbollah spokesperson confirmed to L’Orient Today the release of the arrested fighters, adding that the seized truck used to fire missiles had been handed back to the party. The army spokesperson was unable to confirm that the rocket launcher had been returned.
• This comes after the group had announced on Friday that it had fired a barrage of rockets at open areas near Israeli military positions in Shebaa Farms in response to Israel’s strikes on open areas in southern Lebanon overnight Wednesday. No casualties were reported on either side.
• Angry residents of Shwaya, Hasbaya, a predominantly Druze village in south Lebanon, had stopped Hezbollah fighters as they drove through the town after firing the rockets. The Lebanese Army seized the truck thereafter.
• The UNIFIL peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon warned Friday that the cross-border fire “is a very serious situation” and urged “all parties to cease fire,” while the US State Department called upon the Lebanese government to prevent Hezbollah from carrying out attacks from its territory and “strongly encouraged all efforts to maintain calm.”