The entrance to the border village of Rmeish, South Lebanon. (Credit: L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — In a statement released on Wednesday, Hezbollah denied that it had tried to fire rockets from the southern Lebanese village of Rmeish on Tuesday.
Local media outlets previously reported that a dispute had erupted on Tuesday between residents of Rmeish, in Bint Jbeil district, and a group which the town sources associated with Hezbollah after the latter tried to install a missile launcher in the town. Hezbollah has repeatedly claimed that its fighters do not launch rocket attacks from residential areas.
The head of the municipality told al-Hurra TV channel that the supposed Hezbollah members ended up moving the missile launcher into a wooded area in the village and firing rockets from there instead, adding that the forest is still located not far from the residents' houses.
Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in near-daily fighting since Oct. 8, the day after the war between Hamas and Israel broke out in Gaza. Rmeish is one of around a dozen Christian villages near the Lebanese-Israeli border in primarily Shi'ite Muslim southern Lebanon.
"Hezbollah ... denies the false and malicious news that has been circulating in the media about the Islamic Resistance's [fighters] attempting to fire rockets at the Zionist enemy from inside the town of Rmeish or from the vicinity of its school or the village in general," reads the party's statement.
Hezbollah also warned the Lebanese people of "parties that have been insisting on launching these false rumors and taking positions based on them," adding that these parties are "instigators of strife between the Lebanese" people and serve Israel's goals.
There have already been clashes between the inhabitants of Rmeish and Hezbollah in the past, notably concerning the use by Hezbollah, since 2016, of land adjoining the village in order to install containers.
According to the party, these containers were installed in order to create a center for the ecological association "Green Without Borders." This organization has been sanctioned since August 2023 by Washington, which accuses it of "supporting and covering up" Hezbollah activities.