Weapons seized by the Lebanese Army in the Saida region. Photo taken from a Lebanese army X account / @LebArmy
The Lebanese Army announced Sunday that it had thwarted a planned rocket attack from southern Lebanon toward Israel and arrested several suspects in the Saida region.
Rockets launched into Israel on March 22 and 28, which were never claimed and were intercepted by the Israeli army, were used as justification by the Israeli army for two deadly strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, and almost daily strikes on the South and Bekaa regions.
In a statement, the Lebanese Army said that following the arrests of “members of the group that carried out these operations,” it obtained intelligence indicating preparations for a new attack.
A military patrol subsequently raided an apartment in the Saida-Zahrani area, where it seized “several rockets and their launch pads.” Several individuals involved in the plot were arrested, the statement added.
On April 16, the army said it had arrested members of a “group composed of Lebanese and Palestinians” suspected of launching the rockets in March. A security source told L’Orient Today's correspondent that three of the suspects were members of Hamas.
Separately, an explosion involving a Lebanese Army engineering truck carrying ammunition killed an officer and two soldiers Sunday in the Nabatieh region, according to L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the South. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear.
Additional reporting contributed by Mountasser Abdallah.
