Israel launches multiple attacks in southern Lebanon, attacks members of Council for the South

BEIRUT — Several areas across southern Lebanon came under Israeli attack Wednesday morning and early afternoon, in an apparent escalation following the U.S.-brokered cease-fire between Israel and Iran on Tuesday.

Israeli troops have targeted southern Lebanon with gunfire, grenades and airstrikes since dawn, as Israeli aircraft maintained a constant presence in the skies over Sour district, according to reports from L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South.

An Israeli military patrol, consisting of two jeeps, crossed the Blue Line, advancing toward a truck belonging to the Council for the South — a governmental institution — which was parked in the Toofa neighborhood of Mais al-Jabal. Israeli troops had fired on the truck earlier and then thrown two grenades into it, setting it on fire.

The Lebanese Army, in response, contacted the cease-fire monitoring committee, consisting of representatives from UNIFIL, Israel, Lebanon, France and the U.S. (which chairs the group) to request its intervention. Israeli troops continue to occupy five sites on Lebanese territory along the Blue Line, claiming the occupation, which violates the cease-fire agreement Israel agreed to in November, is required for "security" purposes.

Initially, Israeli troops fired at firefighting and Civil Defense teams as they attempted to approach the truck to put out the fire, which was spreading into the area around it. But eventually, accompanied by the Lebanese Army, the teams were able to start working to extinguish the fire and prevent further damage.

An Israeli drone also attacked a team of engineers from the Council for the South who, along with a number of residents, were inspecting houses destroyed by the Israeli army in the village of Houla's Balloul neighborhood, in Marjayoun district. The Israeli aircraft dropped two sound bombs on the group, which was also accompanied by the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL forces, injuring one of the residents.

Earlier on Wednesday morning an Israeli drone launched a missile on farm land in the Bint Jbeil district village of Aita al-Shaab, in the vicinity of agricultural workers tending to tobacco crops. No one was injured in the attack.

An unexploded shell from a previous Israeli strike also detonated, injuring a resident of the town of Robb Thalathin, in Sour district, and he was quickly transferred to al-Najda Hospital for treatment.