Israeli drone strike kills six in eastern Lebanon amid ceasefire violations

At least six people have been killed and two others were injured in an Israeli aerial attack targeting an area in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, amid a fragile ceasefire between the Tel Aviv regime and the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli drone strike hit the al-Shaara area near the town of Jennata on Saturday.

The report added that Israeli military aircraft also conducted intensive mid-altitude flights over southern Lebanon.

Moreover, the Israeli military carried out a detonation operation in the village of al-Aadaissah, located close to the Blue Line border with the Israeli-occupied territories.

Hours later, the Israeli military claimed in a statement that its air force had struck a Hezbollah target in the Bekaa Valley.

The army also claimed the strike targeted a “strategic weapons manufacturing and storage site” belonging to the resistance group.

Israel must halt daily violations of ceasefire: Lebanon tells France

Lebanon’s President Aoun has urged France to pressure Israel to halt violations of a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah and completely withdraw its forces from the southern areas of the country.

Israel was forced to accept the ceasefire with the Hezbollah resistance movement after suffering heavy losses following almost 14 months of fighting and failing to achieve its goals in its aggression on Lebanon. The truce deal came into effect on November 27. 

Since the start of the agreement though, the occupation forces have been conducting near-daily attacks on Lebanon in violation of the ceasefire, including airstrikes across the Arab country.

On January 10, Lebanon complained to the UN Security Council over Israeli acts of aggression on agricultural lands and livestock in the southern part of the country in defiance of the truce agreement.

Hezbollah has put on the Lebanese government the onus to ensure the full withdrawal of Israeli military forces from southern Lebanon.

Lebanon said on January 27 that it had agreed to extend a ceasefire deal with Israel until February 18, even though the Israeli military failed to meet a deadline to withdraw its troops and killed nearly two dozen people in the south of the country.

Israeli airstrikes target military facilities near Damascus

Separately, a series of Israeli airstrikes targeted military sites in Syria’s southwestern province of Dara’a and the countryside of the capital Damascus on Saturday.

Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television news channel, citing local sources, reported that an Israeli attack struck a location in Inkhil town.

There were no immediate reports about possible casualties and the extent of damage caused.

Israeli airstrikes hit ammunition depots in the al-Dreij area in the Damascus countryside as well.

According to al-Mayadeen, explosions were also heard in Syria’s southwestern city of Quneitra near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the coastal city of Tartous.

Following the collapse of the government of President Bashar al-Assad in early December last year, the Israeli military has been launching airstrikes against military installations, facilities, and arsenals belonging to Syria’s now-defunct army.

Israeli war minister says troops will remain in Syrian territory indefinitely

The Israeli minister of military affairs says the regime’s forces will remain stationed at a summit of the “buffer zone” inside the occupied Syrian Golan Heights indefinitely.

The occupying regime’s attacks have drawn widespread condemnation for violating Syria’s sovereignty and devastating assets belonging to the Arab nation.

In the wake of the fall of Assad, Israel, which has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since 1967, also invaded a UN-patrolled buffer zone in southwestern Syria, taking over the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, known as Jabal al-Shaykh in Arabic, as well as several Syrian towns and villages.

Israel has also come under scrutiny over the termination of the 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria, and exploiting the chaos in the Arab nation following Assad’s downfall to make a land grab.

The United Nations created the buffer zone in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.  A UN force of about 1,100 troops had patrolled the area since then.

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