Israeli airstrike on northern Lebanon kills 10

At least 10 people were killed and 15 others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the northern Lebanese town of Ain Yaaqoub on Monday, according to the town’s mayor.

The strike, the first in the town, hit a residential building, the mayor said.

Hizbollah said on Monday that the Israeli military has been incapable of occupying even a single village in Lebanon since launching cross-border ground operations six weeks ago.

Israeli troops on September 30 began what the military called “localised and targeted raids” against Hezbollah in Lebanon’s southern border area, a week after escalating air strikes on Hizbollah targets in Lebanon.

“After 45 days of bloody fighting, the enemy is still unable to occupy a single Lebanese village,” Hizbollah spokesman Mohammad Afif told a news conference in south Beirut, a stronghold of the movement and a repeated target of Israeli air raids.

Hizbollah, armed and financed by Iran, had on October 23 issued a similar statement that said Israel’s army “has not been able to fully establish its control or completely occupy any village” in southern Lebanon.

Israel has said its aim is to make its northern border safe for the return of tens of thousands of Israelis displaced when Hizbollah more than a year ago began cross-border fire, which it described as support for Hamas in Gaza.

On November 3, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told troops at the Lebanon border that the operation aimed to push Hizbollah back over the Litani River.

He said a second goal was to stop any attempt to rearm and the third was “to respond firmly to any action taken against us”, according to his office.

On Monday Hizbollah spokesman Afif said the group’s fighters had repulsed Israeli troops in Khiam, about six kilometres (four miles) from the border.

He added that the Israelis also failed in attempts “to penetrate on several fronts at Bint Jbeil”, about 17 kilometres southwest of Khiam.

Footage verified by AFP last week showed massive detonations in the village of Mais al-Jabal, between Bint Jbeil and Khiam.

Similar aerial scenes have been captured from several border villages since Israel sent in ground troops. Hizbollah accuses Israel of seeking to create a “no man’s land” on the frontier.

Agence France-Presse