Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Israeli drones target Palestinian base
BEIRUT — Israeli drones bombed a Palestinian base in eastern Lebanon near the border with Syria early Monday, the Lebanese state-run National News Agency and a Palestinian official said.
The strike came a day after a drone crashed in a stronghold of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in southern Beirut, north of Israel, while another exploded and crashed nearby. Hezbollah has accused Israel of operating those drones.
Tension was also raised on Israel’s southern border Monday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to cut fuel transfers to Gaza in half in response to rocket attacks from the coastal strip.
Netanyahu ordered the cut to take effect immediately and until further notice. The cut is expected to exacerbate the already dire flow of electricity in the impoverished coastal strip.
East of Israel, a powerful bloc in Iraq’s parliament called on Monday for the withdrawal of U.S. troops after airstrikes linked to Israel.
The Fatah Coalition said it holds the United States fully responsible for what it calls Israeli aggression, “which we consider to be a declaration of war on Iraq and its people.” The coalition is a parliament bloc representing Iran-backed Shiite paramilitary militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.
The coalition’s statement came a day after a drone strike in the western Iraqi town of Qaim killed a commander with the forces — the latest in strikes apparently conducted by Israel against the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.
The coalition added that U.S. troops are no longer needed in Iraq. The U.S. maintains about 5,000 troops there.
Also on Monday, Netanyahu instructed his staff to prepare plans for building a new neighborhood in a West Bank settlement near where a teenage Israeli girl was killed in an explosion last week. Israel said the blast was a Palestinian attack.
The flurry of activity comes amid a manhunt by Israeli troops for the killers of Rina Shnerb, 17, just weeks before an unprecedented repeat Israeli election.
The blast at a water spring near the settlement of Dolev also wounded her brother and father.
As politicians paid the family condolence visits, Netanyahu announced he had ordered his staff to prepare plans for building a new neighborhood in Dolev that would have about 300 residential housing units.
If approved, the new housing plans would herald a significant boost in Dolev’s population. Most of the world considers the Israeli settlements to be illegal, but Netanyahu wants the backing of hard-liners who support such measures.
“We will deepen our roots and strike at our enemies. We will continue to strengthen and develop the settlements,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
Abu Wael Issam, an official with the Palestinian group in Lebanon, accused Netanyahu of also using the drone attacks to boost his credentials ahead of the Sept. 17 parliamentary elections next month. He said the strike in Lebanon was carried out by Israeli drones and did not inflict any casualties.
He said the Palestinian group’s “alternatives are open in confronting the Zionist enemy” but didn’t specify how or if it would retaliate. A statement issued later by the group said “the Zionist aggression” will not stop the group and its allies.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun told the U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jan Kubis, that the attacks violate a U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
“What happened is equal to a declaration of war and gives us the right to defend our sovereignty, independence, and the safety of our land,” Aoun said in comments released by his office Monday. “We are people who seek peace and not war, and we don’t accept [anyone threatening] us though any means.”
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said later Monday that the U.N. took note of Aoun’s statements and reiterated the U.N. appeal to stop violations of the Security Council resolution and implement all its provisions.
“The U.N. calls on the parties to exercise maximum restraint, both in action and in rhetoric,” Dujarric said.
The Lebanese state news agency report said there were three strikes after midnight Sunday, minutes apart, on a base for a Hezbollah ally: a Syrian-backed group known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — General Command.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the strike, which the Lebanese news agency said hit near the village of Qusaya in the eastern Bekaa Valley. Airstrikes by Israel against Palestinian factions in Lebanon have been rare in recent years.