Israeli strikes in Lebanon kill journalists, Hamas operative
Hezbollah responds with rocket attacks
BEIRUT — Airstrikes blamed on Israel killed four Lebanese civilians Tuesday, including two journalists, in a fresh escalation of fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border, where Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces have been engaged in daily exchanges of fire over the past six weeks.
A separate strike killed at least four people traveling in a vehicle near the border in south Lebanon, the Lebanese National News Agency reported. Hamas said at least one of the dead was a Hamas fighter.
Hezbollah vowed to respond to the killings, then announced that it had fired rockets at northern Israel, targeting an Israeli military base in Beit Hillel, a meeting of Israeli soldiers in Avivim, and an Israeli military intelligence unit in Manara. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border are nowhere near as intense as the fighting in Gaza, but they have been steadily escalating in recent weeks, compounding concerns that an incident or misunderstanding could spark a far more devastating war between Israel and Lebanon.
Most of the exchanges have taken place within four to five miles of the border on either side, adhering to an unspoken agreement that has prevailed between Israel and Hezbollah since they last fought in 2006 not to allow hostilities to escalate into full-blown war. But the range and intensity of the strikes have been ticking up, even as civilian targets have been considered off-limits.
The deaths of two journalists working for the Beirut-based Al Mayadeen TV channel brought to three the number of journalists killed in Lebanon in the cross-border exchanges, raising concerns in Lebanon that Israel might be targeting journalists. Al Mayadeen identified them as reporter Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih al-Maamari, and said a civilian who was accompanying them was also killed when an Israeli warplane fired two missiles at their camera position.
An 80-year-old woman was killed earlier in the day in an Israeli airstrike against a border town, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of deliberately targeting the journalists. “Its goal is to silence the media that exposes its crimes and attacks,” he said.
Israel did not respond to the allegations but said its aircraft had been operating in the area against what a statement from the Israel Defense Forces called “terrorist cells.”
In Iraq, a US military gunship fired on and killed three Iran-backed militants who were part of an attack on coalition forces, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
A deputy Pentagon press secretary, Sabrina Singh, said the militants had moved to their vehicle after firing missiles at Al Asad Air Base, one of the last remaining Iraqi bases where US forces are stationed. The gunship, an AC 130, spotted them from the air, she said.