Israeli strike kills one in south Lebanon, first such death since September

Chapeau (Extrait) :

An Israeli drone strike on a motorcycle in the southern Lebanese town of Qabrikha killed one man and wounded another on Wednesday, November 4, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said, in what AFP described as the first deadly strike of its kind since September. The Israeli military confirmed the attack, while Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, speaking after talks with President Joseph Aoun, warned against Lebanon being pulled into a new war.

Strike outside Israel’s declared zone

In a statement, the Health Ministry said the strike on a motorcycle in Qabrikha, in the Marjayoun district, left one person dead and one wounded. Lebanon’s official National News Agency gave the same toll. The Israeli army said it had hit two “suspects” who were watching its troops in the Qabrikha area, which it said lies outside the security zone it holds in southern Lebanon, a strip reaching about 10 kilometres from the border according to AFP.

The ministry’s account, relayed by AFP and by Gulf News, presented the death as the first of its kind since September, when Israeli strikes on a village in the Nabatieh region killed 13 people, including children, the deadliest toll since violence eased earlier this year. The identities of the casualties were not disclosed.

On the same day, Israeli chief of staff Eyal Zamir toured positions around Khiam, in southern Lebanon. According to an Israeli military statement quoted by AFP, he said any attempt by Hezbollah to entrench itself, rebuild its capabilities or threaten northern Israeli communities would meet “an immediate and forceful response”, and that the army remained on alert regarding developments on “near and distant” fronts.

Salam warns against a new war

The strike came hours after Salam met Aoun at the presidential palace. In remarks carried by AFP, the prime minister said that, given the risk of renewed regional fighting, he was repeating his warning against dragging Lebanon “into any new futile adventure in the service of foreign interests”. He added that decisions on war and peace must rest solely with the state and its constitutional institutions, and that Lebanese would not accept their country becoming once again “an arena for the conflicts of others”. The comments were widely read as directed at Hezbollah, which did not respond publicly.

Arab News reported that the warning followed recent remarks by Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei about the “unity of fronts”, which have revived fears in Beirut. An unnamed Lebanese official told the paper that Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had assured Aoun and Salam that Hezbollah would not join another war, but argued that the final decision lay in Tehran. The same report said Israeli drones flew over southern Lebanon, Beirut and Baabda throughout Wednesday.

A fragile framework

Lebanon was drawn into the regional war in early March, when Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel following the start of the US-Israeli offensive on Iran on February 28. Israel answered with a broad air campaign and a ground invasion. Lebanese authorities say more than 4,300 people have been killed.

Violence fell after a US-Iran memorandum of understanding in June and a US-brokered framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel signed the same month. That framework covers Hezbollah’s disarmament, a phased Israeli withdrawal from areas seized during the war and the deployment of the Lebanese army, but its implementation has lagged. Beirut continues to demand a full Israeli pullout and accuses Israel of demolishing homes in villages it still occupies.

Aoun has sought outside backing to break the deadlock. During a visit to Athens on August 31, he asked Greece to keep supporting the Lebanese army and to help ensure the agreement was “implemented” on both sides, Arab News and The National reported at the time. The Lebanese army received a second batch of Greek military aid during that visit, including 13 M113 armoured personnel carriers and 10 trucks. Wednesday’s strike, the first fatal one in weeks, is likely to add pressure on that diplomatic track as fears grow of renewed US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

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