Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes on the southern Lebanese towns of Al-Habbariyah and Kfar Hamam on 3 March.
“Hostile warplanes launch two raids on the Al-Habbariyah Heights and the outskirts of Kfar Hamam in the Arqoub area in southern Lebanon,” Al-Manar’s correspondent in southern Lebanon reported.
The Israeli airstrikes came as Hezbollah had announced several attacks on Israeli border sites that day.
“In support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and honorable resistance, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance targeted, at 11:00 AM on Wednesday 04/03/2024, a gathering of Israeli enemy soldiers in Khallet Wardah with appropriate weapons, achieving direct hits,” the Lebanese resistance group said on Wednesday afternoon.
Shortly before noon on 3 April, Hezbollah announced a rocket attack on a “new secret command position behind the Pranit Barracks.”
A gathering of Israeli army soldiers was hit earlier that morning in an attack announced by Hezbollah at the Al-Rahib site in the Galilee.
Last week, Israel committed a massacre in the town of Al-Habbariyah after bombing an aid center and killing several medics. The attack came hours after Israeli jets struck Baalbek, in Lebanon’s eastern Beqaa Valley, on 26 March for the third time that day.
Hezbollah responded to the massacre with dozens of rockets on the northern Israeli settlement of Kiryat Shmona, resulting in the confirmed killing of one Israeli.
Washington and Paris have been trying to pressure Lebanon into a de-escalation agreement involving Hezbollah’s withdrawal from the border area. The proposed deal draws no significant concessions from Israel and has been described as one-sided and impartial by Lebanese officials.
Last month, the Lebanese state officially responded to the western proposal, calling it “a significant step towards achieving peace and security” and demanding a full implementation of Resolution 1701 – drafted in the days before the end of the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.