Israel is escalating its attacks on Lebanon at a dramatic pace , with targets shifting from the front lines to vital infrastructure, in an attempt to isolate areas and undermine the foundations of daily life. Observers widely believe that Israel is trying to implement the “Gaza model” in Lebanon with widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure accompanied by the mass displacement of the population. On Friday night, the Israeli army launched intensive airstrikes targeting many areas of southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut’s southern suburbs, destroying major bridges over the Litani River. This move is believed to be an attempt to isolate towns from each other and prevent any ground movement while cutting off supply routes.
According to Lebanon’s official National News Agency , Israeli warplanes targeted two bridges linking the towns of Sohmor and Mashghara in the Bekaa Valley, completely destroying them after ordering residents to leave. In the town of Sohmor, an Israeli airstrike targeting worshippers as they were leaving a mosque killed two civilians and injured 15 others.
Dozens of towns and cities in the south of Lebanon were also bombed by Lebanon including Bint Jbeil, Nabatieh, and Tyre leading to more deaths and injuries and widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure, while Israeli air raids continued on Beirut’s southern suburbs. At least one person was killed in an Israeli strike on the fishermen’s port in Tyre.
The Lebanese Health Ministry also announced that two Israeli strikes on the Al-Housh area of the city at dawn on Saturday injured 11 people, including three paramedics from the Lebanese Civil Defence. It also said that the strikes damaged the Lebanese-Italian Hospital in Tyre, even though it remains operational. The National News Agency also reported that the Israeli military abducted a civilian from the town of Shebaa in the Hasbaya district in southern Lebanon after entering the town around 3 a.m.
In another development, three Indonesian peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were wounded in a blast that occurred inside a facility near El Adeisse on Friday afternoon, and rushed to hospital.
Two were seriously wounded.
"Repeated attacks or incidents of this kind are unacceptable," the Indonesian foreign ministry said in a statement.
"Regardless of their cause, these events underscore the urgent need to strengthen protection for UN peacekeeping forces amid an increasingly dangerous conflict situation."
Hezbollah meanwhile said it had carried out a series of operations targeting Israeli military positions in northern Israel, while launching drones and rockets at Israeli towns in response to the Israeli strikes.
The US-Israeli war on Iran spread to Lebanon on March 2 after Iran-backed Hezbollah launched rocket strikes on Israel in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Since then, Israel has launched massive and indiscriminate strikes on southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut while ordering hundreds of thousands of residents to flee their homes. At least 1,368 people in Lebanon have been killed, while 4,318 have been injured according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Israeli ministers have recently said that displaced Lebanese people won’t be able to return to their homes in south Lebanon, sparking fears of ethnic cleansing and permanent occupation of the area south of the Litani River.