VIDEO - IDF continues shelling: More than 50 people were killed in Israel Air Force strikes in Lebanon in the last 24 hours. A Jordanian citizen was killed and two were wounded when the Air Force struck a truck making its way from the Lebanon Valley to Beirut.
Lebanese security officials reported that at least ten Lebanese soldiers were killed and some thirty others were wounded as a result of a nocturnal Israeli air strike on a Lebanese army base, part of a renewed IAF attack on Beirut and northern Lebanon. The security officials said warplanes swooped down on the area of Kfar Chima early Tuesday, firing missiles near the base.
The Lebanese army has largely stayed out of the fighting between Hizbullah operatives and Israel, but its positions have been repeatedly attacked by Israeli warplanes.
A senior IAF officer said that some 100 targets were struck in Lebanon during the night, including 20 rocket launch sites and launching cells, and 30 infrastructure targets, including arms depots.
The official said that there was no confirmation of reports that Hizbullah has tried to fly a drone or a similar craft into Israel, but stated that the organization was capable of doing so. He added that a shoulder missile was apparently fired at an IDF helicopter operating in Lebanon two days ago, but that the chopper escaped unharmed. The incident is currently under investigation.
Hizbullah's al-Manar TV station reported that 13 Lebanese civilians were killed in an IDF air strike in the South Lebanese village of al-Trun Monday night. According to the report, the strike destroyed a two-story building, which collapsed, burying two families, including nine children, beneath it.
Attacks from sea
Other Lebanese news agencies reported that four bodies were extracted from the rubble of a building destroyed by IAF strikes on Tyre. Among the killed were a woman and her two daughters. According to the reports, four additional civilians were injured during the strike. Additionally, Lebanese police forces reported that IAF planes attacked early Tuesday morning two trucks driving on a main road in the Jabail area, some 30 km north of Beirut. They did not report any casualties as a result of the incident.
IDF sources said that, among the targets attacked Monday night, were several main arteries across Lebanon, an arms depot – including trucks used for weapons' transfer north-east of Beirut, an arms depot in southern Lebanon near a rocket launch site, a truck containing arms in western Lebanon, rocket launch sites and infrastructures serving as Katyusha launchers.
From the sea, the IDF attacked a radar belonging to Lebanese armed forces in Anchuria, in southern Lebanon. Additionally, continuous artillery fire was aimed at the border. In total, the IAF has executed more than 1,600 sorties since the onset of the confrontation in Lebanon, and attacked more than 130 rocket launch sites.
The IDF has yet to confirm or deny reports that its forces killed civilians and Lebanese soldiers Monday night.
Roee Nahmias and news agencies contributed to the report
First published: 11:49, 07.18.6