The Lebanese Army returned fire at Israeli forces on Thursday after one of its soldiers was killed in an Israeli strike near the southern town of Bint Jbeil. This marked the first time in nearly a year that Lebanon’s military has retaliated against Israeli fire.
According to a statement from the Lebanese Army, the soldier was killed after Israeli forces targeted an army post in Bint Jbeil, located near the Israeli border. In response, Lebanese personnel fired back at the source of the Israeli attack. This retaliation follows the killing of another Lebanese soldier earlier in the day, who died while clearing a road in southern Lebanon.
Although the Lebanese Army is not actively involved in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, it has increasingly come under Israeli fire as the conflict intensifies. Israel has conducted widespread airstrikes in Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah positions and infrastructure. In a series of operations, Israel claimed to have struck around 200 sites overnight, including a building in Bint Jbeil that Israeli officials said was being used to store Hezbollah weapons. The Israeli military said it had killed 15 Hezbollah fighters in the strikes.
The Israeli military’s ongoing ground operations in Lebanon have escalated, with additional troops being deployed to the border region in response to increasing Hezbollah attacks. Israeli forces have described their mission as a limited operation to destroy Hezbollah tunnels and weapons caches, similar to their recent campaigns in Gaza.
