At least 12 people, including high-ranking army officers, have been killed in Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon.
According to Al Jazeera, Lebanon’s army said on Saturday that a brigadier general, a captain and a soldier, were killed in an Israeli strike on a military vehicle on the Khardali-Nabatieh road.
Following the attack on its soldiers, the Lebanese army said that “the continuation of the deliberate and repeated brutal Israeli aggression … is aimed at thwarting all efforts to reach a solution”.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the attack and said in a statement posted on social media that his office considered the attack a “flagrant violation of Lebanese sovereignty and of international laws and norms”.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also condemned the attack, describing it as “a heinous crime and an attack on Lebanon and all Lebanese people”.
In a statement, Salam extended his condolences to the families and colleagues of Brigadier General Wassam Sabra, Captain Elie Khoury and soldier Hussein Ghozal, as well as to the Lebanese army itself.
Later on Saturday, Lebanon’s army said that its commander General Rudolf Haykal was heading to Pakistan for talks with his Pakistani counterpart, Field Marshal Asim Munir.
The Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah dubbed Saturday’s attack a “heinous crime” and accused the Lebanese government of exposing its own country to bloodshed through its “complete surrender to the enemy’s demands in Washington”.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said that Israel’s killing of the three Lebanese army personnel reaffirms that Israel “is laying claim to Lebanon in all its components”.
In a post on social media, Baghaei described the attack as “a heinous crime against Lebanon, its army, and its sovereignty, and a clear message of aggression stating that Israel desires no security, stability, or prosperity for Lebanon.”
In a statement shared on social media, Saudi Arabia also condemned the attack and “the continuing Israeli aggression against the sisterly Lebanese Republic, affirming its total rejection of any targeting of Lebanon’s sovereignty and its army”.
Jordan also condemned the attack, describing it as “a flagrant violation of the sovereignty, security, and stability of brotherly Lebanon, and a blatant breach of international law”.
In a statement shared to social media, the country’s foreign ministry “affirmed the necessity of an immediate halt to Israeli aggressions against Lebanon [and] the consolidation of the ceasefire agreement”.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) expressed condolences to the relatives of the killed Lebanese army personnel, and said “such attacks in Lebanese territory constitute gross violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and Security Council Resolution 1701”. That UN resolution ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. It also formed the basis of a November 2024 truce between the two sides.
MNA
