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Southern Lebanon strikes
Israeli airstrikes and artillery attacks hit southern Lebanon, with the town of Mansouri in the Tyre district targeted and “Israeli” occupation drones launching three successive attacks on the Burj Al-Shamali area, resulting in multiple injuries.
“instructing residents of Mansouri to move at least 1000 meters north of the town”
Ambulance and Civil Defense teams evacuated the wounded from the targeted area, while “Israeli” occupation forces carried out a controlled demolition in the southern village of Haddatha and “Israeli” artillery shelled the vicinity of the Ali Al-Taher hill.
The escalation followed an “Israeli” evacuation order instructing residents of Mansouri to move at least 1000 meters north of the town, marking the first such warning issued since the ceasefire came into effect.
Pars Today, citing Iran’s IRIB news agency, said the Israeli occupation army began in the early hours of Thursday, August 6, in a new wave of air and artillery strikes targeting Al-Mansouri, Borj El Chimali, Hadatha, and the surroundings of the Ali al-Taher hills.
Pars Today also reported that drones attacked a zone of Borj El Chimali three times and that preliminary figures indicated that at least three people were injured.
Journalists and accountability
The conflict’s impact on media was highlighted by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which said AFP journalist Christina Assi, who lost a leg in an Israeli strike while reporting from the Lebanese border, will be honored at the International Press Freedom Awards.
CPJ said that in October 2023 Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed and six others were wounded, including AFP journalists Assi and Dylan Collins, while covering the conflict near the Israeli border.
CPJ added that an independent AFP investigation concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area inside Israel, and it criticized the lack of accountability with the line, "Despite being the most well-documented attack on journalists by Israel on record, nearly three years on, no one has been held accountable."
In the same CPJ statement, CPJ Chief Executive Jodie Ginsberg said, "They have endured targeting, imprisonment, exile, and surveillance for simply reporting the news," as the awards were announced ahead of the November 19 event in New York.
The CPJ statement also said Assi has campaigned for justice for Abdallah’s killing and advocated for journalist safety, linking the award to ongoing efforts after the border attack.
Ceasefire violations and risks
Multiple outlets described the strikes as continuing despite a ceasefire framework, with Islam Times saying the latest attacks represented another major violation of the ceasefire framework that took effect in April and significantly expanding military operations across southern Lebanon.
“another major violation of the ceasefire framework that took effect in April”
Tercera Información said Israeli aviation and artillery attacked several localities in southern Lebanon, leaving several wounded and broadening violations of the ceasefire agreement, and it described assaults reaching Mansouri, the north tower, and the surroundings of the Ali al-Taher hill between Wednesday night and Thursday dawn.
Tercera Información also reported that earlier this Wednesday, one person was martyred and 12 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a prayer site in the town of Tebnine.
It further stated that two Israeli reservists were killed on Wednesday after an explosion of an explosive device inside a building rigged with traps in Majdal Zoun, and that four troops were in “critical” condition according to the military radio.
The same source said the Lebanese Resistance (Hezbollah) attributed primary responsibility for the continuation of the crimes to Lebanese authorities, stressing that by signing the framework agreement it gave the enemy legitimacy for its occupation and for this type of practice.
