IDF strikes suspects approaching troops in Lebanon for first time in weeks
An Israeli drone strike killed one person and wounded another in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in a relatively rare targeted operation against individuals whom security officials said may have posed an immediate threat to Israeli troops. The strike, carried out using an IDF Hermes 450 drone, targeted a motorcycle in the village of Qabrikha, according to local reports. The person killed was identified as Nasr Mohammed Younes, a medical worker affiliated with the Islamic Message Scouts, an organization associated with the Amal movement, an ally of Hezbollah.
Security officials said the strike targeted two suspects who had approached Israeli forces closely enough to potentially pose an immediate threat. "Earlier today (Wednesday), the IDF struck two suspects who were observing IDF soldiers in the area of Qabrikha, outside the Security Zone in southern Lebanon," the military said in a statement. "The strike was conducted in order to remove the threat against IDF soldiers operating in the Security Zone.
"The IDF remains committed to the agreement between Israel and Lebanon." The operation was among the first targeted strikes against individuals in southern Lebanon in several weeks, marking a departure from the IDF's more routine attacks on infrastructure in the area. Defense officials said they were still investigating the identities of the two people targeted and had not confirmed whether either was affiliated with Hezbollah. Authorities were also examining whether the two had been armed at the time of the strike.
The last reported targeted killing operation in Lebanon took place Oct. 9, when Israel struck a Syrian terrorist near the border with Syria in the Hermel region of eastern Lebanon. Hours after initial reports of a strike in the village of Hawsh al-Sayyid Ali, the military identified the target as Youssef Ali al-Hassoun, whom it accused of operating under Iranian direction. According to the military, al-Hassoun had been planning attacks against Israeli civilians and Israeli troops operating in southern Syria at the direction of Iran.
The military said al-Hassoun had spent the previous year advancing several plots against Israeli forces, which it said had been thwarted. In another incident, a drone struck a vehicle near the southern Lebanese village of Shebaa on Sept. 24, according to local reports. No casualties were reported in that attack.
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