At least one soldier was killed and 18 others injured, some seriously, after an Israeli attack targeted an army centre in the town of Al-Amiriya on the Al-Qalila-Tyre road in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said on Sunday.
The attack caused severe damage to the facility, the army added in a post on social media.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a statement that Israel had sent “a direct and bloody message rejecting all efforts to reach a ceasefire, to bolster the Lebanese army’s presence in the south, and to implement U.N. resolution 1701”.
“This aggression is a matter for the international community, which is silent about what is happening to Lebanon,” Mikati added in the statement.
U.N. Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, ended a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah by establishing a ceasefire and creating a buffer zone between the Litani River and the Israel-Lebanon border in a bid to promote long-term regional stability.
Israel’s cabinet will meet on Tuesday to approve a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, a senior Israeli official said on Monday, while a Lebanese official said Beirut had been told by Washington that an accord could be announced “within hours”.
The signs of a diplomatic breakthrough were accompanied by heavy Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, as Israel pressed on with the offensive it launched in September after almost a year of cross-border hostilities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on reports that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to the text of a deal. However, the senior Israeli official told Reuters that Tuesday’s cabinet meeting was intended to approve the text.
Israeli officials had said earlier that a deal to end the war was getting closer. However, some issues remained, while two senior Lebanese officials voiced guarded optimism even as Israel continued to bombard Lebanon and Hezbollah kept up rocket fire.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said Israel would maintain the ability to strike southern Lebanon under any agreement. Lebanon has previously objected to wording that would grant Israel such a right to attack targets on its territory.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
