The Israeli military said Friday’s strikes were aimed at preventing weapons falling into the hands of Hezbollah [GETTY]
The Israeli military said that it launched air strikes on Friday targeting “infrastructure” on the Syrian-Lebanese border near the village of Janta, which it claims was used to smuggle weapons to the armed group Hezbollah.
“Earlier today, the IAF (Israeli air force) struck infrastructure that was used to smuggle weapons via Syria to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in Lebanon at the Janta crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border,” the military said in a statement.
It did not specify whether the strikes were on the Syrian or Lebanese side, but they came a day after Lebanon’s army accused Israel of “violation of the ceasefire agreement by attacking Lebanese sovereignty and destroying southern towns and villages”.
There is no official crossing point near Janta, but the area is known for informal crossings.
The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL, has also expressed concern over the “continuing destruction” caused by Israeli forces in south Lebanon.
The Israeli military said Friday’s strikes were aimed at preventing weapons from falling into the hands of Hezbollah, with whom it fought a land and air war for more than a year until a ceasefire was agreed upon last month.
“These strikes are an additional part of the IDF’s (Israeli military’s) effort to target weapons smuggling operations from Syria into Lebanon, and prevent Hezbollah from re-establishing weapons smuggling routes,” the military said.
A truce between Hezbollah and Israel went into effect on 27 November, about two months after Israel stepped up its bombing campaign and later sent troops into Lebanon following nearly a year of exchanges of cross-border fire over the war on Gaza.
