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The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) carried out a strike against a monument of late Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in the southern Lebanese town of Kfarkela late on October 18, following a series of attacks by Hezbollah.
Video footage posted on social media showed smoke rising from a Hezbollah observation post on a hilltop in Kfarkela where a watchtower with the monument is located.
The IDF announced in a statement the next day that it had launched strikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in response to recent attacks.
Among the targets was an military observation post from which an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) was fired toward the settlement of Rosh Hanikra, the IDF said, without mentioning the monument. A video released by the IDF didn’t show the strike in question.
Soleimani, who is credited with building Hezbollah military capabilities, was killed along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, in a United States drone strike near the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in 2020. Israel is said to have played a role in the assassination.
On October 18, Hezbollah launched seven attacks against the IDF, targeting equipment and positions in the occupied Shebaa Farms with machine guns, ATGMs and mortars. The Fajr Forces, the armed wing of the Lebanese Islamic Group, also fired a salvo of rockets at settlements near the separation line.
Hezbollah’s Military Media released videos showing two of their recent attacks on IDF posts in al-Manara settlement and Al-Malikiyah site.
Israeli casualties were reported after the Lebanese group attacks. However, IDF censorship didn’t allow the release of specific numbers. From its side, Hezbollah acknowledged that three of its fighters were killed in Israeli strikes.
Hezbollah and its allies, including the Palestinian Hamas Movement and Islamic Jihad, began launching attacks from southern Lebanon a day after the October 7 surprise attack against Israel with the aim of distracting the IDF and supporting the Gaza Strip.
So far, clashes on the Lebanon front have claimed the lives of six Israelis, including a civilian, 13 fighters of Hezbollah, five Palestinian fighters and three Lebanese civilians. More escalation is expected on this front once the IDF launches its invasion into Gaza.
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