By Wassim Seifeddine
BEIRUT (AA) – The Lebanese group Hezbollah said Tuesday that its fighters pushed away Israeli ground forces attempting to infiltrate into the border town of Al-Labouneh in southern Lebanon.
The group said Israeli forces sought to enter the town from behind the positions of the UN peacekeeping forces (UNIFIL) in the area.
Hezbollah said its fighters engaged with Israeli forces with “appropriate weapons,” causing casualties among them and forcing the infiltrating troops to retreat.
Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing more than 1,250 people, injuring 3,618 others, and displacing more than 1.2 million people.
The aerial campaign was an escalation in yearlong cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.
At least 2,083 people have since been killed and 9,869 others injured in Israeli attacks in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.
Despite international warnings that the Middle East region was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching on Oct. 1 a ground invasion into southern Lebanon.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala