From csmonitor.com
U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon urged immediate de-escalation as hostilities rumbled on at the Lebanese-Israeli border on Sept. 20, following Israel’s most intense airstrikes in nearly a year of conflict with the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Israel’s military said on Sept, 19 it had struck hundreds of Hezbollah rocket launchers that had been set to fire towards Israel, in what security sources in Lebanon said was the heaviest such attack since hostilities began last October.
On Sept. 20 Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in an airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, sharply escalating the year-long conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed group.
The target was Hezbollah’s operations commander Ibrahim Aqil, who serves on the group’s top military body, two security sources in Lebanon and Israeli Army Radio said. Mr. Aqil was killed alongside members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Unit as they were holding a meeting, one of the security sources said.
The strike killed eight people and wounded 59 others, Lebanon’s health ministry said, in a preliminary toll.
Ignited by the Gaza war, the conflict has intensified significantly this week, with Hezbollah suffering an unprecedented attack in which pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded, killing 37 people and wounding thousands.
The batteries of the walkie-talkies were laced with a highly explosive compound known as PETN, a Lebanese source familiar with the device’s components told Reuters.
The way the explosive material was integrated into the battery pack made it extremely difficult to detect, the source said.
The UNIFIL peacekeeping force in south Lebanon said on the morning of Sept. 20 that the previous 12 hours had seen “a heavy intensification of the hostilities” across the Lebanese-Israeli border and in its area of operations.
“We are concerned at the increased escalation across the Blue Line and urge all actors to immediately de-escalate,” UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told Reuters, referring to the line that delineates the border between Lebanon and Israel.
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