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Israel continued to batter Lebanon with “non-stop” missiles Friday, killing at least 14, as Hezbollah terrorists warned they have become only “more determined’’ to fight — ahead of planned peace talks next week.
At least 13 of the dead Friday were identified as security personnel for a government building in the southern city of Nabatieh, which was targeted in an Israeli air strike, said Lebanon President Joseph Aoun.
Another person was killed in a strike on the southern town of Hannawiya.
The attacks were “non-stop” through the morning, Al Jazeera said, citing a reporter on the ground.
Homes and residential areas were destroyed in the town of Hanine and Aita al-Shaab, with additional attacks on al-Majadel in the Tyre district.
The overall recent death toll — which Lebanon claimed has climbed to more than 300 — has only further invigorated the Lebanon-based Hezbollah’s vow of retaliation.
“The sacrifices make us more determined to liberate our land,” the terror group’s chief, Naim Qassem, said, while claiming the Jewish state’s attacks were failing, the Financial Times reported.
“[Israel] has been unable to carry out the ground invasion it repeatedly announced,” Qassem said. “It has repeatedly changed its objectives.”
Hezbollah on Friday responded by firing rockets into northern Israel, with a concentrated attack at the Ashdod naval base.
The terror group said its attack was in response to the “violation of the cease-fire and its repeated attacks on Beirut, and after the Resistance adhered to the cease-fire while the enemy did not.”
Hezbollah had previously paused attacks on Israel amid the cease-fire deal between Iran, Israel and the US, but resumed after Israel reignited its own crusade in Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said attacks against Lebanon would not stop until the safety of Israel is assured, emphasizing that the cease-fire with Iran does not include Hezbollah.
The Jewish state launched a wave of airstrikes aimed at Hezbollah rocket-launching sites in southern Beirut that were allegedly going to be used to attack Israel.
Israeli and Lebanese officials are still expected to meet in Washington next week as President Trump looks to end the fighting between the two nations.
Peace was a key demand by Iran as part of the fragile cease-fire deal.
With Post wires
English (US)