BEIRUT: Russian diplomat Vladimir Safronkov held talks with Lebanese officials in Beirut on Friday during which he emphasized “the need for all parties to exercise restraint in preparation for reviving the peace process.”
After a meeting with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Safronkov, the Russian foreign minister’s special envoy to Lebanon, stressed the importance of strengthening relations between their nations.
He also met the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, whose office said: “The discussions focused on the developments in Lebanon and the region in light of Israel’s continued aggression against Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.”
Safronkov’s visit was part of a regional tour. It was preceded by a stop in Saudi Arabia and followed by a trip to Israel, a government source in Lebanon said.
Prime Minister Mikati is worried about the “deteriorating situation on the southern front, like other Lebanese officials, despite external reassurances that the situation is under control,” the source added.
Safronkov’s visit came amid an escalation of the conflict between Hezbollah and the Israeli army along their shared border, as the former deploys new types of heavy missiles to the battlefield.
The government source said an Israeli assault on the village of Jmaijmeh in the Bint Jbeil District of southern Lebanon on Thursday night did not bode well for the prospects of peace. An airstrike destroyed a three-story building, killing four people and injuring 14. Among the dead was Ali Ahmed Maatouk, from the village of Sir El-Gharbiyeh, who was said to be a leader in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force.
Hezbollah responded on Thursday night and Friday morning with an aerial attack by “a squadron of assault drones on the Filon base (the headquarters of Brigade 210) and its warehouses in the northern region southeast of the occupied city of Safad, targeting the positions and accommodations of its officers and soldiers.”
The group said it carried out another aerial attack “with a squadron of assault drones on the newly established headquarters of the Western Brigade … south of the Ya'ara settlement, and targeted the positions and accommodations of its officers and soldiers.”
Israeli media reported that dozens of rockets were launched from Lebanon toward Western Galilee while Safronkov was holding talks in Beirut.
Hezbollah said it had targeted the settlements of Neve Ziv, Abirim, and Manot with dozens of Katyusha rockets “for the first time” since hostilities began nine months ago. It said the assaults were in response to “attacks on civilians on Thursday in southern Lebanese towns,” and vowed that “any attack on civilians will be met with a response against new Israeli settlements.”
Amid the threats, Israeli forces carried out attacks on several locations along the border. Warplanes targeted the village of Hula, and shortly after paramedics arrived at the scene there a second attack took place nearby, injuring some members of the emergency crews and narrowly missing others.
Hezbollah’s attacks on Friday included one it said targeted the “Ruwaisat Al-Alam site in the occupied Lebanese hills of Kfarchouba with a heavy Wabel rocket, manufactured by Islamic Resistance fighters, which directly hit the site, partially destroying it and causing fires.” The group also used a Burkan missile and anti-tank missiles in its assaults.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Friday that about 70 rockets had been launched by Hezbollah at Israel since that morning.
Hezbollah reportedly struck Israeli artillery bunkers in Khirbet Ma’ar and soldiers in their vicinity with dozens of Falaq and Katyusha rockets. The group also targeted the Metula military site with artillery shells, and Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Ramim barracks were attacked with a Burkan missile, Hezbollah said.
The Lebanese Resistance Brigades said it took part in military operations against Israeli positions and had targeted “Al-Raheb site with guided missiles and artillery shells, hitting it directly.”
On Friday, Hezbollah mourned the death of member Mohammed Hassan Mostapha, 37, from the village of Aitaroun in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army said on Thursday night that a 25-year-old officer serving at its Ma'aleh base had died of injuries caused by a drone explosion in Golan.
