Ali al-Taher claimed
Al-Manar reported that Israeli artillery targeted the town of Beit Leef in southern Lebanon, while Al Jazeera said Katz linked the claim to a policy that “Israel will not withdraw from the security zone in Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed throughout Lebanon and the threats to the residents of the Galilee are removed.”
Al Jazeera also said Katz described “The capture of Ali Taher is an important step towards achieving this goal,” and it noted that Iran-backed Hezbollah had yet to formally comment on the Israeli claims.
The same Al Jazeera account said Israel’s operational control claim followed a Reuters report that Iran had warned the United States last month it would respond forcefully if Israeli attacks on the ridge continued.
In parallel, Al-Talfaziyun Al-Arabi said the bombardment of southern Lebanon continued as Israel claimed it achieved operational control over the Ali al-Tahir heights and eliminated some militants.
Toll and strikes
Lebanese Ministry of Public Health’s Emergency Operations Center, as published by the Lebanese News Agency, said Israeli raids on Friday evening killed three people and wounded 23 others across southern Lebanon and the western Bekaa.
Al-Arabi al-Jadid reported that the center said the raids claimed a martyr and 15 wounded in Al-Ramadiyah in the Sidon District, including six medics from the “Kashafat al-Risala” scouts, while it said two people were martyred in Kfarhamon in the Nabatieh District.
The same source said three people, including a woman, were injured in Nabatieh al-Faouqa, and four, including two women, were injured in Maïfoun in the Nabatieh District, alongside a person of Syrian nationality wounded in Ain al-Tina in the western Bekaa.
Sudan Independent said five people were killed in Israeli airstrikes that targeted southern Lebanon, including an airstrike by an Israeli drone on a motorcycle in the city of Nabatieh and another strike on the town of al-Rmayydeh.
It added that the Lebanese Health Ministry reported the death of 5 people and 24 others injured in the initial toll from those airstrikes, and it said the Health Ministry confirmed the killing of two people when the Israeli army targeted a motorcycle in the town of Kafrarmane in the Nabatieh district.
Prisoners and pressure
It also said Lebanon had officially received, through the International Committee of the Red Cross, four prisoners released by the Israeli army today, after the release of another prisoner the day before, and it specified that the Lebanese army received the four prisoners after the ICRC transported them to the Benoua Beqrat military base in the city of Sidon.
Al-Arabi al-Jadid further reported that the army received prisoner Malik Ghazi yesterday through the Red Cross, and it said the release of the four came as talks had stalled amid Israel’s refusals to take steps including “a cease of military operations or the establishment of a second test area.”
Al Jazeera framed the Ali al-Tahir ridge claim as part of exerting pressure on Beirut, quoting an Israeli security analyst and senior teaching fellow at King’s College London, Ahron Bregman, saying the operational control is “a way to put pressure on the Lebanese government: Tackle Hezbollah head-on, or we stay here.”
It also said Nicholas Blanford, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, argued that Hezbollah’s lack of comment on the Israeli claims raised questions, saying “It could be that Israel is exaggerating what it means by ‘operational control’,” and noting that neither the extent of military control nor the infrastructure contained within it is known.