BEIRUT(National Times)- Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah on Thursday claimed casualties on both sides as Lebanon said it would complain to the United Nations Security Council over Israeli attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a sign of divisions, Lebanese ministers from Hezbollah and its ally Amal boycotted a cabinet session over the government decision this week to declare the Iranian ambassador persona non grata, as demonstrators rallied in support of Iran outside its embassy in Beirut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
War erupted between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2 when the Iran-backed group began firing rockets into Israel to avenge the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel has since been bombing Lebanon, mainly in areas where Hezbollah has long held sway, and has sent in ground troops in a push to establish a buffer zone in south Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
State media said Israeli strikes killed at least five people on Thursday, two of them in a raid on a building in the Nabatiyeh area in the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AFP images showed a badly damaged building and smoke rising from the rubble, as rescue workers and firefighters worked at the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel’s military said a soldier was killed in fighting in south Lebanon, bringing the number of its troops killed there this month to three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israeli emergency services also said a rocket fired from Lebanon killed a man in northern Israel’s Nahariya area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“MDA teams have pronounced a man of about 30 dead and were treating a man of about 50 who is in serious condition,” Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
‘THREATENING LEBANON’S SOVEREIGNTY’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hezbollah on Thursday claimed a series of attacks against Israeli troops in south Lebanon and at sites across the border, including targeting Nahariya and a barracks to the city’s north, and a defence ministry complex in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It also said its fighters had fired rockets in Lebanon’s Khiam, a strategic town near the border that has reportedly seen intense fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A military source in south Lebanon told AFP the Israeli army was “slowly advancing a bit more each day” in the border area, including near the town of Taybeh where Hezbollah has claimed repeated attacks against Israeli troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Committee to Protect Journalists called Thursday for an investigation into the killing of Hussain Hamood, a freelance journalist who worked for Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV, who it said was killed in an Israeli strike in Nabatiyeh a day earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lebanon’s foreign ministry this week gave Tehran’s ambassador until Sunday to leave the country, the latest unprecedented step by Lebanese authorities since the war erupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The spat escalated as two ministers from Hezbollah and two from its ally Amal boycotted Thursday’s cabinet session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement afterwards, the cabinet said Israel was “threatening Lebanon’s sovereignty”, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he had asked the foreign minister to “immediately file a complaint with the Security Council in this regard”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘ISRAELI DECISIONS’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dozens of protesters gathered near Iran’s embassy, AFP correspondents said, some waving Iranian or Hezbollah flags amid chants of “Death to America, death to Israel”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The embassy is on the outskirts of south Beirut, where Israel has repeatedly bombed in recent weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We came here to show our support for the Iranian ambassador in Lebanon, so the government will back down on this decision,” said protester Mohammed, declining to provide his surname.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Demonstrator Farida Noureddine, 43, said Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi “does not represent us. He is carrying out Israeli decisions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The health ministry said Thursday Israeli strikes had killed 1,116 people including 121 children since March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israel’s military said it had killed 700 Hezbollah fighters since the war began, although the group has not announced its casualties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Visiting Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty of Egypt called for the immediate cessation of what he called Israel’s “aggression” on Lebanon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BEIRUT(National Times)- Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah on Thursday claimed casualties on both sides as Lebanon said it would complain to the United Nations Security Council over Israeli attacks. In a sign of divisions, Lebanese ministers from Hezbollah and its ally Amal boycotted a cabinet session over the government decision this week to declare the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n