Israel bombarded Southern Lebanon and Gaza Strip in Ramadan

RELIGIONS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) – Israel launched rare strikes in southern Lebanon early Friday and pressed on with bombing targets in the Gaza Strip.

The bombing marked a widening escalation in the region following violence this week at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site.

The cross-border fighting erupted during a time of heightened religious fervor — when Jews are celebrating the Passover holiday and Muslims are marking the Ramadan holy month.

In 2021, an escalation also triggered by clashes at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, spilled over into an 11-day war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Friday’s strikes in southern Lebanon came a day after militants fired nearly three dozen rockets from there at Israel, wounding two people and causing some property damage.

The Israeli military said it targeted installations of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, in southern Lebanon.

It is said several missiles fired by Israeli warplanes struck an open field in the town of Qalili near the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh, close to the coastal southern city of Tyre, while others struck a bridge and power transformer in the nearby town of Maaliya and a farm on the outskirts of Rashidiyeh, killing several sheep.

No human deaths were reported.