(Al Jazeera Media Network) Israeli forces have attacked the Qasmiyeh Bridge, a key crossing linking Lebanon’s south to the rest of the country, in an escalation that President Joseph Aoun called a “prelude to ground invasion”.
Sunday’s strike on the vital artery and other civilian infrastructure came after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered the military to destroy all crossings over the Litani River and homes close to the border between the two countries.
The bombing of the bridge marks an escalation of the Israeli military’s campaign against Hezbollah, which resumed on March 2 after the Lebanese armed group fired rockets into Israel in response to the Israeli-US killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Aoun said the attacks on the bridge were “an attempt to sever the geographical connection between the southern Litani region and the rest of Lebanese territory”.
He said they fell “within suspicious schemes to establish a buffer zone along the Israeli border, solidify the reality of the occupation and seek Israeli expansion within Lebanese territory.”
