At least two civilians have died in the afternoon-evening of this Friday after a drone attack carried out by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, according to the National News Agency of Lebanon (NNA).
The attack occurred in the town of Kfar Rumman, in the district of Nabatieh, when an Israeli combat drone struck two young men riding a motorcycle near the building of the Order of Engineers and Architects, both losing their lives on the spot.
According to the NNA, emergency teams quickly moved to the attack area and transported the bodies of the two fatalities to a local hospital, while firefighters extinguished the fire that broke out on the motorcycle after the explosion.
The Israel Defense Forces have described this operation as retaliation against a previous action attributed to the Lebanese Shiite militia party Hezbollah, which they classify as a "flagrant violation (of their territory) by the terrorist organization."
In a message disseminated on social media, the IDF stated that "Terrorists from the terrorist organization Hezbollah launched a drone early this evening at IDF forces controlling the security area in southern Lebanon," before adding that "the Israeli Army is now attacking in response in southern Lebanon."
Early this Saturday, the Israeli Army framed the offensive within a series of bombings against alleged "terrorists" of Hezbollah and against facilities used as weapons depots.
In a subsequent statement, the Israel Defense Forces detail that the attack targeted "Hezbollah terrorists and weapons storage facilities intended to plan and direct terrorist attacks against IDF soldiers in the Security Zone and Israeli civilians."
The Israeli forces emphasize that "The strikes were carried out to eliminate an immediate threat" and point out that this is a response to an attempted drone attack by the Lebanese militia against Israeli troops in the so-called Security Zone, an area under Israeli control in southern Lebanon that the Hebrew Government justifies as a buffer zone for the population of northern Israel.
The Israeli Army has indicated that there have been no casualties among its ranks and has warned that the military device "will continue operating in the security space to eliminate any threat against the citizens of the State of Israel and to (its) armed forces."
In the same message, the military authorities conclude that "The Israeli Army is acting now and will also act in the future with force against the repeated attempts of the terrorist organization Hezbollah to harm our forces."