Three Lebanese have been killed in cross border fire with Israel. Hezbollah have claimed that one Israeli has been killed, also, but no conformation has come from the state of Israel.Skirmishes began earlier in the day with conflicting reports coming from news agencies in both countries claiming the other side fired first, and giving conflicting reasons as to what sparked the incident.
Three Lebanese soldiers have died in the skirmish with the Israeli military today. Five more were wounded in a shelling of an army position by the Israeli military. A journalist was also killed.
The conflict seems to have started after soldiers in the Lebanese army fired warning shots at a group of Israeli engineers out to take down a tree.
The soldiers perceived a breach of Lebanese territory and acted under that assumption.
Two of the Lebanese soldiers were killed when Israeli forces fired at the vehicle they were traveling in and it caught fire.
The wounded soldiers were injured in shells fired at their position in Adaisseh village in the south of Lebanon.
UNIFIL, the UN monitoring force along the border has asked both sides to show ‘great restraint’ in this latest incident.
These are the first clashes between Israeli forces, and the official Lebanese army, rather than Hezbollah forces.
Although, there was respite in the clash, in the last half hour prior to this publication, the conflict has resumed including the shelling of a south Lebanese village.
One journalist has also been critically injured.
