• Group accuses Israel of hacking CCTV cameras to target its fighters

Najia Houssari

BEIRUT: Fighting between Israeli and Hezbollah forces continued along Israel’s volatile northern border with Lebanon on Friday.

Hezbollah has so far lost more than 120 fighters, while the Israeli army has reported dozens of deaths and injuries.
Israel said its military had struck Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon after reporting rocket fire coming from the area, while an Israeli drone fired a guided missile on the outskirts of the town of Yaroun.

In recent days, Hezbollah has increased its shelling of the largest Israeli settlement, Kiryat Shmona, in the Upper Galilee.

It said it also scored a direct hit on a “crane carrying spy gear in Doviv farms,” two on Hadab Yaroun and another on a military site in the Zar’it barracks.

The Israeli army directed heavy machine gunfire on the outskirts of Boustane from its positions adjacent to Aita Al-Shaab. It also shelled and launched two raids near Naqoura.

Israeli warplanes and drones also bombed areas close to Aitaroun and Ramyah, where shelling led to the closure of a road.

On Thursday, Hezbollah accused Israel of hacking into CCTV cameras near homes and shops in southern Lebanon and using the footage to target its fighters.

Earlier this month, Israel dropped leaflets warning residents in southern Lebanon that Hezbollah members were “hiding” among them and urged them to flee their homes.

A statement said Israel “has recently hacked into civilian cameras connected to the internet and installed in front of homes, shops and institutions in front-line villages” and urged citizens to take them offline.

To support its claim it published footage showing how a car passing through a border town was targeted minutes after a camera positioned outside a house and directed toward the road captured the scene.

Hezbollah’s military media said Israel had “significantly lost its ability to spy on the resistance fighters to monitor their movements and target them, following the Resistance’s operations of targeting most of its cameras and equipment along the Lebanese-Palestinian border.”

Since the first start of hostilities, Hezbollah has targeted surveillance cameras and sensors at Israeli military outposts along the Blue Line.