Questions, Outrage After Israel Attacks Northern Lebanese Christian Stronghold

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

On Monday, Israeli warplanes carried out an attack on a small apartment building in the northern Lebanese village of Aitou, in the Christian-majority Zgharta District. At least 22 people have been killed in the attack, according to the Lebanese Red Cross, which also wounded at least eight.

There has been no official comment from the Israeli military on why they attacked the Christian-majority village. That’s not unusual when the Israeli strike doesn’t appear to have had any military target or purpose.

Aitou is in a mountainous Christian region of Lebanon, near Tripoli (Tarabulus)

Speculation is that the attack was primarily a revenge attack against Lebanon in general after a Sunday drone strike by Hezbollah against a northern Israeli military base killed four soldiers and wounded scores of others.

Alternatively, Israeli media has been speculating that the attack, again on a Christian village, “may have targeted a senior Hezbollah leader.”

There has been no official sign that was the case, nor indeed are those making such speculation offering any name of the potential Hezbollah figure being targeted.

22 people have been killed in an Israeli strike on the Maronite Christian village of Aitou, located ~ 100 kilometers northeast of Beirut in northern Lebanon. The Lebanese Red Cross said its teams are still evacuating the wounded and deceased, with the majority of those killed… pic.twitter.com/lqLRbbRfPr

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) October 14, 2024

This northern part of Lebanon has not been considered militarily significant throughout the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah conflict, and there hadn’t been an Israeli attack anywhere near this area since the 2006 war.

Israeli attacks on explicitly Christian targets are not unheard of, at any rate. Just last week, Israel launched a missile strike against a Catholic Church in the southern area of Tyre. 

They destroyed the church, killing eight people, and have still offered no military justification for doing so.

There are Orthodox as well as Maronite Catholic churches throughout the south of Lebanon, amid the war zone, and some have been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes…

⚡️#BREAKING Isreal bombed a church in the Lebanese town of Derdghaiya pic.twitter.com/n1N7inveKj

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) October 10, 2024

Already facing growing international pariah status over their attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip, the escalation of attacks in Lebanon seems like Israel is willing to risk even more backlash.