Attacks on Lebanon

Israeli aerial attacks on Lebanon match ferocity of early Gaza campaign, monitoring group says

From CNN’s Rob Picheta and Antoinette Radford

Israel’s aerial campaign in Lebanon is being conducted at an intensity comparable only to the first weeks of its bombardment in Gaza last year, an air warfare expert told CNN.

Emily Tripp, the director of the UK-based aerial warfare monitoring group Airwars, told CNN’s Eleni Giokos that both the Lebanon and Gaza campaigns are occurring at “a level and intensity that Israel’s own allies just simply would not have carried out in the last 20 years.”

“It’s only really comparable to those first weeks in Gaza,” Tripp said of the campaign in Lebanon.

“The reality is war is messy and complicated and militants embed themselves in civilian neighborhoods that inherently endangers civilians. This is not an easy operating environment,” Tripp added.

“We’re no longer in a situation where the front lines are easily distinguishable, particularly in civilian populations. But that doesn’t mean that civilian protection and measures to protect civilians should go out the window.

“I think it’s quite easy to blame a fog of war and say that this is just a very complicated environment, but it’s not,” Tripp said.