New strikes hit Lebanon after six killed in south
A fresh wave of Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon on Saturday, Lebanese state media said, after earlier attacks killed six people despite a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that had only recently been extended.
A fresh wave of Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon on Saturday, Lebanese state media said, after earlier attacks killed six people despite a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that had only recently been extended.
The latest strikes came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “forcefully attack Hezbollah targets”, following accusations by the army that the group had violated the truce.
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Earlier, Lebanon’s health ministry said that “Israeli enemy strikes on a truck and a motorbike in the town of Yohmor al-Shaqeef in the Nabatieh district killed four people”.
It said a separate strike “on the town of Safad al-Battikh, in the Bint Jbeil district, resulted in two fatalities and 17 injuries”.
The Israeli military said it had identified two projectiles launched from Lebanon, condemning what it called “a blatant violation of the ceasefire understandings” by Hezbollah, and later said it intercepted another “suspicious aerial target”.
Hezbollah, for its part, said it had targeted an Israeli army vehicle in southern Lebanon in response to the strike on Yohmor al-Shaqeef.
After Mr Netanyahu issued the order, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported two strikes within a short span on one town in Bint Jbeil district, another strike on a town in Tyre district, and additional attacks on two more towns in Nabatieh district.
The Israeli military said it had “struck Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure used for military purposes across southern Lebanon” and would “continue to operate decisively against threats”.
Israel says it reserves the right to respond militarily to imminent threats under the terms of the ceasefire.
An AFP correspondent said some residents fled Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold that has repeatedly come under bombardment during the war, after Mr Netanyahu’s statement.
Explosion in Khiam
US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon, which began on 17 April, had been extended by three weeks.
Tehran-backed Hezbollah brought Lebanon into the wider Middle East war on 2 March by firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.
The NNA also reported Israeli artillery shelling in several areas of southern Lebanon on Saturday.
It further reported a “violent explosion” in Khiam, a strategic town on the eastern stretch of Lebanon’s border with Israel, where the agency has previously said the Israeli army has been “systematically” destroying homes and other structures.
Israel’s military renewed its warning for residents not to return to dozens of locations in southern Lebanon inside the so-called “yellow line”, a roughly 10-kilometre-wide strip of Lebanese territory running the length of the border.
Israeli attacks have killed at least 2,496 people in Lebanon since 2 March, according to authorities.
On Friday, Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Fayad said the group still had the right to respond to any Israeli aggression, and said extending the ceasefire “makes no sense” given the continuing “hostile acts”.