Israeli intensifies attacks on Lebanon

BEIRUT: Israeli strikes hit Lebanon on Sunday, both before and after Israel's military issued an evacuation warning for 10 villages in the south and east, state media reported. Israel's military has continued to strike what it says are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon despite a ceasefire that began on April 17 and that was recently extended for several weeks. The Lebanese group has also maintained attacks on Israeli targets in southern Lebanon and across the border, including firing rockets on Sunday at Israeli troops operating on Lebanese territory.
Lebanon's official National News Agency reported Israeli strikes on multiple locations in south and east Lebanon on Sunday, in some cases causing casualties. Some of the raids came before the Israeli military's warning, which covered 10 villages in the south and the eastern Bekaa valley. A correspondent saw large clouds of smoke rising after strikes on the south's Nabatieh and Zawtar al-Sharqiyah. Lebanon's civil defence agency said early on Sunday that its regional facility in Nabatieh had been destroyed by an overnight Israeli strike.
Lebanon's health ministry said on Sunday that an Israeli strike the previous day in the country's south killed 11 people including six women and a child, despite a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war. 'The Israeli enemy strike on the town of Sir al-Gharbiyeh in the Nabatieh district resulted in a massacre whose final toll is 11 dead including a child and six women, and nine wounded including four children and a woman,' the ministry said in a statement.
A photographer saw civil defence personnel recovering equipment and using a stretcher to remove oxygen bottles from the rubble. The Israeli army did not immediately provide any comment in response to a request on the strike. Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes. Under the terms of the ceasefire published by Washington, Israel reserves the right to act against 'planned, imminent or ongoing attacks'.
Israeli troops who invaded Lebanon are also operating inside an Israeli-announced 'yellow line' running around 10 kilometres deep along Lebanon's southern border. Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah, who the US sanctioned this week, said on Sunday that 'major transformations are taking place in the region'. Iran 'has made its agreement with the United States conditional on stopping the war in Lebanon', he said, according to a statement.
On Saturday, Hezbollah said its chief Naim Qassem had received a message from Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, saying Iran's latest proposal through Pakistani mediators aimed at ending the regional war emphasised 'the demand to include Lebanon' in the broader ceasefire. Fadlallah said that 'the war will not just stop in Iran, but across the whole region, particularly in Lebanon,' urging Lebanese authorities to 'take advantage of this regional umbrella... which will have repercussions on us'. Lebanese authorities recently began landmark direct talks with Israel under US auspices, and have insisted the discussions must be independent from the Iran-US negotiations.
US President Donald Trump has assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he will hold firm on his demand for the dismantling of Iran's nuclear programme as a condition in any final agreement with Tehran, a senior Israeli official said on Sunday. 'President Trump made clear that he will remain steadfast in the negotiations regarding his longstanding demand for the dismantlement of Iran's nuclear programme and the removal of all enriched uranium from Iranian territory, and that he will not sign a final agreement absent these conditions,' the official said, referring to a conversation between the two leaders on Saturday night. 'The United States is updating Israel on the negotiations surrounding the memorandum of understanding for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and initiating talks toward a final agreement on the outstanding disputed issues,' the official said. — AFP