ANSAR, Lebanon: Lebanon said Israeli strikes in the south killed nine people, including three children, on Saturday, the deadliest raids since deals in June eased hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israel said it carried out retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah, but Lebanon’s prime minister said seven people killed in one of the strikes were not “military targets” and urged Israel to halt an “extremely dangerous” escalation.
Israel “escalated its attacks on the south” early Saturday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said, reporting that warplanes struck a home on the outskirts of the village of Ansar and carried out a “series of airstrikes targeting the Ali al-Taher ridge”, a strategic hill overlooking the Nabatieh area.
It later reported a strike on the southern town of Deir Zahrani.
Lebanon’s health ministry said seven people were killed “including three children and two women,” in Ansar, with another two people killed and nine others wounded in Deir Zahrani, adding that the toll there was provisional.
An Israeli army statement said that it struck “Hezbollah infrastructure in the areas of Nabatieh and Ansar”, adding that the move came “in response to an action by Hezbollah” against Israeli soldiers in the Ali al-Taher Ridge area.
‘Extremely dangerous’
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that “the seven martyrs of the Israeli strike on the village of Ansar are not ‘military infrastructure’ and the women and children who were killed are not military targets.”
“Israel must halt this escalation,” he said, adding that it was “extremely dangerous and undermines efforts to consolidate stability in the south”.
Since March, Israel’s heavy airstrikes and a ground invasion have killed more than 4,300 people in Lebanon, Lebanese authorities said.
Violence has significantly decreased since the signing of a US-Iran memorandum of understanding in June on the broader Middle East war and a US-sponsored framework deal between Lebanon and Israel later that month.
But Lebanon still reports intermittent Israeli strikes and broad demolitions of civilian buildings in southern villages and towns.
The NNA also said that “the valley between Ansar and Zarariyeh was also subjected to a strike, the first at this geographical depth since the ceasefire two months ago”.
Negotiations
Ansar is around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Israeli border and is located beyond a so-called “yellow line” declared by the Israeli army, which runs in Lebanese territory along the frontier and where Israeli troops are operating.
The Israel-Lebanon framework deal includes the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in “pilot zones”.
On Friday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem accused Lebanese authorities of subjecting the country’s armed forces to undue pressure by implementing the deal.
Israel and Lebanon are to hold an eighth round of US-sponsored negotiations in Rome early next month.
Earlier this week, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz visited southern Lebanon, vowing to keep troops in a so-called “security zone” there and saying the Israeli military was “destroying the underground infrastructure” and “destroying all the houses” in the area.
