BEIRUT, Lebanon: At least four people were killed and 20 others injured in Israeli airstrikes on several areas of southern Lebanon on Sunday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said, as Israeli forces continued attacks despite a US-brokered framework agreement providing for a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory.
The health ministry’s Emergency Operations Centre said two people were killed and two injured in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, while eight people, including a woman and a girl, were injured in Nabatieh’s Al-Rahibat neighbourhood.
In Arab Salim, two women were killed and six people, including two girls, were injured, while four women were wounded in Kfar Remman, the ministry said.
Israel’s army said it was striking south Lebanon after Hezbollah fighters launched two drones towards Israeli soldiers operating in Israel’s self-declared “security zone” in the south. It did not report any troop casualties.
Shortly before the statement, Israel’s military had issued its first “evacuation” notice in Lebanon in several weeks, warning residents near a building it identified as a Hezbollah “facility” in Arab Salim to leave their homes due to an attack on the site.
It did not issue warnings for other areas where strikes were reported.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) earlier said Israeli warplanes struck a house in Arab Salim, killing two women and injuring six people, who were taken by emergency teams to hospitals in Nabatieh.
Israeli warplanes also struck another house in Arab Salim, completely destroying it, the news agency said.
NNA said Israeli warplanes had carried out a series of strikes on several areas of southern Lebanon since early morning.
Among the targets was the home of Ali Moallem, the former mayor of Kfar Remman, near the town’s industrial area in Nabatieh district, leaving several people injured, according to the agency.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Washington and the international community to help stop Israeli attacks.
The strikes, which also damaged government premises and destroyed an out-of-service hospital, were “a dangerous escalation… reaching Lebanese state institutions” and health facilities, Aoun said in a statement, calling on the US and other countries “to urgently act to stop these violations”.
Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon have intensified in recent days after the Israeli army claimed it intercepted a drone that it was allegedly launched by Hezbollah toward its forces operating in what Israel calls a “security zone” in southern Lebanon.
The strikes come despite a US-sponsored framework agreement signed on June 26, which provides for a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory in exchange for the deployment of the Lebanese army.
Israel has carried out attacks on Lebanon since March 2, killing 4,358 people and injuring 12,359 others, while displacing more than 1 million people, according to Lebanese authorities.
