BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said that a woman was killed and at least 20 others were wounded on Friday following Israeli airstrikes in the country’s south.
According to Israel’s military, some of the strikes targeted positions linked to Hezbollah.
Israel has continued its near-daily air raids on southern Lebanon, despite a ceasefire declared on November 27. The truce was intended to halt more than a year of hostilities, including two months of intense conflict that significantly weakened Hezbollah’s capabilities.
“The Israeli strike on an apartment in Nabatiyeh led to a preliminary toll of one woman killed and 13 other people wounded, the ministry said in an updated statement carried by the official National News Agency.
The agency earlier reported “a wave of successive heavy strikes” in several other areas in the Nabatiyeh region that the health ministry said wounded seven people.
Meanwhile, an Israeli army statement said a fighter targeted a site that Hezbollah used “to manage its fire and defence array in the area of the Beaufort Ridge,” near Nabatiyeh and the Israel border.
It said the site was “part of a significant underground project that was completely taken out of use” by the raids.
The Israeli military stated that it had “identified rehabilitation efforts by Hezbollah in advance and targeted terror infrastructure in the area,” describing the strikes as “a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
In response, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the attacks, accusing Israel of continuing to ignore regional and international resolutions. He called on the international community to take meaningful steps to halt the violence and prevent further escalation.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also issued a strong statement, denouncing the strikes as “a blatant violation of national sovereignty and the arrangements for the cessation of hostilities,” warning that such actions pose a serious threat to regional stability.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the area.
Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country, but has kept them in five locations in south Lebanon that it deems strategic.
