BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Saturday that Israeli strikes on the country’s south were a “clear message” on negotiations between the two countries, ahead of the next round of US-sponsored talks early next month in Rome.
President Aoun condemned the “ongoing Israeli attacks” on the south and “repeated violations of the framework agreement…and international law on protecting civilians, which led to the death of an entire family in the village of Ansar”, according to a statement from his office, adding that “these violations are a clear message on the negotiation process”.
At least seven people were killed and three others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a house in southern Lebanon early Saturday, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.
Israeli warplanes struck the house on the outskirts of the town of Ansar, in the Nabatieh district, toward the nearby town of Zrariyeh, destroying the building, the agency said.
Emergency and rescue teams were working to remove rubble and recover the bodies and injured from the site, transferring the casualties to hospitals in Nabatieh.
The attack was the first Israeli airstrike to reach this geographical depth inside Lebanon since a ceasefire took effect two months ago, according to NNA.
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Separately, Israeli warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes targeting the Ali al-Taher hill on the outskirts of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, the agency reported.
Despite the signing of a framework agreement between Beirut and Tel Aviv on June 26 under United States sponsorship, Israel continues its assault on Lebanon, which began on March 2 and has killed 4,335 people and injured 12,277 others.
The agreement provides for a gradual Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Lebanese territory in exchange for the deployment of the Lebanese army there, as well as the disarmament of Hezbollah.
Israel occupies areas in southern Lebanon, some for decades and others since the previous war between 2023 and 2024, while during the current assault, it advanced more than 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) into Lebanese territory.
