Israel said yesterday it would attack Hizbollah targets forcefully, further testing a fragile ceasefire with Lebanon that US President Donald Trump recently said had been extended by three weeks.
Four people were killed yesterday in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s state news agency reported, while the Israeli military said Hizbollah had fired rockets at Israel, posing the latest challenge to the tenuous ceasefire.
The ceasefire agreed between Israel and Lebanon has led to a significant reduction in hostilities, but Israel and Iran-backed fighter group Hizbollah have continued to clash in southern Lebanon, where Israel has kept soldiers in the self-declared buffer zone.
A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the military had been instructed to attack Hizbollah targets in Lebanon forcefully, providing no further details.
The Israeli military said yesterday that it had struck loaded rocket launchers belonging to Hizbollah in three locations in southern Lebanon overnight and targeted several Hizbollah fighters in separate strikes.
It said later in the day that it had also struck facilities used by Hizbollah’s elite Radwan forces in southern Lebanon.
It was unclear whether the deaths reported by the state news agency were linked to those Israeli strikes.
The Israeli military restated its warning for Lebanese residents not to approach the Litani River area in southern Lebanon while it battles Hizbollah.
It said it had intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” within the area its forces are presently occupying, and that two rockets were fired by Hizbollah into northern Israel, one of which was intercepted.
There were no reports of casualties.
A Hizbollah legislator said on Friday that a US-mediated ceasefire in the war with Israel was meaningless, a day after it was extended for three weeks.
The truce had been due to expire on Sunday.
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