Israeli strikes killed seven people, including two women, in southern Lebanon yesterday, the Lebanese health ministry said, as Israel retaliated for what it said were Hizbollah drone attacks within areas occupied by its troops.
Despite a US-brokered ceasefire with Hizbollah agreed in June, the Israeli military is operating in what it has declared a security zone in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s health ministry said that two men were killed in a town on the edge of the zone occupied by Israeli troops, while the two women were killed in Arab Salim, which sits well north of the occupied area.
The ministry later said a separate Israeli drone strike on Nabatieh Al Tahta in southern Lebanon had killed three people.
The Israeli military had issued an online evacuation warning at 6am local (0300 GMT) for areas near a building in Arab Salim that it said it would strike because it was being used by Hizbollah.
Two girls were among six others injured in that strike.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office called yesterday’s strikes, which it said destroyed a hospital and damaged a finance ministry building, ‘a dangerous escalation’ that targeted ‘purely civilian administrations and health centres’.
“President Aoun held the Israeli side fully responsible for this ongoing escalation, calling on the United States and the international community to take immediate action to stop these violations and hold the perpetrators accountable,” it said.
The Israeli military said its targets included what it described as Hizbollah weapons storage facilities and a command centre inside a building previously used as a hospital.
It also said it used precision munitions and aerial surveillance to mitigate civilian harm.
The evacuation warning was only the second issued since the June ceasefire announcement.
The first online evacuation order came on August 5 for residents of Mansouri, near Tyre, though Israel had already dropped leaflets on the village just a week into the ceasefire, telling residents to leave ahead of strikes.
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