LEBANON – Israeli attacks have killed at least four people in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh District, the state news agency reports, as Israel continues to strike the country despite a three-week extension of a ceasefire with Hezbollah.
In a statement on Saturday, the Lebanon Ministry of Public Health’s Emergency Operations Centre said two Israeli air raids targeting a truck and a motorcycle in the town of Yohmor al-Shaqif killed four people, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.
Heidi Pett of Al Jazeera, reporting from the city of Tyre, said the strikes occurred north of the Litani River, below which Israel has unilaterally declared its operational zone. Meanwhile, in the city of Bint Jbeil, also in southern Lebanon, Israeli soldiers reportedly detonated buildings on Saturday morning.
Al Jazeera correspondents on the ground also reported bombings in the city of Khiam, including strikes on residential areas. Israel’s ongoing campaign is “part of a continued pattern of military activity, despite what is ostensibly a ceasefire,” Pett said, adding that the “rumble and thud of explosions” could be heard across large parts of southern Lebanon. “That is Israel demolishing houses and buildings,” she said.
The attacks are the latest to hit southern Lebanon since Donald Trump announced the ceasefire extension on Thursday. Within hours, the Israeli military said it had “eliminated” six Hezbollah fighters in an exchange of fire near Bint Jbeil.
Ali Fayyad, a Hezbollah lawmaker, said the ceasefire was “meaningless in light of Israel’s insistence on hostile acts, including assassinations, shelling, and gunfire.” He added that Israeli attacks mean Hezbollah retains the “right to retaliate.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “maintaining full freedom of action against any threat” and accused Hezbollah of “trying to sabotage” the pause.
Before Trump’s announcement, a poll by the Israel Democracy Institute suggested that Jewish Israeli respondents overwhelmingly supported continuing the conflict, even if it risked friction with the United States.
Lebanese leaders have rejected the possibility of the country being used as a “bargaining chip” in potential US–Israel negotiations with Iran, Pett added. Meanwhile, civilians in Lebanon continue to bear the brunt of the ongoing violence. (Aljazeera)
