Israeli strikes on south Lebanon killed nine people including two children, the health ministry said Thursday, shortly after the president decried what he described as on-going Israeli violations of a nearly two-week ceasefire.
Israel has pressed its attacks on Lebanon as the fragile ceasefire, announced after a round of direct talks between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors in Washington, neared its two-week mark.
‘Israeli enemy strikes on south Lebanon led, in an initial toll, to nine martyrs, among them two children and five women, and 23 wounded, among them eight children and seven women,’ the health ministry said in a statement.
Speaking to a delegation from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, president Joseph Aoun had earlier slammed ‘continuing Israeli violations’ in south Lebanon.
He said these were occurring ‘despite the ceasefire, as do demolitions of homes and places of worship, while the number of killed and wounded rises day after day’.
On Thursday, an Israeli army spokesperson called for the evacuation of eight southern villages ahead of planned military action there.
Shortly after the ceasefire began on April 17, Israel declared a so-called ‘Yellow Line’ — a strip of Lebanese territory about 10 kilometres deep along the border, where it has been operating and demolishing villages.
‘Pressure must be exerted on Israel to ensure it respects international laws and conventions and ceases targeting civilians, paramedics, civil defence, and humanitarian health and relief organisations,’ Aoun told the delegation, on a day when three paramedics killed by Israel were buried.
Lebanese state media reported a series of Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon on Thursday.
Hezbollah has claimed a number of operations targeting Israeli forces in southern Lebanon as well as rockets launched towards northern Israel, since the start of the ceasefire.
The text of the ceasefire, published by the US State Department, grants Israel the right to act against ‘planned, imminent or on-going attacks’.
Hezbollah rejects that language, saying it was never presented to Lebanon’s cabinet, in which members of the group are represented.
Dozens of residents and local officials from southern Lebanon gathered in Beirut on Thursday to protest Israel’s destruction of their villages, which has been on-going despite a fragile ceasefire.
Before and after the truce agreed on April 17 in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has been carrying out demolitions in the south and preventing the return of residents to more than 50 villages.
‘We can’t go back. It’s been bulldozed — basically there’s nothing to go back to,’ Ibrahim Hamza, the mayor of the coastal town of Naqura, said.
‘The situation is dire and the Israeli enemy is present inside the village.’
Standing in Beirut’s central square, protesters carried Lebanese flags and photos of their devastated villages, some had signs asking ‘where is the ceasefire?’.
The Lebanese government’s scientific research council estimated earlier this month that the war had already damaged or destroyed more than 50,000 housing units.
