File Photo: Smoke rises from targeted areas following an Israel airstrike in Lebanon's southern Nabatieh province. AFP
"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 Lebanese health ministry stated, all in attacks across the Nabatieh governorate.
According to the state-run National News Agency (NNA), Israel killed three people and wounded seven in Jebchit when a residential building was hit. In the town of Toul, occupation forces killed four people and wounded six in another strike that damaged a house. Meanwhile in Harouf, the occupation killed two more people and destroyed a home.
The attacks came as Israel continued operations in southern Lebanon, despite a truce agreed earlier this month following talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials in Washington.
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.
“Continuing Israeli violations” were taking place in the south, he said, “despite the ceasefire, as do demolitions of homes and places of worship, while the number of killed and wounded rises day after day”.
An Israeli military spokesperson on Thursday called for the evacuation of eight southern villages ahead of planned military action there.
The ceasefire, which began on April 17 and was later extended, was intended to halt more than six weeks of an escalation in the Israeli war on Lebanon, which started in October 2023 with the outbreak of Tel Aviv's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, during which Israeli occupation forces invaded southern Lebanon.
Israeli troops remain deployed inside what the military has described as a “yellow line”, a strip of Lebanese territory about 10 kilometres deep along the border, where civilians have been warned not to return.
“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 organizations,” Aoun said.
Hezbollah has reported carrying out attacks on Israeli forces and launching rockets towards northern Israel since the ceasefire began.
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