“The Israeli enemy raid at dawn today on the town of Zifta, Nabatieh district, resulted in 7 martyrs, including a Syrian child and a woman, and 8 wounded, including two women,” the ministry said in a statement.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had targeted Israel's Nevatim and Tel Nof air bases, as well as a petrochemical facility, in retaliation for an Israeli strike on a similar site in southwestern Iran.

Tehran said the missile attack was launched in response to an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday that killed two civilians and wounded 20 others, including eight women and children.

Israel responded on Monday by attacking Iran. According to AFP, a large blast struck near Iran's Foreign Ministry headquarters in central Tehran, followed by a series of explosions believed to be linked to air defence activity across parts of the capital.

"The exact location and source of this explosion are still unknown," local media outlets, including Fars News Agency, reported, adding that air defence systems had been activated in several areas of Tehran.

Iranian media later reported that a "hostile drone" had been shot down over the capital.

"A hostile drone belonging to the American-Zionist enemy was targeted and destroyed by air defences in the skies over Tehran," Mehr News Agency reported, without providing further details.

Iran’s military central command later announced the end of its attacks on Israel, warning that “should acts of aggression and hostility continue, including in southern Lebanon, much more severe and crushing measures than before will follow”.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz responded by vowing that the military would “continue to operate in Lebanon”.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) later reported that “an enemy airstrike targeted a car with a missile in the city of Tyre, near the Lebanese Red Cross building”.

The Lebanese Red Cross later said four paramedics were wounded by glass shrapnel from the strike.

Israel has continued carrying out attacks on Lebanon since the United States announced a ceasefire for the country on April 16, with nearly 3,500 air strikes and hundreds of controlled explosions recorded during that period, Lebanese Defence Minister Michel Menassa said on Monday, according to Reuters.

Earlier on Saturday, at least 14 people were killed in Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon, including three Lebanese army personnel whose vehicle was targeted.

Israel has killed at least 3,613 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 11,072 since March 2. Israel says 29 soldiers and one contractor have been killed in Lebanon during the same period.

The escalation began after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on March 2, following the US and Israel war on Iran launched on February 28 that triggered the wider Middle East war. 

That said, Hezbollah's rocket attacks came after 15 months of near-daily Israeli attacks and violations despite the November 2024 ceasefire intended to end Israel’s previous war on Lebanon.

Since Hezbollah's retaliation, Israel has launched a ground invasion and intensified air strikes across Lebanon, displacing more than one million people.

Although a ceasefire intended to end the war took effect on April 17, Israel has continued strikes in Lebanon and has not withdrawn from areas it occupies in the south.

Lebanon’s defence minister said that Israel has carried out nearly 3,500 airstrikes on Lebanon and hundreds of controlled explosions since the US announced the ceasefire.

Iran has insisted that any permanent end to the wider US-Israeli war must also include a cessation of Israel's war on Lebanon.

In a statement to CNN on Monday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said he "will not meet with Netanyahu before an agreement is reached to end the war."

"We say to the Israeli government that a military solution will never provide security for northern Israel."

* This story was edited by Ahram Online.

Follow us on:

Facebook

Instagram

Whatsapp