Israel Strikes South Lebanon Day After Ceasefire Extension
Israel launched a series of airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday, despite the extension of the truce between the two countries.
Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah but the strikes were preceded by an evacuation warning covering nine villages.
The continuing bombardment has only increased skepticism about the truce among the many thousands of Lebanese driven from their homes in the south.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported strikes on at least five villages on Saturday, including one more than 50 kilometers from the border.
At the same time it reported a new exodus of residents towards the southern city of Sidon and the capital Beirut.
On Friday, the two countries agreed to extend a ceasefire, which began on April 17 but has been marred by numerous violations, by another 45 days.
Since the start of the ceasefire, Israel has repeatedly issued evacuation warnings for south Lebanese villages ahead of strikes.
Over this period their geographical scope has expanded to include areas north of the Litani River and further from the border.
The Israeli military also struck at least one town that was not included in the warning, near the southern city of Nabatieh.
Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to conduct strikes in Lebanon, and its forces are occupying territory near the border.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, regularly claims attacks on northern Israel and against the Israeli military in southern Lebanon.
Israeli attacks since the start of the war have killed more than 2,900 people in Lebanon, including more than 400 since the truce took effect, according to Lebanese authorities.
Israel has also reported the deaths of 19 soldiers in southern Lebanon since fighting with Hezbollah erupted.
The latest strikes come after envoys from Israel and Lebanon held negotiations in Washington -- following the first direct talks in decades last month between the two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations.
Iran-backed Hezbollah opposes the negotiations and claimed an attack against Israeli troops in the Lebanese town of Khiam on Saturday.
The group justified their action by accusing Israel of ceasefire violations and "attacks that targeted villages in southern Lebanon".
On Friday an Israeli strike hit a center of the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Committee in the southern town of Harouf, authorities said.
Six people were killed, including three paramedics, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Displaced residents from southern Lebanon say the truce is not being implemented.
"This is not a truce as long as Israeli attacks continue against the south and its people, with deaths, injuries, and destruction," said Ali Salameh, 60, from a school in Beirut where he has been displaced since the start of the war on March 2.
Others said they backed Hezbollah to keep fighting Israel in retaliation for its attacks.
"What kind of truce is this when they have just threatened villages and people are being displaced? Where is the state? We stand only with the resistance," said Nawal Mezhir, also displaced from the south.
Lebanon's negotiating delegation in Washington on Friday nonetheless welcomed the truce's 45-day extension and the creation of a US-facilitated security track, saying they "provide critical breathing space for our citizens, reinforce state institutions, and advance a political pathway toward lasting stability".
Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
On Friday, Israel struck the southern city of Tyre.
An AFP correspondent saw significant destruction at the targeted site near the coastal city's ancient ruins.
"They destroyed the entire neighborhood," said Ibrahim Kahwaji, a tailor who was wounded in the leg.
"They are emptying the south of its population... it's a real occupation. We want a solution."
Gaza Health Officials Say 4 Killed in Israeli Strikes, Including Child
Gaza's health officials said on Saturday that Israeli fire killed at least four people in the Palestinian territory, including a 10-year-old girl and the son of a top government official.
A statement from Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority, said that the child "succumbed to wounds sustained this morning from Israeli army fire north of the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip".
An airstrike also killed Baseer al-Barsh, the son of Munir al-Barsh who serves as director-general of Gaza's health ministry, in an encampment for displaced people in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, the ministry said.
Speaking during his son's funeral, Munir Al-Bursh said the killing was "a continuation of (Israel's) crimes", according to a ministry statement.
In addition, two Palestinians were killed and several others injured in two separate strikes near Gaza City, according to Gaza's al-Shifa hospital and the territory's civil defense, a rescue agency operating under Hamas authority.
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to an AFP inquiry on the strikes.
Israel in October last year agreed to a ceasefire brokered by the United States but since then has advanced further into Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed no let-up in strikes targeting Hamas, which led the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack against Israel, and no pullout from Gaza until Hamas gives up all of its weapons.
The 2023 attack killed 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. The gunmen also dragged into Gaza some 251 hostages, 44 of them already dead.
The massive Israeli offensive in response has left most of Gaza in ruins and killed more than 73,800 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
