11 people were killed in Israeli raids on southern Lebanon, and Israel is preparing to redeploy

Eleven people were killed, including two infants, in Israeli night raids on the town of Kafr Rumman in southern Lebanon, according to what the official National News Agency reported on Monday, the day after widespread raids that left seven dead.

Nine people were killed in a raid on a three-story residential building in Kafr Rumman, and two ambulance personnel were killed in a drone strike on a car in the town, according to what the agency reported.

Early this morning, the Israeli army ordered residents of the town of Deir Al-Zahrani in southern Lebanon to evacuate buildings adjacent to what it said was a facility belonging to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, before launching raids on it.

He warned, in a message in Arabic, that he was targeting a “terrorist facility affiliated with Hezbollah,” holding those who do not leave the area responsible for endangering their safety.

Hezbollah media later reported Israeli air strikes on Deir Al-Zahrani.

On Sunday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called on the United States to take “urgent action” to stop Israeli raids on the south, denouncing a “dangerous escalation.”

The Israeli army said that its recent raids came in response to a drone attack launched by the Hezbollah group, earlier on Sunday, targeting forces in southern Lebanon. He said that Hezbollah used an empty hospital as a command center.

The war in the Middle East extended to Lebanon, starting on March 2, after Hezbollah, an ally of Tehran, launched missiles at Israel, in response to the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the first day of the US-Israeli raids on Iran on February 28.

Israel has been locked in a confrontation with Hezbollah since 2023, after the party opened a “support front” for Gaza and its ally, Hamas, shortly after the outbreak of war in the Strip. Since October 8, 2023, Israeli strikes on Lebanon have resulted in more than 8,920 deaths, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Israel expanded its raids and bombing in southern Lebanon in conjunction with its unveiling of a plan to withdraw from most of the occupied Lebanese territories, and be content with remaining at a distance of between two and four kilometers, within a line called the “gray line,” instead of the currently occupied “yellow line.”

On the ground, Israel violated the undeclared rules established by the ceasefire agreement last June. It resumed evacuation warnings in southern Lebanon, and launched air strikes targeting vital facilities in the city of Nabatieh, which led to the death of 4 people, which the Lebanese state denounced. Its President, Joseph Aoun, considered what happened a “dangerous escalation,” while Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri confirmed that Israel is turning the south into a “ballot box with blood.”

In Tel Aviv, military sources said, according to Kan 11, that following its announcement of “operational control and clearing of tunnels and underground infrastructure in Ali al-Tahir Hill in southern Lebanon,” the Israeli army is preparing to reduce its forces, redeploy them, and withdraw back, within a new “security belt” area close to the Israeli-Lebanese border.

The “State Administration Coalition,” which represents the Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish components in Iraq, ignored the issue of “arms control,” and warned of the potential repercussions on Iraq as a result of the US sanctions imposed on Iran, without naming them explicitly.

The "coalition" held a meeting in the late hours of Saturday-Sunday night at the government palace, at the request of Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi. He called, in a statement, for “the completion of the government formation and the draft oil and gas law,” and described the Iraqi financial situation as “difficult,” noting that the country is going through a circumstance that “cannot bear any risk.”

An informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat that ignoring the issue of “weapon control” reflects “the extent of the political differences between the parties (of the state administration), especially the forces of the (Shiite framework).”

The source explained, “In light of these differences within the Shiite forces, the space in which the Kurds and Sunnis can move remains limited, as long as some issues appear thorny and interconnected, especially at the level of ministerial positions and the issue of arms control.”