Israeli air strikes have killed at least nine people and wounded 12 in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities, as Israel intensified attacks across several towns and villages overnight.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said seven people were killed and three wounded when a strike hit a house on the outskirts of Ansar, in the Nabatieh district, early on Saturday, destroying the building.
Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, said children and members of one family were among those killed.
“This is an area seen by people as safe, but an air attack has now hit,” Hashem said, adding that the attack had increased fear among residents as Israeli strikes and demolitions continued across southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military said it had struck what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure in the areas of Nabatieh and Ansar, saying the attacks came in response to an action against Israeli soldiers at the Ali al-Taher Ridge.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam rejected Israel’s account, calling the escalation in Nabatieh, Ansar, Deir al-Zahrani and surrounding villages “extremely dangerous” and saying it was undermining efforts to consolidate stability in southern Lebanon.
“The seven people killed in the Israeli strike on Ansar are not ‘military infrastructure’, and the children and women killed in it are not military targets,” Salam said.
He said responsibility for dealing with any military infrastructure on Lebanese territory, “if it exists”, rests exclusively with the Lebanese state, through the army and other state institutions.
“Its presence does not give Israel the right to violate Lebanese territory or put civilians at risk,” Salam said, calling on Israel to halt the escalation.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun also condemned the continuing Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon, particularly in Nabatieh and surrounding areas, saying they constituted repeated violations of the framework agreement, the work of the military coordination group and international laws protecting civilians.
Aoun said the attacks had killed an entire family in Ansar and described the violations as “a clear message” to the negotiating process and US efforts to implement the agreement.
Strikes across southern Lebanon
NNA said Israeli attacks intensified early on Saturday, with a series of air strikes on the Ali al-Taher Ridge near Nabatieh al-Fawqa.
Two other strikes hit areas near the teachers’ training centre and the Husseini club in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, while the valley between Ansar and Zarariyeh was also attacked in what NNA described as the first strike to reach this far into southern Lebanon since the ceasefire two months ago.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry later said an Israeli strike on Deir al-Zahrani, also in the Nabatieh district, killed two people and wounded nine others, bringing the overall death toll from the attacks to at least nine.
Closer to the border, Israeli forces destroyed several homes in Bint Jbeil and opened heavy machinegun fire towards houses along the Kounine-Saf al-Hawa road, the agency reported.
An Israeli air attack also hit the al-Mashaa neighbourhood in al-Mansouri shortly before midnight.
Hashem said Israeli demolitions had also continued in border areas, with some villages suffering extensive destruction, including damage to graveyards and historic sites.
“This is escalating day by day,” he said, adding that diplomatic efforts had yet to produce results on the ground.
Violence has decreased since a United States-Iran memorandum of understanding in June and a subsequent US-sponsored framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel, but Israeli attacks and demolitions have continued in the south.
The framework calls for Hezbollah’s disarmament, the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces and the deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon.
On Friday, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem criticised the Lebanese authorities over the implementation of the framework, accusing them of pressuring the army while Israeli attacks continued.
“How can you accept this ongoing humiliation of the Lebanese army, exposing it to bombardment and Israeli pressures, instead of acting as its protectors?” he said.
On Thursday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel would not withdraw unless Hezbollah was disarmed and what he called the “threat” posed by the group was removed.
Katz said Israeli forces currently control about 700 square kilometres of Lebanese territory, or roughly 7 percent of the country.
The Ansar attack was the deadliest reported Israeli strike in Lebanon since agreements reached in June led to a significant reduction in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
