Israeli strikes kill five in Lebanon as Hezbollah claims new attacks

BEIRUT: Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed at least five people on Thursday, Lebanese state media said, as Hezbollah militants claimed they had staged a new wave of attacks on Israel.

The Israeli military announced, meanwhile, the killing of a soldier in fighting in south Lebanon, raising to three the total number of troops killed since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into war with Israel.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran, the militant movement’s backer.

Israel has since launched a sustained campaign of bombardment focused mostly, but not solely, on areas where Hezbollah has long held sway, while also sending ground troops across the border in a push to establish a buffer zone by reoccupying swathes of south Lebanon.

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, a strike on a building in the Nabatieh area of south Lebanon killed two people.

AFP images showed a badly damaged building and smoke rising from the rubble, while rescue workers and firefighters worked at the scene.

Another strike in the border area of Bint Jbeil killed another three people, the agency said.On Wednesday, Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes had killed 1,094 people since the start of the war, 121 of them children, and wounded more than 3,000 others.

With swathes of Lebanon under evacuation warnings, more than a million people have fled their homes.

On Thursday, the Israeli military said it had killed 700 Hezbollah militants since the start of the war, though the movement has not announced its casualties.

With Israel pressing its bid to crush Hezbollah, the militants claimed a new round of attacks against it.

The group said it had targeted a defence ministry complex in Tel Aviv, as well as other military objectives in northern Israel.

Hezbollah also said it had fired rockets in Lebanon’s Khiam, scene of fierce fighting between Israeli troops and the militant group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that his country’s forces were expanding a “buffer zone” in southern Lebanon, adding that dismantling Hezbollah “remains central” to Israel’s objectives in Lebanon.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced on a visit to Beirut on Thursday the delivery of 1,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid, while calling for the immediate cessation of what he called Israel’s “aggression”.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also called for an end to the war.

“Hezbollah must stop launching attacks into Israel. And Israel must stop its military operations and strikes in Lebanon, which are hitting civilians the hardest,” he said. “The Gaza model must not be replicated in Lebanon.”

On Wednesday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said any negotiations with Israel under fire would amount to “surrender”, as he called on Lebanon’s authorities to rethink their decision to “criminalise” his group’s military activities.