Lebanon says Israeli strikes kill 9 people, including 2 children

BEIRUT: Israeli strikes on south Lebanon killed nine people including two children, the health ministry said Thursday, shortly after the president decried what he described as ongoing Israeli violations of a nearly two-week ceasefire.

Israel has pressed its attacks on Lebanon as the fragile ceasefire, announced after a round of direct talks between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors in Washington, neared its two-week mark.

“Israeli enemy strikes on south Lebanon led, in an initial toll, to nine martyrs, among them two children and five women, and 23 wounded, among them eight children and seven women,” the health ministry said in a statement.

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Speaking to a delegation from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, President Joseph Aoun had earlier slammed “continuing Israeli violations” in south Lebanon.

He said these were occurring “despite the ceasefire, as do demolitions of homes and places of worship, while the number of killed and wounded rises day after day”.

On Thursday, an Israeli army spokesperson called for the evacuation of eight southern villages ahead of planned military action there.

Shortly after the ceasefire began on April 17, Israel declared a so-called “Yellow Line” – a strip of Lebanese territory about 10 kilometres deep along the border, where it has been operating and demolishing villages.

“Pressure must be exerted on Israel to ensure it respects international laws and conventions and ceases targeting civilians, paramedics, civil defence, and humanitarian health and relief organisations,” Aoun told the delegation, on a day when three paramedics killed by Israel were buried.

Lebanese state media reported a series of Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon on Thursday.

Hezbollah has claimed a number of operations targeting Israeli forces in southern Lebanon as well as rockets launched towards northern Israel, since the start of the ceasefire.

The text of the ceasefire, published by the US State Department, grants Israel the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”.

Hezbollah rejects that language, saying it was never presented to Lebanon’s cabinet, in which members of the group are represented.

Aoun said on Wednesday that “this wording appeared in a statement issued by the US State Department, and it is the same text that was adopted in November 2024” as part of the ceasefire agreement ending the previous war between the two sides.

He added that “all parties” at the time had agreed to the text.

In response, parliament speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, said in a statement on Wednesday that Aoun’s remarks were “inaccurate, to say the least, and this also applies to the November 2024 agreement”.