The Israeli army carried out new series of air and artillery strikes in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, and issued two calls to evacuate residents of twelve localities despite a fragile truce with the Islamist movement Hezbollah supported by Iran.
According to AFP images, a strike on Maachouq, north of Tyre, caused the collapse of the top two floors of a building and damaged neighboring buildings as well as several cars parked nearby.
A strike targeting the same locality on Monday destroyed a health care center run by rescue workers affiliated with Hezbollah, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
According to the Lebanese National Information Agency (official Ani), a strike largely destroyed a district of Nabatiyé housing businesses, an old mosque and traditional dwellings. AFP images show a thick plume of smoke rising from the targeted area.
The Israeli army had previously called on residents of 12 Lebanese localities to evacuate, including 11 in the south of the country and one in the Bekaa region (east). She then repeated the same warning.
In a separate statement, it announced that it had intercepted a drone which had crossed the border from Lebanon.
For its part, Hezbollah claimed to have carried out several attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, as well as against Iron Dome batteries (one of the layers of the Israeli air defense system) in northern Israel.
The movement also claimed responsibility for several attacks against Israeli forces in southern border communities.
The Lebanese Civil Defense for its part announced on Tuesday that it had lost contact with seven Lebanese after the incursion of an Israeli patrol on the outskirts in the Hasbaya region (south).
The Israeli army then released four of them, the other three remaining “captive of the Israeli enemy,” Civil Defense added.
Israel and Hezbollah continue their clashes despite the truce and the Israeli army has already carried out strikes beyond the “yellow line” which demarcates an area around ten kilometers deep in southern Lebanon in the interior from which Israeli soldiers continue their operations claiming to protect the population of northern Israel from fire from the pro-Iranian movement.
Since the start of the conflict, Israeli strikes have killed more than 3,000 people in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese authorities.
On the Israeli side, 20 soldiers and a contract worker working for the army have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the conflict on March 2.
