Clashes between Israel and pro-Iranian Hezbollah are almost daily despite the truce of April 17, which has never been respected. In a televised speech, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam judged that the “policy of scorched earth and collective punishment” led by the neighboring country “will not bring it security or stability.”
Appel évacuer
Saturday morning, the Israeli army called on the inhabitants of more than ten Lebanese villages to evacuate before strikes, which affected several localities in the south according to the Lebanese National Information Agency (Ani, official). The Lebanese army announced that a “targeted” Israeli drone strike had hit and seriously injured two of its soldiers on board a vehicle, near the southern town of Nabatiyé.
Artillery fire also took place near the medieval Beaufort fortress, while the Minister of Culture had expressed concern the day before about the “serious danger” posed to heritage by Israeli attacks.
Hezbollah, for its part, claimed responsibility for rocket attacks towards northern Israel. The Israeli army said it had intercepted several projectiles – except for one that fell on its soil but without causing any injuries.
The Israeli army has intensified its air and land operations in Lebanon in recent days, where it says it is targeting Hezbollah, which it wants to see disarmed. The movement refuses and opposes any talks between the Lebanese government and Israel.
15 children killed and 62 injured
Military delegations from the two countries met in Washington on Friday to prepare for a new round of talks, scheduled for June 2-3 – the fourth since war broke out in early March. And this, in the midst of negotiations between the United States and Iran, which demands to include the Lebanese front of the conflict in any agreement to end the war in the Middle East.
In total since the start of the war in early March, Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed 3,355 people and displaced more than a million people, according to the authorities. Over the past week alone, 15 children were killed and 62 injured, according to Unicef.
Israel declared this week that it considers much of southern Lebanon a “combat zone.”
According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli soldiers “crossed” the Litani on Friday, a river located around thirty kilometers from the border.
Hezbollah said it attacked Israeli troops who were trying to advance in the Beaufort Fortress region. He also claimed to have targeted military infrastructures at dawn in Safed, in northern Israel, around thirty kilometers from the border, a shot that the Israeli army did not confirm.
