Eleven people were killed in two Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon Saturday, marking some of the deadliest attacks on the country in months.
Airstrikes in Ansar killed seven people, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said, according to a state news agency. Another strike on Deir al-Zahrani killed four people. A total of 19 people were injured in both attacks, Lebanon’s National News Agency said, and the death toll includes women and children.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on X that the ” intensive airstrikes and shelling and the intimidation of residents in their homes, is a matter of utmost gravity and undermines efforts to stabilize the situation in the south.”
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“The seven martyrs of the Israeli airstrike on the town of Ansar are not ‘military infrastructure,’ nor are the children and women killed in it military targets,” Salam said. “…Israel must halt this escalation. For the security of our people and their right to life on their land are not subject to negotiation or bargaining.”
The Associated Press reported that Israel also struck Ali Taher hill, which sits above the city of Nabatiyeh, on Saturday.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Israel has repeatedly violated a framework agreement between the U.S., Israel and Lebanon from June, and condemned the recent Israeli strikes. This framework included Israel’s withdrawal from two areas in Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah.
“Aoun considered these violations to constitute a clear message to the negotiation track and to the American efforts aimed at implementing this agreement,” the president’s office said in a statement Saturday.
Hezbollah has not agreed to or taken part in negotiations related to the framework with the Lebanese government. Hezbollah did agree to a ceasefire with Israel that went into effect on June 20, although one day later, Israeli attacks killed 20 in Lebanon.
Even with the framework agreement, the Israeli military has attacked the area north of the Litani River almost daily, the AP wrote. United Nations peacekeepers have noted Israeli incursions into Lebanese airspace as well.
“The Israeli enemy must clearly understand that its attacks, violations and attempts to impose a fait accompli cannot continue, and will be met with an appropriate response in defense of Lebanon, its people, sovereignty and national dignity,” Hezbollah said in a statement, per the BBC.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, maintained that the attacks on Nabatiyeh and Ansar were in response to an “action against IDF soldiers in the Ali al-Taher Ridge.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Office said three Israeli soldiers were injured in the attack.
The current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah started shortly after U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Hezbollah shot rockets in Israel on March 2. Since then, more than 4,300 people in Lebanon have been killed by Israeli strikes, Reuters reports. Forty soldiers and three civilians have died in Israel.
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