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Lebanon: Israel strike on south kills 11 in latest escalation

Lebanon: Israeli strike on country's south kills 11 in worst death toll since June
MENA
4 min read
Israeli forces also carried strikes the Ali al-Taher ridge in the vicinity of the Nabatieh area, after their deadly strikes on the village of Ansar.
Rescue efforts are underway in the outskirts of the village of Ansar after Israel's deadly strike on Saturday [Getty/file photo]

An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed nine people including three children, state media said, the worst toll since deals in June saw a lull in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon's health ministry said seven people were killed "including three children and two women," in Ansar, where Aoun said "an entire family" had been killed.

The ministry said four other people were killed and 17 others wounded including a child and 11 women in Deir Zahrani, raising an earlier toll of two dead.

The National News Agency (NNA) said "Israeli warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes targeting the Ali al-Taher ridge", a strategic hill overlooking the Nabatieh area, also reporting Israeli shelling there.

An AFP correspondent in Ansar saw a destroyed building as rescuers working to remove human remains from the rubble, and a swimming pool clouded and grey from dust and debris.

Abbas Khalil, 60, said he was doing his early morning Islamic prayers when the strike hit.

"We were shocked... There's no justification for this," he told AFP.

An Israeli army statement claimed that it struck "Hezbollah terror infrastructure in the areas of Nabatieh and Ansar", adding that the move came "in response to an action by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation" against Israeli soldiers in the Ali al-Taher Ridge area.

Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a framework deal at talks in Washington in June, but Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Saturday's "violations are a clear message on the negotiations process and American efforts aiming to implement this agreement".

Hezbollah said the Israeli attacks "will be met with an appropriate response", urging Lebanese authorities to abandon "the humiliating path of direct negotiations".

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that those killed in Ansar "are not 'military infrastructure' and the women and children who were killed are not military targets", urging Israel to halt the "extremely dangerous" escalation.

Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, said the attacks were a call "to the sponsors of the negotiations and the ceasefire agreements to bear their responsibility... before it's too late".

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war in March after Hezbollah responded to the US-Israeli military assault on Iran in early March. 

Israel responded with heavy airstrikes and a ground invasion which have killed more than 4,300 people.

Violence has significantly decreased since the signing of a US-Iran memorandum of understanding in June on the broader Middle East war, followed by a US-sponsored framework deal between Lebanon and Israel later that month.

But Lebanon still reports intermittent Israeli strikes, which have caused casualties, and broad demolitions of civilian buildings in southern villages and towns.

'Humiliation'

The NNA also said Israeli forces detonated homes in the town of Bint Jbeil near the border early on Saturday.

The Israel-Lebanon framework deal includes the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in "pilot zones".

Israel and Lebanon are to hold an eighth round of US-sponsored negotiations in Rome early next month.

On Friday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem accused Lebanese authorities of subjecting the country's armed forces to undue pressure by implementing the deal.

"How can you accept this ongoing humiliation of the Lebanese army, exposing it to bombardment and Israeli pressures, instead of acting as its protectors?" Qassem said.

Earlier this week, Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz visited southern Lebanon, vowing to keep troops in a so-called "security zone" there and saying the Israeli military was "destroying the underground infrastructure" and "destroying all the houses" in the area.

When asked about Katz's remarks, a US State Department official told AFP that "a permanent military presence in south Lebanon is not consistent with the commitments made in the framework".

Also this week, Lebanon said President Joseph Aoun and army chief Rodolphe Haykal met visiting US General Joseph Clearfield, who heads a coordination group involved with the Israel-Lebanon agreement, to discuss arrangements regarding the deal.

Human Rights Watch meanwhile urged the United Nations to keep an international force in Lebanon after its peacekeepers' mandate ends this year, calling the troops "a crucial deterrent against attacks on civilians and human rights abuses".