Israel strikes a Lebanese village after warning residents of six areas to evacuate, as Hezbollah rejects a US-brokered truce.
BEIRUT: Israel’s air force struck a Lebanese village on Friday following warnings for several areas of imminent attacks against Hezbollah, after the Iran-backed militants rejected a truce brokered by the United States.
Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war when Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 to avenge the February 28 killing of Iran’s supreme leader.
Lebanese and Israeli envoys meeting in Washington this week agreed to a conditional truce that Hezbollah flatly rejected, with the group instead demanding a comprehensive ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon.
Israel has staged its deepest incursion in two decades into Lebanon since the start of the war with Iran, which it launched in conjunction with its ally, the US.
On Friday, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee warned residents of six towns and villages including south Lebanon’s Sarafand, a town on the coastal road between Tyre and Sidon, to immediately evacuate.
He earlier warned three villages north of the Litani River in southern Lebanon to leave their homes.
“For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move away from the villages and towns by at least 1,000 metres into open areas,” the army’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X.
“Anyone who is near Hezbollah operatives, their facilities, or their weapons endangers their life!”
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported mass displacement from the three villages named in the warning, and it subsequently reported a strike on one of the villages, Arqoun.
Overnight, Israeli strikes killed seven people in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, a source from Lebanon’s civil defence told AFP.
‘Freedom to kill’
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Thursday rejected a truce announced by Lebanese and Israeli envoys in Washington that hinged on the group halting its attacks on Israel.
“The ceasefire must be comprehensive… without the Israeli enemy having the freedom to kill,” Qassem said, urging the government to halt “the farce and humiliation called direct talks” with Israel.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that the army will “at this stage, continue its fire and ground operations… without the return of the population, while continuing to dismantle terrorist infrastructure”.
He said Israeli forces had the “freedom” to strike Lebanese capital Beirut if Hezbollah attacked Israeli communities.
One Israeli strike near the Jabal Amel hospital in the historic city of Tyre killed four people overnight, wounded seven and lightly damaged the facility, while another in a residential area killed three and wounded five, including two children.
An AFP correspondent saw a heavily damaged bank near the hopsital, one of only three in the city.
‘Not a life’
After Israeli orders for residents to leave most of Tyre, several people sought shelter in the small old city, so far spared from evacuation warnings and strikes and where the Christian quarter is located.
With shelters full, displaced residents were sleeping in cars or tents, but many have left following an Israeli army claim on Tuesday that Hezbollah members were operating in the area, threatening to order evacuations should operatives remain.
Hezbollah is Lebanon’s only militant group that refused to hand over its arsenal after the 1975-1990 civil war, arguing that it was fighting Israel’s occupation of south Lebanon.
After Israeli troops withdrew in 2000, calls on Hezbollah to disarm multiplied, with the leadership under President Joseph Aoun taking the firmest stance yet.
The Lebanese government has declared Hezbollah’s military activities illegal, and the army was working to disarm the group in areas south of the Litani River near Israel.
The war launched by the US and Israel on Iran saw Hezbollah return to the battlefield, launching attacks into Israel while fighting Israeli troops inside Lebanon.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,526 people since March 2.
As the trading of fire continued, Israelis in northern villages expressed little hope for the latest truce.
“We can’t keep doing this,” the 60-year-old told AFP on Thursday from her home in Shlomi, a small town in Israel’s far north.
“This is not a life.”
