Israel launches deadly attacks in southern and eastern Lebanon

Lebanon’s health ministry raised the total death toll in the war since March 2 to 3,123.

Two people, including a caregiver from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Commission, were killed in an Israeli attack on Sunday, reports said.

A day earlier, the ministry said on Sunday that an attack in the Sir al-Gharbiyeh district of the southern province killed 11 people, including six women and a child, and condemned it as a “massacre”.

Despite a ceasefire in Lebanon that began on April 17 and was recently extended for several more weeks, Israeli forces continue to attack so-called Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

The Iran-backed group also continued its attacks on Israeli forces invading southern Lebanon and on border targets, claiming more than 20 such attacks on Sunday, including rockets, attack drones and artillery.

Iran said an understanding with Washington to halt the regional war would include Lebanon, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that U.S. President Donald Trump had reaffirmed support for Israel’s right to “defend itself against threats from all sides, including Lebanon.”

Israel’s chief of military staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said “we continue to carry out a full range of strikes against Hezbollah… The safety of civilians and the safety of our forces remains paramount,” a statement said.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that Israel launched air strikes on more than 30 locations in southern and eastern Lebanon on Sunday, causing casualties in some areas.

AFP reporters saw large plumes of smoke billowing from the attacks in several places.

The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for more than a dozen villages in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Lebanon’s civil defense agency said its regional facilities in Nabatiyah had been destroyed by an overnight Israeli attack.

AFP photographers saw civil defense personnel recovering equipment from the rubble.

The Israeli military made no comment on the attack in response to a query from AFP’s Jerusalem bureau.

-“Don’t stab us in the back”-

Hezbollah Chairman Naeem Qasim said, “God willing, this agreement will be finalized… Therefore, we will also be one of the members of this comprehensive cessation of hostilities agreement.”

He reiterated his organization’s rejection of direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon.

The Lebanese authorities recently began landmark direct talks with Israel under the auspices of the United States and are preparing to hold a fourth round of talks in early June, followed by a military delegation meeting at the Pentagon on May 29.

“Abandon direct negotiations… don’t join them and stab us in the back,” Qasim said.

“Disarmament means destruction and we cannot accept that,” he said, adding that “we and our people face an existential threat.”

“Even if the whole world is against us, we will not bow down.”

After Qasim’s speech, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Hezbollah of trying to plunge Lebanon “back into chaos.”

On March 2, Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel, dragging Lebanon into the Middle East war in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s top leader in a US-Israeli attack.

Under the terms of the ceasefire issued by Washington, Israel reserves the right to take action against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks.”

The Israeli army that invaded Lebanon also operated within the “yellow line” declared by Israel along the southern border of Lebanon with a depth of about 10 kilometers.

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This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.