Lebanon reports Israeli strikes in south after evacuation warning

BEIRUT: Lebanon reported Israeli strikes on the country’s south on Saturday shortly after the Israeli army issued an evacuation warning for 20 locations including the city of Nabatieh ahead of raids there.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli airstrikes hit several areas covered by the warning, including the villages of Rihan and Sujud, located not far from Nabatieh.

The Israeli army warning urged residents to “evacuate your homes immediately and move to the north of the Zahrani River”, around 45km from the southern border with Israel.

The Israeli army last month declared all areas south of the river “combat zones”, and has since been striking the area.

The NNA late Friday reported explosions and artillery shelling near the Ali Taher hills overlooking Nabatieh.

On Friday Hezbollah, which has kept up attacks on Israeli troops who have invaded south Lebanon, said its fighters had confronted Israeli forces advancing towards the town of Majdal Zoun.

Israel and Hezbollah have been at war since early March when the Iran-backed group drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict with rocket fire at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Israel launched a massive campaign of airstrikes and a ground invasion, killing more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, authorities say.

Neither Israel nor Hezbollah have respected an April ceasefire, and a conditional truce deal announced this month after the fourth round of direct Lebanese-Israeli negotiations in Washington has also failed to halt the fighting.

Hezbollah has rejected the direct talks and the conditional agreement, which requires it to cease attacks but makes no mention of Israel doing so or withdrawing troops from Lebanon.

Iran insists that Lebanon must be part of any agreement to end the wider Middle East war, and a senior US official said Friday that a peace deal with Iran “includes Lebanon”.

But Lebanon’s leaders have accused Tehran of treating Lebanon as a “bargaining chip”.

Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Fayyad on Saturday urged Lebanon to take advantage of any deal to end the Iran war that includes the country.

“We want the Lebanese state to negotiate for itself, and nobody is suggesting forfeiting this role,” Fayyad said, “however, the state must abandon the policy of being crushed in the face of the Israelis and submission to the Americans.”

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a statement on X on Saturday that Lebanon faces “a fateful test”.

“Either its people unite around a sovereign state that monopolises weapons, upholds the law and protects citizens irrespective of their affiliation or position, or it remains hostage to the logic of militias,” the statement said.