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Ansar and Deir al-Zahrani
Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed at least nine people and wounded 12 overnight into Saturday, with Lebanon’s National News Agency reporting seven killed and three wounded in a strike on a house on the outskirts of Ansar.
“Israeli air strikes have killed at least nine people and wounded 12”
The Guardian said Israeli warplanes bombed a home on the outskirts of Ansar early on Saturday morning, killing seven people and flattening the home, and later carried out another airstrike on a home in Deir al-Zahrani that killed two and wounded nine.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said the Ansar strike killed seven people including three children, while the Deir al-Zahrani strike killed two and wounded nine, making it one of the deadliest days since a June framework agreement.
The Israeli military said it struck what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure in the Ali Taher area, and the BBC reported the strike on Ansar hit a house at about 04:30 (01:30 GMT) in the Nabatieh district where authorities said displaced families were living.
Salam rejects Israel’s account
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the attacks as “extremely dangerous” and said they “undermined efforts to establish stability in the south,” rejecting Israel’s account that the strikes targeted military infrastructure.
In a statement carried by the BBC, Salam said, “Israel must halt this escalation,” adding that “For the security of our people and their right to life on their land are not subject to negotiation or bargaining.”
The Guardian quoted Israeli military spokesperson Ella Waweya saying Israel had attacked “Hezbollah infrastructure” in the Ansar and Nabatieh area in response to Hezbollah fighters attacking their soldiers in the Ali Taher area.
Hezbollah’s chief Naim Qassem accused Lebanese authorities of subjecting the Lebanese army to undue pressure by implementing the framework, saying, “How can you accept this ongoing humiliation of the Lebanese army, exposing it to bombardment and Israeli pressures, instead of acting as its protectors?”
Framework talks and deterrence
The strikes came as Israel and Lebanon were to hold an eighth round of U.S.-sponsored negotiations in Rome early next month, while the BBC said Lebanese and Israeli negotiators were set to meet for an eighth round in September.
“peacekeepers are a crucial deterrent against attacks on civilians”
The Guardian reported that neither Ansar nor Deir al-Zahrani was in Israel’s self-declared “security zone,” a 231-square-mile area of south Lebanon occupied by Israel, and said roads out of Nabatieh and surrounding villages were choked with traffic as people fled north.
Human Rights Watch urged the UN to keep an international force in Lebanon after its peacekeepers’ mandate ends this year, saying “peacekeepers are a crucial deterrent against attacks on civilians and human rights abuses,” as cited by the Guardian.
The AP described the death toll as among the deadliest since a shaky truce between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect on June 20, and said Hezbollah refused direct talks and was not part of the June framework agreement even as Israel said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in response to actions against Israeli soldiers in the security zone.
