Israeli Bombardment Kills At Least Four People in Southern Lebanon, Including Medics

Israeli bombardment reduced buildings to craters in southern Lebanon, with overnight strikes on Lebanon’s Bekaa valley and the southern province of Tyre killing at least four people, according to The Guardian.

The Guardian said the strikes hit close to Lebanese army barracks, killing a man on a motorcycle in the town of Nabatieh, and also killed and wounded people in Chehabiyeh where the death toll was not yet known.

Al Jazeera

The Guardian reported that Israel continued striking Lebanon regularly since a US-brokered ceasefire was announced in April, and said more than 3,111 people have been killed since the latest round of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel started on 2 March.

In Tyre, The New York Times reported that Saturday’s attacks damaged a main hospital in the Lebanese city of Tyre, as funerals for paramedics killed a day earlier were held.

The New York Times added that the strikes mostly hit towns and villages in southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold where Israel is occupying large swaths of territory and where tens of thousands of residents remain displaced.

The Guardian described a video released by the Lebanese ministry of health showing civil defence workers in high-visibility vests beside an injured person on a motorcycle in Deir Qanoun en-Nahr, and said when an ambulance came closer it was bombed, killing two paramedics and a child.

The Guardian also said the Israeli military was examining claims that “several uninvolved individuals in the area, who were not the targets of the strikes, were harmed”.

Al Jazeera

The New York Times reported that the Israeli military issued new evacuation warnings on Saturday afternoon for several towns across southern Lebanon, and said the truce first reached in mid-April was meant to ease weeks of violence.

In Tyre, The New York Times framed the strikes as exposing “the mounting strain on a truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.”

The BBC reported that in southern Lebanon on Friday ten people were killed, including six medics, according to the Ministry of Health, and it said the Israeli army issued an alert to evacuate two buildings in the Tyre area claiming Hezbollah uses them.

The Guardian said the Lebanese and Israeli governments are involved in direct negotiations brokered by Washington, with a temporary ceasefire between the two countries having been extended twice, but that the ceasefire has not stopped fighting.

“Israeli strikes have killed at least six people in southern Lebanon as the Israeli army issues fresh evacuation orders”

Al Jazeera

The Guardian reported that the Lebanese government is seeking a complete ceasefire in Lebanon as its first priority in negotiations, as well as the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory.

The Guardian said the Israeli government is seeking the complete disarmament of Hezbollah and had said it will only withdraw from the 235 sq mile (609 sq km) area it occupies in south Lebanon once the safety of the residents of northern Israel is assured.

The BBC added that since the ceasefire took effect on April 17, which was announced to be extended by 45 more days at the start of this week, Israel has continued strikes that it says target Hezbollah and its elements.

In parallel, Al Jazeera reported that Hezbollah’s secretary-general Naim Qassem called upon the Lebanese government to “reverse the decisions it has taken to criminalise the resistance,” and said Qassem vowed that recent US sanctions against nine people linked to Hezbollah “will only strengthen our resolve”.