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Strikes Despite Truce
Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed at least four people on Sunday, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, with around 20 other people wounded, including children, as the fighting continued despite a ceasefire.
“called the strikes a "dangerous escalation" that targeted "purely civilian administrations and health centers"”
The DW report said Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun’s office called the strikes a "dangerous escalation" that targeted "purely civilian administrations and health centers," and it said Aoun held the Israeli side fully responsible.
The Israeli military said the strikes were a response to what it described as a "blatant violation" by Hezbollah militants after "Terrorists from the Hezbollah terrorist organization launched two drones towards IDF soldiers operating in the Security Zone in southern Lebanon," and it said there were no reports of Israeli soldiers wounded.
The DW account also said the Israeli military issued an online evacuation alert for Arab Salim early Sunday morning, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli strike hit the building mentioned in the evacuation warning.
In the same reporting, the Lebanese Health Ministry said an Israeli strike "totally destroyed" a disused hospital, while NBC News said Israeli strikes killed four people in southern Lebanon, including two women, as Israel retaliated for Hezbollah drone attacks within areas occupied by its troops.
Competing Toll Accounts
Al Jazeera reported that Israeli air attacks killed at least four people and wounded 20 others in southern Lebanon, saying the strikes began at dawn on Sunday and hit Nabatieh, Arab Salim, Nabatieh al-Fawqa and Kfar Reman.
The Al Jazeera report also said two women were killed and six people wounded in an air attack on Arab Salim after Israeli forces issued a forced displacement order for a building in the town, and it quoted Israel’s explanation that the strikes were in response to Hezbollah launching two drones toward its forces as a "blatant violation".
Reuters, in a separate tally, said Israeli strikes killed seven people, including two women, in southern Lebanon on Sunday, and it reported that the Lebanese health ministry said two men were killed in a town on the edge of the zone occupied by Israeli troops while the two women were killed in Arab Salim.
Reuters added that the Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office called Sunday’s strikes "a dangerous escalation" that targeted "purely civilian administrations and health centres," while the Israeli military said its targets included Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and a command centre inside a building previously used as a hospital.
The Reuters and Al Jazeera accounts therefore differed on the Sunday death toll, with Reuters citing seven killed and Al Jazeera citing at least four killed, even as both described strikes in the same southern locations and the same drone-related rationale.
Escalation, Occupation, Next Steps
Middle East Eye said Lebanon’s Health Ministry put the cumulative toll from Israeli attacks at 4,362 people killed and 12,378 wounded across the country since 2 March, and it said Israel continued bombing and occupying parts of its territory despite a ceasefire that took effect on 17 April and was renewed on 26 June.
“since 2 March”
The same Middle East Eye report said that before the truce, Israeli troops seized nearly 2,000sq km (770sq miles), equivalent to about one-fifth of Lebanon, and that a buffer zone still covers approximately six percent of the country.
In the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s strikes, Reuters said Sunday’s evacuation warning was only the second issued since the June ceasefire announcement, and it said the first online evacuation order came on August 5 for residents of Mansouri, near Tyre.
The National | Western Alternative reported that Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Washington and the international community to "stop" Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory, after Sunday’s strikes left seven dead and about twenty injured, and it said the Israeli military described the strikes as a response to Hezbollah drone launches.
Across the accounts, the stakes were framed around continued operations in a self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon, with NBC News saying Israel was operating in that security zone despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Hezbollah agreed in June, and Al Jazeera saying Israeli forces were still operating inside a self-declared "security zone" about 10km deep inside Lebanon.