Israel attacks Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon

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BEIRUT (Reuters) – Israel said on Thursday it had launched fresh airstrikes against Hezbollah military targets in southern Lebanon to stop the militant group rebuilding in the area.

The U.S. brokered a truce in November between Lebanon and Israel after more than a year of conflict sparked by the war in Gaza, but Israel has continued sporadically to attack Iranian-backed Hezbollah across the border.

Israel’s military confirmed in a statement that unspecified attacks were underway after earlier saying it would hit Hezbollah military infrastructure “in response to the group’s unlawful attempts to rebuild its activities in the area.”

It warned residents of five villages to evacuate.

Lebanon’s state news agency NNA confirmed attacks in the area, adding that the strikes caused material damage.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the evacuation warning contradicted international peace efforts.

Lebanon’s government was committed to halting hostilities and engaged in talks to ensure implementation of a U.N. resolution that ended a round of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, Salam said in a post on X.

The Lebanese army warned on Thursday that Israeli attacks and violations risked hampering its deployment in the south and could block the implementation of its plan to end Hezbollah’s armed presence south of the Litani River.

Lebanon is under pressure from the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah’s domestic rivals to disarm the group.

Hezbollah has said it would be a serious misstep even to discuss disarmament while Israel is continuing airstrikes on Lebanon and occupying swaths of territory in its south.

Following the strikes, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said Lebanon and its people needed no further proof that there were no international or diplomatic guarantees to curb what he called “Israel’s terrorism.”

Fadlallah did not address Israel’s accusation that Hezbollah was rebuilding its forces.

(Reporting by Enas Alashray, Elwely Elwelly and Yomna Ehab, Additional reporting by Laila Bassam, Editing by Timothy Heritage, Andrew Cawthorne, Alexandra Hudson)