The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in several south Lebanon towns on Wednesday, and accused the group of rebuilding its capabilities close to the border.
The Israeli military has kept up frequent air strikes in Lebanon in spite of a ceasefire sealed last November that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The latest raids came a day after 13 people were killed in a strike that Israel said had targeted Hamas members in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon — the deadliest attack since the truce came into effect.
Israel’s military said Wednesday that it had struck “several weapons storage facilities belonging to Hezbollah’s rocket unit in southern Lebanon”, calling such sites “a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon”.
It had previously warned residents to evacuate the area around sites in the southern Lebanese towns of Deir Kifa, Shehur, Ainata and Tayr Felsay.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) later said raids hit all four locations.
In Deir Kifa, Lebanese soldiers deployed near the targeted building, which collapsed after the strike, an AFP correspondent saw.
An AFP journalist in Tayr Felsay saw fireballs and smoke erupt after the raid there.
In its evacuation warnings on X, the Israeli military had said it would strike Hezbollah “military infrastructure… in response to Hezbollah’s prohibited attempts to rebuild its activities in the area”.
– ‘Dozens’ of sites –
In a subsequent statement, the military singled out the town of Beit Lif, just a few kilometres from the Israeli border.
It accused Hezbollah of rebuilding “dozens of terrorist infrastructure sites in the area of the village, including headquarters and weapons storage facilities”, some inside civilian homes.
Lebanon says Israel is violating the truce with its strikes, and by maintaining troops in five areas of the country’s south.
Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli attacks, Lebanon has committed to disarming Hezbollah, but the militant group has rejected the idea of handing over its weapons.
Earlier Wednesday, Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed and 11 others wounded in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in south Lebanon’s Tiri that Israel said killed a Hezbollah operative.
The NNA reported that the man killed worked for the local municipality, and said the strike took place as a university bus carrying students passed by, wounding some on board.
On Tuesday, Israel said it struck a Hamas training compound in south Lebanon’s Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp.
The Palestinian militant group denied it had military installations in Lebanon’s refugee camps and called Israel’s claims “lies”.
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© Agence France-Presse
