Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Saturday condemned an overnight Israeli strike on civilian sites, which reportedly killed at least one person and which Israel said targeted Hezbollah infrastructure.
“Once again, southern Lebanon has been the target of a heinous Israeli aggression against civilian installations — without justification or pretext,” Aoun said.
“The seriousness of this latest attack lies in the fact that it comes after the ceasefire agreement in Gaza,” he added, questioning whether Israel now sought to expand its attacks on Lebanon.
The health ministry said one person was killed and seven wounded in the strike on the Al-Msayleh area in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military shortly thereafter said in a statement that it “struck and dismantled Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in the area of southern Lebanon, where engineering machinery used to re-establish terrorist infrastructure in the area” was located.
Later on Saturday, the Lebanese health ministry reported that another Israeli attack on a vehicle in Burj al-Qalaouiyah, also in southern Lebanon, killed one person.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the Burj al-Qalaouiyah strike.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that Israeli warplanes carried out 10 raids targeting bulldozer and excavator yards in Al-Msayleh, destroying more than 300 vehicles.
– ‘Deliberate targeting’ –
An AFP photographer at the scene witnessed massive destruction to the showrooms, with dozens of heavy machinery vehicles burned and firefighters extinguishing the flames.
“We woke up terrified by the sound of bombing,” an elderly woman who asked to remain anonymous told AFP, adding that “we saw death with our own eyes”.
Al-Msayleh, located over 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the border with Israel, is where parliament speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri’s home in southern Lebanon is located.
In a statement, Hezbollah condemned the strikes, saying it was “part of the repeated and deliberate targeting of civilians and economic infrastructure, and is intended to prevent people from returning to normal life”.
The group called on the Lebanese government to take a “firm” stance against these attacks.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite a November ceasefire, which followed more than a year of hostilities with the militant group that culminated in two months of open war.
Its latest attack comes a day after a ceasefire took effect between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.
In Lebanon there are fears of intensified Israeli attacks on Hezbollah, which has thus far resisted pressure to surrender its weapons to the state.
In October 2023, Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel in support of Hamas in the Gaza war. Months of exchanges escalated into all-out war in September 2024, before a ceasefire was agreed two months later.
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© Agence France-Presse
