Israeli strikes kill 7 in Lebanon, ministry says

Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed at least seven people on Sunday, Lebanon's health ministry said, as President Joseph Aoun urged the United States and the wider international community to help stop the attacks.

Israel said it targeted Hezbollah operatives and sites after a drone attack a day earlier by the Iran-backed group on Israeli troops near the Ali al-Taher ridge in south Lebanon. Israel reported no casualties and accused Hezbollah of a “blatant violation”.

Aoun said Sunday's strikes damaged government premises and destroyed an out-of-service hospital. He called them “a dangerous escalation” reaching Lebanese state institutions and health facilities, and urged urgent international action.

Lebanon's health ministry said two people were killed in strikes on Nabatieh al-Fawqa and two women were killed in nearby Arab Salim. It said 20 other people, including several women and three children, were wounded there and in Nabatieh city and Kfar Rumman.

The ministry later said a strike on a parking lot near Nabatieh killed three more people, bringing the day's death toll to seven.

The ministry said one strike in Nabatieh al-Fawqa “totally destroyed” the out-of-service Ghandour hospital and called it a grave violation of international humanitarian law.

The Israeli army said it struck Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure, including weapons storage facilities, “terrorist structures” and what it called “a Hezbollah command centre” inside a building previously used as a hospital.

Israel had earlier issued its first evacuation notice in Lebanon in a month, warning residents near a building it described as a Hezbollah facility in Arab Salim to leave before an attack. It did not issue warnings for other areas where strikes were reported.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said that after the warning for Arab Salim, Israeli warplanes struck another house, destroying it and killing the two women. It said the Israeli military later struck the building named in the evacuation warning.

The agency also reported a motorcycle strike in the Nabatieh area and said another strike in the city targeted a historical building and damaged offices belonging to finance and agriculture authorities.

Nabatieh Mayor Abbas Fakhreddine said the Lebanese government had to act and defend its institutions. He said it was the second time the official buildings had been damaged by strikes.

Israel said this week it had captured the Nabatieh-area Ali al-Taher ridge, which it considers part of its self-declared “security zone” in south Lebanon. Hezbollah, which has not claimed attacks for weeks, had not commented on Israel's declaration of control over the site.

Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war in March after Hezbollah attacked Israel in support of Iran. Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion that Beirut says have killed more than 4,300 people.

Violence has decreased since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding on the broader regional conflict in June and an Israel-Lebanon framework agreement later that month. Israeli forces are operating inside a self-declared security zone about 10 kilometres deep inside Lebanon along the border.