At least three people have been killed in Israeli air attacks on vehicles in southern Lebanon, the country’s National News Agency (NNA) reported, as the Israeli military issued new forced displacement orders for residents in the south.
Israeli drone attacks targeting three vehicles on the Kafr Rumman-Jarmaq highway and the Jarmaq-Khardali road in the Nabatieh area early on Monday killed three people, NNA reported.
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Later, Israel ordered residents of 10 villages to evacuate their homes before expected strikes.
Citing “Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire agreement”, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, said in a social media post that the Israeli forces “are compelled to operate against it with force”, as he listed the names of the villages, mostly in southern Lebanon.
“For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move at least 1,000 metres away from these towns and villages to open areas.”
The Israeli threat applied to residents of Nabatieh al-Tahta, al-Louizeh, Sajd, Ain Qana, Harouf, Zibdin, Kfar Reman, Doueir, Adshit al-Shaqif and Maydun, most of which are in southern Lebanon.
In the southern city of Tyre, an Israeli attack destroyed two homes in the Arzoun municipality, NNA reported, adding that rescue teams were on site to evacuate the injured.
Israeli forces also struck the towns of al-Mansouri, Siddiqin, Zibqin, Qlayaa, Yohmor al-Shaqif, Zawtar al-Sharqiyah and al-Haniya.
Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said Israeli drones were hovering over the Lebanese capital for the second consecutive day.
“Nonstop buzzing of Israeli drones over central Beirut and the capital’s southern suburbs … flying at low altitude,” she said.
More than 3,000 people have been killed since the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah resumed on March 2, according to the Ministry of Public Health.
No sign of ‘ceasefire’
The Israeli military said on Monday that one of its soldiers was killed in southern Lebanon amid continued hostilities and ongoing clashes with Hezbollah.
Another soldier was wounded in the incident, the military said in a statement. According to Israeli media reports, the casualties resulted from a Hezbollah drone attack.
A total of 23 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the conflict, along with a civilian contractor, since hostilities resumed.
Despite a US-mediated “ceasefire” that took effect on April 17 and was later extended into early July, Israeli military operations in southern Lebanon and Beirut have continued.
Israeli withdrawal ‘non-negotiable’
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Monday that Israel’s withdrawal from the country was a “non-negotiable” demand that authorities would pursue through negotiations, days before another round of talks in Washington, DC.
In a statement commemorating Israeli forces’ withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 after some two decades of occupation, Aoun said, “This year, the anniversary of the liberation comes as Lebanon is weighed down by a painful reality.”
“Israeli attacks have not stopped, and our dear southern villages are still suffering under a renewed occupation,” he said.
Lebanon and Israel began landmark US-brokered talks last month and are preparing for a fourth round in early June, preceded by a meeting between military delegations at the Pentagon on May 29.
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Sunday reiterated his opposition to direct talks with Israel and his group’s refusal to disarm.
“If this government is incapable of guaranteeing sovereignty, it should go,” Qassem said. “Where is the sovereignty if America runs the cogs of the Lebanese state?”
Meanwhile, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said negotiations between Washington and Tehran aimed at ending the US-Israel war on Iran were also focused on ending the war in Lebanon.
