Arab News | Lebanon’s Aoun calls for US help after Israeli strikes kill 4 amid Hezbollah drone claims

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Washington and the international community to help stop Israeli attacks after strikes on Sunday killed several people despite a truce and an Israel-Lebanon deal.

Earlier Sunday, the Lebanese health ministry said Israeli strikes in the south killed four people, including two women.

Israel said it targeted Hezbollah operatives and sites in response to a drone attack a day earlier by the Iran-backed group on its troops in a strategic south Lebanon ridge area. Israel reported no troop casualties but accused Hezbollah of a “blatant violation”.

Despite a US-brokered ceasefire with Hezbollah agreed in June, Israel this week said 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 any attacks for weeks, has not commented on Israel’s declaration of control over the site.

Lebanon’s health ministry said on Sunday that two men ‌were killed in a ‌town on the edge of ​the ‌zone ⁠occupied ​by Israeli troops, ⁠while the two women were killed in Arab Salim, which sits well north of the occupied area.

The Israeli military had issued an online evacuation warning at 6 a.m. local (0300 GMT) for areas near a building in Arab Salim that it said it would strike ⁠because it was being used by Hezbollah. ‌Two girls were among ‌six others injured in that strike.

The evacuation ​warning was only the ‌second issued since the June ceasefire announcement.

The first online ‌evacuation order came on August 5 for residents of Mansouri, near Tyre, though Israel had already dropped leaflets on the village just a week into the ceasefire, telling residents to ‌leave ahead of strikes.

Four people were killed and 23 injured across southern Lebanon on ⁠Friday, ⁠the health ministry said on Saturday, in Israeli strikes launched without evacuation warnings. The Israeli military said those strikes hit Hezbollah weapons storage facilities.

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

Violence has lessened since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding on the broader conflict in June and a framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon later that month.

Israeli forces are operating inside a self-declared “security zone” around 10 kilometres (six miles) deep inside Lebanon along the border.

Lebanon president urges US to help stop Israeli attacks after ‘dangerous escalation’

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Washington and the international community to help stop Israeli attacks after strikes on Sunday killed at least four people despite a truce and an Israel-Lebanon deal.

The strikes, which also damaged government premises and destroyed an out-of-service hospital, were “a dangerous escalation… reaching Lebanese state institutions” and health facilities, Aoun said in a statement, calling on the US and other countries “to urgently act to stop these violations”.

Israeli army seize key Ali al-Taher ridge

Despite ongoing clashes with Hezbollah, Israel’s military said Friday that it has taken control of the Ali Taher ridge in Lebanon.

Hezbollah is believed to have built an underground command centre and weapons stores within the ridge itself, Lebanese security sources told Reuters in July.

At 600 metres above sea level, it granted Hezbollah an advantage in launching short-range missiles and drones towards northern Israel, according to analysts.

Ali al-Taher also connects border areas in southern Lebanon to the hilly Iqlim al-Tuffah region further north, which has long served as a key logistical and operational base for Hezbollah, the Lebanese security sources said.