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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.<\/p>\n
Earlier Sunday, the Lebanese health ministry said Israeli strikes in the south killed four people, including two women.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cblatant violation\u201d.<\/p>\n
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 \u201csecurity zone\u201d in south Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah, which has not claimed any attacks for weeks, has not commented on Israel\u2019s declaration of control over the site.<\/p>\n
Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said on Sunday that two men \u200cwere killed in a \u200ctown on the edge of \u200bthe \u200czone \u2060occupied \u200bby Israeli troops, \u2060while the two women were killed in Arab Salim, which sits well north of the occupied area.<\/p>\n
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 \u2060because it was being used by Hezbollah. \u200cTwo girls were among \u200csix others injured in that strike.<\/p>\n
The evacuation \u200bwarning was only the \u200csecond issued since the June ceasefire announcement.<\/p>\n
The first online \u200cevacuation 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 \u200cleave ahead of strikes.<\/p>\n
Four people were killed and 23 injured across southern Lebanon on \u2060Friday, \u2060the health ministry said on Saturday, in Israeli strikes launched without evacuation warnings. The Israeli military said those strikes hit Hezbollah weapons storage facilities.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Israeli forces are operating inside a self-declared “security zone” around 10 kilometres (six miles) deep inside Lebanon along the border.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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”.<\/p>\n
Despite ongoing clashes with Hezbollah, Israel’s military said Friday that it has taken control of the Ali Taher ridge in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah is believed to have built an underground command centre and weapons stores within the ridge itself, Lebanese security sources told Reuters in July. <\/p>\n
At 600 metres above sea level, it granted Hezbollah an advantage in launching short-range missiles and drones towards northern Israel, according to analysts.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n