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Israel’s new strikes on Lebanon draw condemnations
A series of Israeli strikes targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday, almost an hour after the Israeli army issued a forced evacuation order to residents in areas that it claims held underground facilities used by the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah for drone production.
The attack was the fourth time Israel has bombed Beirut since a cease-fire with Hezbollah went into effect in November. It has carried out assassinations and announced strikes that it said targeted Hezbollah sites.
Israel has violated the cease-fire on a near-daily basis for seven months, according to the Lebanese government led by President Joseph Aoun, Arab nations and rights groups. Aoun has recently appealed to the United States and France to rein Israel in.
Aoun, in a statement on Thursday after the strikes, voiced “firm condemnation of the Israeli aggression” and “flagrant violation of an international accord … on the eve of a sacred religious festival”.
The Wafa news agency reported that 100 housing units were destroyed in Israel’s strikes on southern Beirut.
Later Thursday night, Israeli strikes also targeted the southern Lebanese village of Ain Qana, according to Lebanese state media, shortly after further Israeli army evacuation warnings were issued for the area.
Israel warned Friday that it would keep striking Lebanon until Hezbollah has been disarmed.
Iran also on Friday condemned the Israeli strikes.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described the Thursday evening strikes "as a blatant act of aggression against Lebanon's territorial integrity and sovereignty."
Under the cease-fire, overseen by a monitoring committee whose members include the United States, France and United Nations peacekeepers, Lebanon should disarm Hezbollah.
The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel began on Oct. 8, 2023 when the Lebanese resistance group began launching rockets across the border in support of Palestinians in Gaza. Israel responded with airstrikes and shelling and the two were quickly locked in a low-level conflict that continued for nearly a year before escalating into full-scale war in September 2024.
It killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, while the Lebanese government said in April that Israeli strikes had killed another 190 people and wounded 485 wounded since the cease-fire.