Israel bombarded Lebanon with more than 120 airstrikes on Tuesday in one of the most intense days of bombing in weeks, Lebanese security sources said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his armed forces were .
The bombings further strained the ceasefire announced on April 16, which aimed to stop fighting between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, and occurred on the same day as the separate attack on the south of the country.
Lebanese security sources told Reuters news agency that Israeli strikes hit areas of southern and eastern Lebanon on Tuesday.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health reported Israeli attacks in recent hours, according to state news agency NNA, on Wednesday morning.
The agency said 14 people died in the southern Lebanese town of Burj al-Shamali, including two children and three women.
Some attacks hit the vicinity of Beaufort Castle, a nearly 900-year-old fortress in southern Lebanon that UNESCO has described as one of the best-preserved examples of medieval castles in the region.
At least three attacks also hit the vicinity of Lebanon’s largest water reservoir, the Qaraoun Dam, in the east of the country, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
In a statement released on Tuesday (26), Netanyahu stated that the Israeli armed forces, capturing and controlling areas.”
“We are reinforcing the security zone to protect the northern communities,” he said, referring to a self-declared security zone occupied by Israeli troops a few kilometers inside southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah attacks Israeli tanks
Two sources said on Tuesday that the Israeli military, but did not provide further details on the extent of the advance beyond the so-called Yellow Line.
This line, distinct from the UN-demarcated “Blue Line” that marks the border between Lebanon and Israel following the Israeli withdrawal in 2000, is part of a proposed buffer zone extending 5 km to 10 km south of Lebanon.
The Israeli military has ordered residents not to return to dozens of villages in the area, and its troops have destroyed homes in the area.
An Israeli military official stated that the armed forces were “operating in a targeted manner beyond the Forward Defense Line in order to eliminate direct threats to the citizens of the State of Israel” and to Israeli soldiers, “in accordance with the directives of the political leadership.”
Netanyahu declared on Monday that Israel would intensify its attacks against Hezbollah, while a US official said the Iran-backed group ignored warnings to stop attacks that risked harming negotiations to end the US-Israel war on Iran.
The group claimed on Tuesday (26) to have attacked Israeli forces and tanks advancing towards the city of Zawtar al-Sharqiya, in southern Lebanon, with explosive drones, rockets and artillery.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health says the total death toll from the Israeli offensive since March 2, when Hezbollah launched projectiles at Israel in response to the start of the war with Iran, reached 3,213 dead and 9,737 injured as of May 26.
The Israeli army reported that 10 of its soldiers have been killed since the April 16 ceasefire, six of them by Hezbollah explosive drones.
The World Health Organization said at least 608 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire.
Hezbollah has not released figures on its own casualties.
