Israel Expands Lebanon Strikes Despite Ceasefire as Beirut Tensions Mount
Nabatieh- Israel carried out airstrikes across southern Lebanon on Thursday, Lebanese state media and witnesses said, a day after an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs killed a senior Hezbollah commander in the first attack on the capital’s outskirts since a ceasefire took effect last month.
The Israeli military said the Wednesday strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force unit, escalating tensions despite a truce that began on April 17 and was intended to halt weeks of cross-border fighting.
Lebanese state media reported renewed Israeli strikes on several towns and villages in southern Lebanon on Thursday, while the Israeli army issued evacuation warnings for residents in three villages north of the Litani River, beyond areas occupied by Israeli ground forces.
In the southern city of Nabatieh, strikes hit a shopping center and nearby residential buildings, according to Lebanese state media and an AFP correspondent at the scene.Airstrikes also targeted the nearby village of Toul, where two emergency responders affiliated with Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Committee were wounded while responding to an earlier strike, spokesperson Mahmoud Karaki said.
Karaki said the team’s ambulance sustained heavy damage in the attack.Photographs from Beirut’s southern suburbs showed upper floors of a residential building destroyed, with rescue teams continuing search operations through the debris on Thursday morning.
Despite the strike on its stronghold near the Lebanese capital, Hezbollah has not announced retaliatory action.The Israeli military separately said four Israeli soldiers were wounded on Wednesday, one seriously, after what it described as an “explosive drone impact” in southern Lebanon.
Although the ceasefire formally halted major hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, exchanges of fire and Israeli airstrikes have continued in southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah has periodically claimed attacks against Israeli forces stationed in border areas.
The conflict intensified after fighting erupted on March 2, drawing Lebanon deeper into regional tensions linked to the broader confrontation involving Iran and its allied groups.According to Lebanese authorities, more than 2,700 people have been killed in Lebanon since the conflict began.
Israel’s military says 17 soldiers and one civilian contractor have died during operations in southern Lebanon.
