Israeli strikes kill 14 in deadliest day since truce, Lebanon says

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in Nabatieh, Lebanon, on April 16 - the day before the ceasefire. Photo / Getty Images

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli strikes on the country’s south today had killed 14 people, the deadliest day since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war came into force more than a week ago.

It came as Israel and the Iran-backed group traded fresh accusations of breaching the fragile truce, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the military was “vigorously” targeting Hezbollah and the group vowing to keep responding to “violations”.

Israel’s military has carried out repeated strikes in Lebanon since the April 17 ceasefire, which last Friday NZT was extended for three weeks, after six weeks of war in which Israel also invaded the country’s south.

Israeli troops are operating inside an Israeli-announced “yellow line”, which demarcates a ribbon of Lebanese territory around 10km deep along the length of the border, where residents have been warned not to return.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the dead in the latest violence included two women and two children, adding that 37 other people were wounded.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 36 people since the truce began, according to an AFP tally of the ministry’s figures.

Israel’s military said today that one of its soldiers was killed “during combat” in southern Lebanon, and six were wounded, four of them severely.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Israeli strikes in multiple locations in the south, both in areas where Israel issued an evacuation warning and elsewhere.

AFP correspondents reported heavy traffic heading north as people fled following the warning and intensified raids.

Netanyahu blamed Hezbollah for the violence, telling his weekly Cabinet meeting that “Hezbollah’s violations are, in practice, dismantling the ceasefire”.

Tehran-backed Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 by firing rockets at Israel to avenge the death of Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in United States-Israeli strikes.

Under the truce, which came after a landmark meeting between Israeli and Lebanese officials that angered Hezbollah, Israel reserves the right to respond to “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”.

Hezbollah said that Israel’s “continued ceasefire violations ... and above all its continued occupation of Lebanese territory and violations of its sovereignty will be met with a response”.

It said its fighters targeted Israeli troops and positions in south Lebanon in response to ceasefire violations and attacks on Lebanese villages.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says Israeli attacks have killed more than 2500 people and wounded over 7700 others since the war erupted.

- AFP