Lebanon’s prime minister has launched a blistering attack on Israel’s campaign in the country’s south, accusing it of pursuing a “scorched-earth policy” as Israeli jets struck again and the military issued evacuation warnings for more than a dozen areas.
His remarks came one day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces had pushed deeper into Lebanon. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned the situation was tipping into a “dangerous” escalation and appealed for “a swift and real ceasefire”.
Speaking in a televised address, Mr Salam said Israel was “pursuing a scorched-earth policy and collective punishment” by “destroying towns and villages and forcing their inhabitants into exile”.
Such actions would deliver “neither security nor stability” for Israel, he said.
Even so, Mr Salam defended his government’s decision to keep engaging with Israel through diplomatic channels. Military delegations from both countries held US-hosted security discussions in Washington on Friday, and further US-brokered talks are scheduled for next week.
Nawaf Salam said that the attacks would not bring security or stability to Israel (File Picture)
Mr Salam acknowledged the talks could fail, saying their outcome was “not guaranteed”, but argued they remained “the least costly path for our country and our people”.
A truce intended to stop fighting between Israel and Tehran-backed Hezbollah formally began on 17 April, yet it has not been implemented.
Israel and Hezbollah have each blamed the other for breaching the ceasefire, portraying their own operations as responses to violations by their opponent.
A US statement after Friday’s Israel-Lebanon meeting did not refer to the truce. It described “productive military-to-military discussions” and said those talks would help shape next week’s political session.
Hezbollah has fiercely rejected the direct negotiations.
Fresh attacks
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israel carried out multiple strikes in the south yesterday. The Lebanese army reported that two of its soldiers “were seriously wounded… by a hostile Israeli drone” near the southern city of Nabatieh.
The Israeli military also issued new evacuation warnings for villages around Nabatieh, as well as other locations in the east of the country.
Hezbollah said it fired several rounds at northern Israel and also engaged Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.
In a statement, the group said it was battling Israeli forces near the outskirts of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, Yohmor al-Shaqif and Dibbine, adding that the soldiers “had not yet succeeded in taking control of the towns”.
The Beaufort castle in south Lebanon dates from the 1100s
The Israeli military told AFP that more than 25 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel. It said air-raid sirens sounded in the northern cities of Karmiel and Safed for the first time since the ceasefire, according to the army’s Home Front Command.
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan aired video circulating on social media that appeared to show rockets landing in the sea off Nahariya, near the border, prompting people on the beach to run.
On Friday, Mr Netanyahu said Israeli troops had moved beyond the Litani River — about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the Lebanon-Israel border — and were “hitting Hezbollah head on”.
Lebanon’s health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,371 people since 2 March, when Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in support of its backer Iran.
Hezbollah says it began striking Israel in retaliation for the death of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli attacks when the conflict erupted on 28 February.
Iran has said any deal to end the broader Middle East war must also include Lebanon.
Lebanon’s culture minister told AFP that Israeli strikes in the south were placing heritage landmarks in “serious danger”, adding that the Beaufort castle had been directly hit.
