Fresh bloodshed rattled south Lebanon overnight as Israeli warplanes hit a cluster of targets, killing 11 people in a single village and raising new questions about the durability of a ceasefire that had briefly steadied the border.
Lebanese state media said the strikes killed 11 people in a south Lebanon village, including two infants, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA), a day after separate raids left seven dead.
Israel has stepped up its campaign in the southern Nabatieh area after announcing on Thursday that it had seized the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge from Hezbollah — a claim the Iran-backed group has not commented on.
Hostilities in Lebanon, which erupted in March after Hezbollah targeted Israel in support of Iran, had eased after a June memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran on the wider Middle East war, followed later that month by an Israel-Lebanon framework agreement.
Israel’s foreign ministry on Monday accused Hezbollah of “repeated drone attacks” and of “attempting to rebuild its military capabilities in southern Lebanon”.
The ministry said Hezbollah was breaching a Lebanon-Israel ceasefire agreement that includes the group’s disarmament.
NNA reported that nine people died when an Israeli strike levelled a three-storey residential building in the village of Kfar Rumman near Nabatieh.
It added that two rescuers were also killed when their vehicle was targeted in the area.
The scene of destruction after an overnight Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese town of Deir Zahrani
One of the rescuers was 18 years old, his civil defence organisation said; the group is affiliated with the Amal movement, a political ally of Hezbollah.
An AFP photographer at Kfar Rumman said the hit building had been reduced to rubble, with school books and broken furniture scattered across the debris.
Rescue crews searched through the wreckage on Monday morning for other victims.
Many villagers had only recently returned after the June truce, following months of displacement.
“Since we returned here, we’ve lived in fear,” Fouad Chakaron told AFP.
He said the targeted building was home to “peaceful people with no connection to anyone”.
After the strike, neighbours ran for safety as nearby buildings were also damaged, AFP’s photographer reported.
Locals in shock
Israel gave no warning to Kfar Rumman ahead of the strikes, but issued an evacuation order before a separate attack in nearby Deir Zahrani.
In an Arabic-language message, the Israeli military said it was striking a “Hezbollah terrorist facility” and warned that anyone who stayed in the area was putting themselves at risk.
A rescue worker at the scene of the overnight attack
“They called me at 2am and told me to get out of the house because it is being targeted,” Abbas Toufeili told AFP, referring to the Israeli army.
“I said that’s impossible, why is my house being targeted? There’s nothing in it. I couldn’t believe it.”
He said he rushed his wife, children and elderly mother outside in their pyjamas and watched from the street as their home was destroyed.
On Sunday, Israeli strikes killed another seven people, after attacks on Friday killed four.
The Israeli army has said the raids are in response to Hezbollah launching two drones towards its soldiers inside Lebanon, though it did not say whether any troops were wounded.
Hezbollah has not claimed any attack since June 20.
Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion of Lebanon have killed more than 4,300 people since March, Beirut says.
Israeli forces are operating inside a self-declared “security zone” extending about 10 kilometres (six miles) into Lebanon along the border.
On Sunday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Washington and the international community to help bring Israeli attacks to a halt.
Netanyahu orders removal of West Bank settler outposts
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met with Palestinian Americans in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya at the weekend
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered unauthorised settler outposts in the West Bank to be dismantled, two people familiar with the matter said on Sunday night, as the United States presses Israel to clamp down on settler attacks on Palestinians.
The directive covers outposts set up by settlers without official authorisation from the Israeli state, the sources said.
Such outposts are often made up of prefabricated caravans and house a small number of settlers. Israeli authorities have periodically demolished these structures, while at other times formally recognising some — a step that can open the door to government funding.
It was not immediately clear when dismantling would begin.
In a separate decision, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that defence authorities must enable the safe return of three Palestinian families to their homes after settlers forced them out, in the West Bank village of Jalud.
UN bodies and most governments regard all Israeli settlements as illegal under international law and view the West Bank as occupied territory under military control. Israel says the territory is disputed, not occupied.
The sources said Netanyahu ordered the removal of the unauthorised outposts in response to pressure from the United States, Israel’s closest ally.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday condemned violent settlers as terrorists and said they should face severe consequences, after meeting several Palestinian Americans in a Palestinian town in the West Bank.
Israeli website Ynet earlier reported the orders could apply to around 100 outposts across the occupied territory.
