Israel carried out airstrikes in eastern and southern Lebanon on Sunday despite an ongoing fragile ceasefire, while Hezbollah dismissed US-mediated negotiations between Beirut and Tel Aviv as a “dead end”.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that two Israeli strikes targeted the town of Sohmor in the Bekaa Valley, while additional attacks were launched across southern parts of the country.
The Israeli military later issued evacuation warnings for four villages near the southern coastal city of Sidon, located several kilometres from the border with Israel. According to the NNA, Israeli airstrikes hit three of those villages shortly after the warning was issued.
Although a ceasefire remains in place, Israeli forces have continued to conduct frequent strikes across southern Lebanon and regularly issue evacuation notices to residents in border-area towns and villages.
Addressing a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “holding territory, clearing territory, protecting Israel’s communities, but also fighting an enemy that is trying to outsmart us”.
“We are facing the challenge of neutralising FPV (First-Person view) drones,” he added, referring to Hezbollah’s growing use of drones against Israeli troops.
The latest escalation follows a third round of talks in Washington between Israeli and Lebanese envoys, where both sides reportedly agreed to extend the ceasefire. Hezbollah, however, has strongly criticised the negotiations.
“The direct negotiations that the authorities in Lebanon have conducted with the Israeli enemy have… led them down a dead-end path that will result in nothing but one concession after another,” Hezbollah lawmaker Hussein Hajj Hassan said on Sunday.
“Neither they nor anyone else will be able to carry out what the enemy wants, especially when it comes to the issue of disarming the resistance,” he said, accusing Lebanese authorities of creating “very big predicaments” for the country.
In a statement released on Saturday, Hezbollah also criticised plans for a US-backed security framework, calling it another “free concession” offered by the Lebanese government to Israel.
The group further claimed on Saturday that it had targeted a military site in northern Israel after earlier announcing several attacks against Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon.
