Smoke rises after an Israeli that targeted the village of Arnoun in the Nabatiyeh district [Getty]
The Israeli military issued evacuation orders for nine South Lebanon villages on Saturday as it continued its deadly strikes despite a truce, as the US said it will facilitate talks between the two countries next week.
Israeli strikes killed one man and injured his daughter in Nabatiyeh, while another strike killed three people on the Burj Rahhal-Abbasiyeh road, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said.
Rescuers also said the body of a missing woman was recovered in Toura from an attack on Friday, when at least 11 people were killed in Israeli attacks, according to authorities.
Residents of Tayr Debba, Abbasiyeh, Burj Rahhal, Maaroub, Barish, Arnoun, Jannata, Zrariyeh, and Ain Baal were told Saturday morning to distance themselves at least one kilometre from these areas.
The Israeli military often bombs sites not included in the evacuation orders.
In an earlier statement, the Israeli military claimed it had struck more than 85 Hezbollah infrastructure sites “from the air and on the ground” in the past 24 hours.
It said these included weapon storage facilities, launchers, and structures used by the Iran-backed militant group.
On Friday, Hezbollah said it launched missiles and drones at military bases in northern Israel in retaliation for a recent attack south of Beirut, which Israel says killed a top commander.
Since fighting resumed between Israel and Hezbollah on 2 March, Israeli forces deepened their invasion of southern Lebanon and now occupy the entire border area, establishing a buffer zone where dozens of towns and villages have been flattened.
Around a million people have been forcibly displaced from much of southern Lebanon, both south and north of the Litani River, and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Intensive talks
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Friday that his government was pushing to fully implement the ceasefire before planned talks with Israel next week.
Lebanese and Israeli delegations will meet again at the US State Department on 14 and 15 May in a new round of preliminary discussions aimed at putting an end to the decades-long conflict.
Full-fledged negotiations are yet to begin; however, next week’s talks will include more senior Lebanese diplomats and Israeli officials.
The State Department said that the US will facilitate two days of intensive talks between the governments of Israel and Lebanon.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Lebanese government needed to be strengthened to extend its sovereignty over all of Lebanon and have exclusive control over all arms, adding that the US will not engage in any talks with Hezbollah.
Beirut has stressed that its priority was a permanent ceasefire, an end to the Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory, and the return of Lebanese detainees in Israel, and stated that the aim of the talks was a peace deal and not normalisation.
Israel has warned that it will stay in southern Lebanon and continue its attacks if Hezbollah is not fully stripped of its weapons, a demand the militant group has refused.
Hezbollah has slammed the talks and said it was not concerned with their outcome.
