Israel’s military has carried out repeated strikes in Lebanon since the April 17 ceasefire [Getty]
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes on the country’s south on Sunday killed 14 people, the deadliest day since a ceasefire came into force over a week ago.
It came as Israel and Hezbollah traded fresh accusations of breaching the fragile truce, with 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 on Thursday 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 10 kilometres (six miles) deep along the length of the border, where residents have been warned not to return.
Lebanon’s health ministry said those killed on Sunday 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 health ministry figures.
Israel’s military said Sunday 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 (NNA) reported Israeli strikes in multiple locations in the south on Sunday, 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.
“Hezbollah’s violations are, in practice, dismantling the ceasefire,” Netanyahu told his weekly cabinet meeting.
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”.
Activists and human rights commentators have argued that Israel is using the terms of the truce to justify more attacks and killings.
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.
Israel’s military issued evacuation orders for residents of seven towns and villages in the south on Sunday.
Shortly afterwards, the NNA said Israeli warplanes struck in Kfar Tibnit, causing casualties, while a raid on Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, another of the flagged villages, destroyed a mosque and another religious building.
The NNA also reported Israeli shelling in several border villages.
AFP correspondents saw clouds of grey smoke rise over Nabatieh al-Fawqa and several other locations after Israeli strikes.
Lebanon’s health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed more than 2,500 people and wounded over 7,700 others since the war erupted.
The United Nations’ UNIFIL peacekeeping force said it held a memorial in Beirut for an Indonesian peacekeeper who died on Friday after being wounded in a blast in south Lebanon last month.
A preliminary UN investigation found that an Israeli tank shell caused the explosion.
